Cyber Monday 2008 Deals

Some of these deals are limited in numbers, and some may not be active until 2am PST. I’ll update this if more deals become available (and if you see any, use the comment form and I’ll add them).

Amazon Customers Vote is still going on through December 4, 2008

ZipZoomFly:
– 8.9″ ASUS Eee PC 900-BK010X $349.99 (Normally $399) 12GB (SSD) HDD 1GB RAM, 802.11b/g, Windows XP, White
– 8.9″ ASUS Eee PC 901-W003X$399.99 (Normally $409.99) 12GB (SSD) HDD 1GB RAM, 802.11b/g/n, Windows XP Home, Intel Atom, White
Western Digital 2.5″ WD Scorpio 250GB 5400 RPM 8MB WD2500BEVS Bulk$49.99 (Normally $69.99)
OCZ 2.5″ Solid Series 60GB (SSD) SATA II Solid State Drive$139.99 (Normally $149.99) (Retail, OCZSSD2-1SLD60G)
Western Digital 400GB My Passport Essential$107.99 (Normally $145.99) Black, WDME4000TN USB 5400 RPM External Hard Drive Retail
Western Digital 250GB My Passport Essential Real$69.99 (Normally $112.99,) Red WDMER2500TN USB 5400 RPM External Hard Drive
Western Digital My Book Office Edition 1TB WDH1B10000N$119.99 (Normally $182.99) USB 7200RPM External Hard Drive Retail
CANON EOS Rebel XSi 12.2MP DSLR $499.99 (Normally $599.99) Digital Camera w/EF-S 18–55mm IS Silver Retail

Dell Home and Home Office:
Get the Inspiron Mini 9 for only $299 after $50 Instant Savings
Cyber Monday deals from Dell Home!
Save $275 off the Inspiron 1525 laptop – Only $519 after Instant Savings.
Save $608 off the XPS M1530 laptop – Only $1,199 after Instant Savings.

Buy.com:
Note: Some include free shipping
Black Friday Price Drops Start on 11/28/08 through 12/1/08!

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Black Friday 2008 – Amazon

Black Friday is upon us, and there are some good deals to be had. I’ll update this throughout the day if I see anymore deals. – Amazon’s Full Black Friday Page – another version of Amazo’s Black Friday page Laptop/Notebook related – Computer and laptop … Read more

Black Friday Deals

Black Friday deals from various companies/retailers (these should be active by the time you read this). I may update this during the day if I see anything else interesting. Unfortunately, most of these are for US retailers only.

Note: Prices are subject to change as retailers run out or certain limits are met.

Dell:
Inspiron Mini 9 for only $299 after $50 Instant Savings
Black Friday deals from Dell Home!
Save 15% off select E&A Coupon Code: CTV2$2HX963145
Dell’s most popular desktop for $299 and save $80 off the Inspiron 530!
Additional 5% savings on select cameras Coupon Code: 1?ZRX6HH4G2ZW3

ZipZoomFly:
ASUS Eee PC 900-W072X – $279.99 8.9″ 16GB (SSD), 1GB RAM, Windows XP
ASUS Eee PC 900-BK02 – $349.99 8.9″, 20GB SSD, 1GB RAM, Linux, Black
ASUS Eee PC 900-W047 – $279.99 8.9″, 16GB SSD, 1GB RAM, Linux, White
OCZ OCZSSD2-1SLD30G 30 GB Solid State Drive SATA II – $69.99
MSI Wind U100-422CA – $379.99 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM, Windows XP Home
MSI Wind U100-420US – $299.99 120GB HDD, 1GB RAM, Windows XP Home, Black

Best Buy
Thanksgiving Weekend Sale: Thursday, Friday and Saturday Only at BestBuy.com. Valid 11/27-11/29

Buy.com
ASUS Eee PC 904HA – $349.99 – 8.9″ Netbook Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Windows XP Home, Fine Ebony
Western Digital 1TB My Book Essential – $139.99– USB 2.0 External Hard Drive ($110 off)

Toshiba
– Black Friday Exclusive: Take 30% off Satellite® laptops

Sony:
Save $300 on Sony VAIO® SR series Notebooks at SonyStyle.com. Starting at $894.99. (Ends December 1st)
Black FRIDAY Specials: Save $250 on Sony VAIO® CS series Notebooks w/code: BLACKFRIDAYVAIOCS. Starting at $664.99. (Ends Nov 28)

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HP Pavilion TouchSmart tx2 and tx2z Announced

It looks like HP is rolling out a replacement to the 12.1″ HP Pavilion tx2500z. It’s the 12.1″ HP Pavilion TouchSmart tx2 / tx2z, and it’s the first true consumer notebook that takes advantage of multitouch navigation when using the HP MediaSmart software. It’s a … Read more

Lenovo S10, SSD, Windows 7

Lenovo IdeaPad S10 A few weeks ago I picked up a 2.5″ Patriot SATA 32GB Solid State Drive (SSD) intending to use it in a netbook. The reasoning – it was under $100 at Fry’s after a mail-in rebate (and because I had wanted one for a while). It’s got a read of up to 175MB/s and a write speed of up to 100MB/s. Keep in mind these are MLC drives (possibly still based on the Microns), hence the cheaper costs versus the much faster SLCs. It’s hard to beat for the price, especially given that it’s going into a netbook (in this case, a 10.2″ Lenovo S10).

You can find the same drive at Amazon for under $100 after a rebate. I also happened to have a 2.5″ SATA 320GB Western Digital Scorpio drive (down to $77 at Amazon).

Last week, a Microsoft executive mentioned that 16GB would make for “a good Windows 7 experience” when it came to SSDs and netbooks and that Windows 7 would need around 8GB of install space.

Since I’m doing some testing for an offline project involving Windows 7, I decided to put those claims to the test, as well as do some very unscientific benchmarking with the SSD. Note: This is not really a test of Windows 7 – I plan on doing that in the future. I will say that so far Windows 7 has impressed me and Microsoft is definitely doing it right this time. I’ve loaded no drivers (although everything was picked up by Windows from what I can see) nor have I changed any settings. Rather this is a test of a budget SSD versus a similarly priced conventional HDD under similar conditions.

I’ve posted the benchmarks below (click “Read More” if you don’t see them).

Oh, as far as drive space required, the Microsoft executive was right (this is after an install, but with no optimizations or anything):

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