AliExpress, unknown to many, is regarded as the site where “one can find almost anything for sale”. Started by the AliBaba group in 2010 as a B2B(Business to Business) sales portal, it branched into different markets and now competes in the same areas as the likes of eBay.

Looking at what’s there for sale on AliExpress, these 2 categories of products are of particular interest:

• Second hand computer hardware
• Electronic items manufactured and sold by small Chinese firms

The common thing between the 2 being this: Cheap electronics and computer hardware that catch the attention of any hobbyist/enthusiast. Let’s look into each category and see what’s available.

One can find a large number of used computer parts: CPUs, motherboards, RAM etc.. Given that the core count on Intel’s consumer CPUs has remained constant from the beginning of this decade up till middle of 2017, old Intel CPUs, especially the discarded server Xeon CPUs are an amazing deal at the prices they go for. Motherboards and RAM are similarly available. Used OEM desktops from the likes of Dell, probably corporate surplus, are also available. More used hardware from servers, like high end expansion cards (network, storage etc..) can be found. Many people look here for components to build a cheap home server as well. Any enthusiast can easily get a large amount of hardware to experiment with for a small price.

As we all know, China is THE place where electronic items are manufactured. Hidden among the limelight of manufacturing contracts of giants like Apple, Dell and Google are smaller firms manufacturing common electronic items. Some of these get bought in bulk, rebranded and sold in other countries for a higher price. All these items can be found on AliExpress, at much lower prices. Cell phone accessories, bluetooth speakers and headphones. keyboards, drones and RBG versions of everything mentioned are the exact kind of items that a technology enthusiast wants and AliExpress is there to deliver.

Going through the site and having wanted to click buy on many an item, this post is a strong recommendation for enthusiasts out there to go through the site to get new ideas for projects. Whether it be computers or electronics, AliExpress has it covered for you.

PS: This article was not sponsored by AliExpress.