Cool Tech Reviews

Yes, you can still buy a new PC with Windows XP installed on it. Windows XP ceased to be available at retail on June 30, 2008 but there are a number of exceptions. The relevant exception for a consumer or a small business owner is that "OEMs can downgrade Vista Business or Vista Ultimate licenses to Windows XP Professional or Tablet PC versions for customers indefinitely," where OEMs are the large PC manufacturers.

However, there’s a difference between "can" and "will" or "will with no hassle" so Christopher Null at PC World tried to purchase a PC with XP from Dell, HP, Gateway, Toshiba, Acer, Fujitsu, Lenovo, and Asus and reports on the very mixed results. Hit the article for the full details on each, but the best bets for an machine with XP preinstalled are:

Consumer PC: Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo

Business PC: HP, Fujitsu, Lenovo

If you are willing to pay extra or install XP from a CD, the choices are even more numerous. Also Asus has its line of Eee ultra low-cost PCs (ULPC) which come with XP under a different exemption in the rules.

Circuit City has a variety of bargains available in its 3 day Cyber Monday sale, but don’t expect super discount doorbuster specials. Examples:

Laptops:

• Acer Aspire AS5100-5023 15.4″ Widescreen Notebook PC with AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, and Vista Home Premium reduced by $210 to $639.96.
• HP Pavilion dv6449us 15.4″ Widescreen Laptop Computer with AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, and Vista Home Premium reduced by $210 to $739.99.
• Gateway M6817 15.4″ Widescreen Notebook PC with Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, 2 GB RAM, 250GB hard drive and Vista Home Premium reduced by $200 to $799.96.

Plasma TV - Hitachi 42″ Plasma HDTV Model #: HIT P42H401 reduced $300 to $1099.99.

External Hard Drives - Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 750GB External Hard Drive reduced $60 to $219.99.

There’s much more and note that they are offering %10 off on some items if you choose to pick them up at a local Circuit City store instead of having them shipped to you.

With all the models of LCD and plasma televisions to choose from, one tends to forget that there are still very good deals to be had on rear projection TVs as demonstrated in Robert Heron’s review of the HP Pavilion MD5880n at PC Magazine:

Rear-projection TVs (RPTVs) offer big screen enjoyment for a fraction of the price of the largest flat-panel displays, and the 58-inch HP Pavilion md5880n ($3,499.99 list) is one of the most impressive RPTVs I’ve seen to date. Its robust A/V input selection is uniquely located for easy access, and a slick menu system provides useful customization and visualization features for those connected devices. With its stylishly modern design and a detailed picture that is capable of producing accurate and well-saturated colors, the md5880n earns my pick as an Editors’ Choice.

Hit the link for all these details on this 1080p native system as well as the few things he did find not to like, but my concern has always been the weight of projection TVs. That has certainly improved over the years, but the md5880n weighs 118 pounds and although it has built-in handholds, you will still need a friend to help you move the beast.

UltimateAV’s Thomas J. Norton provides a very detailed review as well and recommends that you get the HP custom stand which weighs as much as the MD5880 itself. His overall net:

But in the here and now I am immensely impressed with this model from HP. This is a great debut for a company previously known mainly for its computer products; HP hit the target from almost every direction. I could live happily with this set - if not ever after, at least until the next big jump in video display devices, whatever and whenever that may be.

Finally, Philip Ryan reviewed the HP MD6580n 65-inch big brother to the MD5880n at CNET and found a lot to like too and it’s still a “svelte” 138 pounds.

Tom Krazit at CNET:

Dell has agreed to purchase gaming PC maker Alienware, in a rare acquisition designed to improve Alienware’s supply chain and boost Dell’s standing among PC enthusiasts.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Alienware will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of the world’s largest PC maker, said Nelson Gonzalez, chief executive officer of Alienware. Gonzalez will now report to Jim Schneider, Dell’s chief financial officer, but the company will operate separately from Dell, he said.

A Dell representative confirmed the deal, but said the company was deferring comment until later on Wednesday.

There are more details in the article, but it appears the calim is that Alienware will operate semi-autonomously. While not as bad a match as the HP acquisition of Compaq, there still was some adverse comment about overlap:

“I still think it’s a bad idea, and a bad fit,” said Stephen Baker, an analyst with NPD Techworld. Alienware’s customers buy from that company in part because of its image as a technology-driven company that understands the needs of gamers, while Dell is viewed by those customers as a stodgy corporate supplier.
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The deal also could mean that Dell has to rethink its consumer PC strategy, said Roger Kay, principal analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. The company has sunk a lot of effort into building its XPS lineup of high-end desktops and notebooks for gamers and multimedia enthusiasts. Now, it looks like those systems compete with Alienware in certain areas, he said.

Alienware sells very powerful and very expensive PCs to the top tier of the gaming market. Dell, on the other hand, has a stronger identity with casual gamers who want a good PC but don’t want to pay Alienware prices. Both companies have recently tried to appeal to gamers that fall in between those two groups, with Alienware reaching down and Dell reaching up, Kay said. It’s unclear how those strategies will continue.

Not unexpectedly, some Alienware fans are already expressing their displeasure. Ed Bott says, “So long, Alienware, it was nice to know you”:

Pretty soon Dell customers will be able to spend $10,000 for a PC.

It will be interesting to see how those first buyers react when they have a problem with that Dell PC and get shunted into the world’s worst technical support system.
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In the six months or so since I last wrote about Dell, their service has become worse. I’ve now been waiting 24 days for Dell to repair a defective motherboard on a notebook computer that’s still under warranty. The sheer incompetence of their support organization is breathtaking.

If you’re thinking of buying a Dell – or an Alienware – think again. There are plenty of well-run companies you can give your business to.

Finally, John Pain from the AP has a nice background story on the people who built Alienware.

Laptop Logic has a nice roundup of laptop deals for Black Friday bargain shoppers. The amazing thing is how well you can do for under $400: the HP Pavilion ze2108wm ($378 at Wal-Mart) and the Toshiba Satellite L25-S1192 ($379 at Best Buy). Aside from only 256 MB of memory and the Toshiba’s weak battery, these are capable systems. However, as with more and more “big name” systems, the Toshiba only has a 90 day warranty which leads to this observation:

Despite being a great value at $379 (compared to normal prices), rest assured that Best Buy employees WILL assault you over the extended warranty. While this writer feels that Best Buy’s warranty is better than most retail extended warranties, doesn’t adding $150-$300 to the price tag of a sub-$400 laptop kind of defeat the purpose?

If the other shoppers don’t get you on Black Friday, the salesmen will. More details and bargains by following the link.

Tom Spring at PC World:

Is the idea of getting a capable notebook from a major vendor for just $500 too good to be true? Not if your needs are modest. Although such deals involve definite catches, our tests revealed that new bargain-basement models work well if you want a machine that handles e-mail, Web surfing, word processing, and other run-of-the-mill productivity chores.

We tested laptops from Acer, Dell, and HP’s Compaq line; each company sells basic models for around $500 (after rebates). Gateway and IBM are also getting into the act: As we went to press, both were advertising units starting in the $500 range after rebates.

These ultralow-priced systems challenge the adage that even the most inexpensive laptops are costlier than the lowest-priced desktops.
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Thanks to strong sales of budget notebooks, in August 2005 more laptops than desktops sold at retail stores for the first time ever. Notebooks represented 52 percent of retail PC sales, according to NPD. The rise in sales corresponds to a fall in prices: The average cost of a notebook during August 2004 was $1350; in August of this year, it was $1100, NPD says.

Hit the link for the full reviews of the Acer Aspire 3003LCi, HP’s Compaq Presario M2000, and Dell Inspiron 1200. Note that for each of them you have to check the rebates and special offers carefully to make sure the total comes in under $500. Beyond that, they all seemed fairly capable although you have to watch the features included. For instance, I’m picky about Wi-Fi and only the Acer has that built in. The Acer also has a faster processor and more hard disk storage, but much worse battery life. PC World rated it the winner but only by a hair.

So where’s this all going?

How low can laptop prices go? Lower than $500, say a number of PC vendors.

The cheapest notebooks could sink to the $400 range by the end of this year and may even drop as low as $300 by late 2006, according to various computer vendors, chip experts, and PC industry observers. In fact, as we went to press CompUSA was selling a Compaq laptop for $425 after $300 in various rebates.

“It used to be notebooks would sell for close to $600 only as a stunt,” says Mark Margevicius, an analyst with Gartner Research. But now some laptops have sold for that price consistently, he says.

Due to increases in production, some expensive notebook components have dropped in price, explains Roger Kay, analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. That in turn drives system prices down.

That certainly happens at one end of the spectrum. At the other end, they start piling on features.