Posted 09/29/09 at 08:44:13 AM by Paul Lilly

Even heavily discounted promotional pricing hasn't been enough to convince some would-be consumers to pick up an Upgrade copy of Windows 7, which requires a validated OS already be installed. You could suck it up and pay retail, or wait for OEM copies to emerge and save a bit of scratch, but until now, nobody knew exactly how much you could expect to pocket.

Newegg.com today listed prices for OEM versions of Windows 7, and as expected, the savings are failrly significant. Here's how it breaks down:

• Windows 7 Home Premium Full OEM - $110
• Windows 7 Professional - $140
• Windows 7 Ultimate - $190

Compare those prices to $200 for the retail version of Home Premium, $300 for Professional, and $320 for Ultimate. And if you pre-order before October 20, Newegg's offering a further discount on OEM copies, with Home Premium priced at $100, Professional at $135, and Ultimate at $175.

Some caveats apply. Keep in mind that OEM copies are technically tied to the PC they were originally installed on, and while we've had some luck porting OEM installs from one machine (or mobo) to another with a quick call to Microsoft, nobody knows how this will shake out with Windows 7. 

OEM copies also ship sans support, you won't get the shiny retail packaging, and you can only perform a clean install.

Thoughs on the price points? Hit the jump and sound off.

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Posted 09/28/09 at 02:49:23 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Buoyed by its strong performance last year, when it raked in $2.1 billion in revenue, online electronics retailer NewEgg is planning a public offering. The company hopes to raise $175 million through its planned initial public offering (IPO), currently awaiting necessary regulatory approval.

Although it has remained profitable ever since its inception in 2001, it is confessedly bracing for stiffer competition from other e-commerce sites, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The IPO is being underwritten by JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citi. It hopes to shore up its presence in the Chinese and the Canadian markets using funds from the IPO.

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Posted 07/27/09 at 12:13:31 PM by Paul Lilly

Solid state drives continue to go through growing pains, and not even Intel can avoid having to beat back bugs in this relatively new market. After some customers reported slowdowns following extended use with the first generation of X25-M SSDs, Intel pushed out a firmware update to fix the problem. Now it appears the company's new 34nm X25-M G2 SSDs are also in need of a firmware update, but for a different problem.

According to OEM system builder Puget Systems, a defect exists in the new drives which causes data corruption if a password is set on the drive in the system BIOS and then is changed or disabled later.

"There was a lot of confusion, but it was clear that something was wrong with these first units - enough so that Newegg and other online vendors had also pulled them entirely from their sites," Puget wrote in a blog. "We too stopped listing them, and began contacting our customers who were expecting us to ship them out this afternoon."

Puget says Intel was able to work out a firmware fix for the problem rather than rework the drives, however the updated firmware won't be available for another two weeks. In the meantime, Intel has stopped shipping the new drives until the fix is fully implemented.

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Posted 11/15/08 at 06:40:20 PM by Justin Kerr

It may have been little more than a cruel mistake, but Newegg certainly got our hopes up by showing Core i7 CPU’s for sale a whole three days before the official launch. The offending links and advertisements were quickly pulled from the site and now, little more than a handful of screenshots exist as evidence.

Core i7 is currently slated for launch on November 17^th and it appears as though we’ll have to wait until then to place our orders. Normally, this incident wouldn’t classify as news, but the Newegg slip up does give us a pretty good idea of what the retail pricing will be on the three new SKU’s. The site was offering the 2.66GHz entry level part for $319.99, while the 2.93GHz and 3.2GHz models were priced at $599.99 and $1069.99 respectively. UK customers are seeing similar pricing and power users the world over are waiting with egger anticipation to embrace the new architecture.  This isn’t surprising given that early benchmarks have the entry level Core i7’s mopping the floor with pricier, and higher clocked Core 2’s.

 So are you going to buy a Core i7 on Monday?

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Posted 09/28/08 at 11:24:16 AM by Chris Moody

The mighty Fudzilla has dropped a rumor that we can expect the first Core i7 to arrive in the US in week 46, between the 10th and 14th of November. They also said that Japanese customers might even be able to buy them as early as the first days of November. They cite unnamed sources.

 Intel of course, remains mum only saying to expect it sometime in Q4 of 2008. Intel is more of a tease than my first girlfriend.

As Fudzilla notes there are plenty of X58 based motherboard prototypes that have floated on the internet in the pasted few months from names like MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus. If there is a mid November launch of Core i7, there should be a selection of motherboards available for it, some with overclocking features.

I have only had my Newegg wish list system configured since last March. It has gone through several revisions waiting on Core i7, and the power supply is up in the air depending on the stated needs of the motherboard I pick. I figured on $300 on the CPU and another $300 on the Motherboard. Yeah, I know it is no Dream Machine. However, I have to operate like the government and tell the wife that my stated budget is $1800, when in reality its $2,200 and I am going to run a little over that. Better to beg forgiveness and have a nice new game machine to console myself with, than to ask permission and be denied. I know my limits however and racking up a $5,000 bill on a game system would result in my summary execution. Another $500 bucks I can fix with flowers, chocolate and extra attention (I hope).
 
Anyone else have a wish list for their new Core i7 system? Tell me about it below!

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Posted 09/09/08 at 02:14:55 AM by Pulkit Chandna

SSDs with a 64GB storage capacity fetched close to a grand last year. But their outrageous prices have become subdued with the passage of time. Now, if you act quickly, OCZ’s brand new Core V2 OCZSSD2-2C60G 2.5” 60GB SSD could be yours for $240 – approximately $4/GB. The SSD boasts read speeds of 170MB/sec and write speeds of 98MB/sec. It also features a built-in USB 2.0 port for firmware updates, and can serve as a replacement for your notebook’s HDD.

The OCZSSD2-2C60G SSD is only available on NewEgg at the moment. Although the actual price of this SSD is supposed to be $299, OCZ is offering a sizable rebate worth $60 under an offer that will last until 18th September, 2008. In fact, the rebate is applicable on other OCZ SSD’s as well.

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Posted 08/27/08 at 09:32:10 AM by Chris Moody

Nothing is worse than when the government decides to levy another tax someplace. Newegg customers of New York were irked on June 1, 2008 when they found out that Newegg was being required to collect sales tax to orders sent to New York, even though Newegg doesn’t have a store there.

However, Newegg has backed away from that stance, sending out an email from Newegg Company Spokesperson and Vice President of Merchandising, Bernard Luthi, saying that it reversed it’s decision based on feedback from it’s customers.

“This decision was driven by your direct and candid feedback and our continued commitment to you as our valued customers.” He went on to thank customers for their patience as they worked things out.

Of course, New York residents are still responsible for paying their sales tax.

Newegg should be applauded for taking a stand. Collecting taxes for different states, counties, and localities would be a terrible mess for any online retailer to wade through. It would only serve to drive up prices for consumers and stifle internet commerce.

How do you feel about taxes on items purchased over the web?

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Posted 07/30/08 at 05:40:38 PM by Paul Lilly

For many geeks, Newegg has become the de facto standard for shopping online for computer parts, and those of us living in the U.S. have had to endure the moans and groans from our brethren north of the border lamenting having to order PC peripherals elsewhere.  Those cries will soon end as Newegg readies its Canadian website.

Having established itself as the "second-largest online-only retailer in the U.S.," Newegg will look to duplicate its success up north taking on the likes of NCIX.com and TigerDirect.ca, but the company isn't saying whether it plans to open warehouses in Canada or will simply ship across the border. Nor is it known exactly when Newegg.ca will officially open for business, only that it will take place sometime in 2008, and presumably sooner rather than later. In the meantime, when not chewing on delicious bacon or awaiting free health care, Canadians are encouraged to sign up for Newegg Canada's newsletter to "be the first to know about pre-launch sweepstakes, giveaways, and events."

Aboot time, eh?

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