Tech Bargain Thread: Post Your Deals Here!

Harry Hooper

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Creative Labs {aka Sound Blaster} is running a 30% sale off pretty much their entire online shop this week. For example, the Sound Blaster Z PCIe Gaming Sound Card would cost about $84 vs. $100 at Amazon.
 
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Norm loves Vera

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Hi all, I am a VFW Post Commander and we are looking for a lap top that will be our Post computer/workstation. We will be giving presentations at local locations (PPT ext), zoom meetings and some graphic art to include flyers and such. I would like for it to be able to handle programs like photo shop and video editing too. Our budget is upto $600 which was approved at our last meeting. Where should we be looking online aside from the Amazons and Best Buys. We are looking to purchase over the weekend. We have projects due for Memorial Day, as it looks like our parade will be virtual.
 

Harry Hooper

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Norm,

HP.com is offering a laptop with the following specs for $644.99:
  • HP Pavilion - 15z Laptop
  • Mineral Silver
  • Windows 10 Home 64
  • AMD Ryzen™ 5 3500U (2.1 GHz, up to 3.7GHz, 6 MB cache, 4 cores)+AMD Radeon™ Vega 8 Graphics
  • 16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2x8GB)
  • 15.6" diagonal HD SVA BrightView micro-edge WLED-backlit touch screen (1366 x 768)
  • 1 TB 5400 rpm SATA and 128 GB M.2 SSD storage drives
  • 3-cell, 41 Wh Lithium-ion prismatic Battery
  • No DVD or CD Drive
  • Full-size island-style keyboard(Natural Silver)
  • HP Wide Vision HD Camera with Dual digital microphone (Mineral Silver)
  • 802.11 ac/b/g/n (1x1) Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® 4.2 combo
Yes, that is over your $600, but does the VFW qualify for educational/non-profit pricing? At the least, maybe call them and nudge them for a veterans discount, or some free accessories?


Best Buy is offering a sibling HP laptop for $499.99, but it has 12 GB RAM and a single 256 GB SSD storage drive. You could buy an 2TB external USB hard drive for more storage for well under $100.


Another option is TigerDirect has a Grade A refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G3 Laptop PC for $499 that has i5 CPU, 16 GB RAM, and a 500 GB SSD. There are $20 off coupons for Tiger Direct floating around, and I actually have a spare HP docking station for this family of laptops if you want it.
 
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AlNipper49

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Hi all, I am a VFW Post Commander and we are looking for a lap top that will be our Post computer/workstation. We will be giving presentations at local locations (PPT ext), zoom meetings and some graphic art to include flyers and such. I would like for it to be able to handle programs like photo shop and video editing too. Our budget is upto $600 which was approved at our last meeting. Where should we be looking online aside from the Amazons and Best Buys. We are looking to purchase over the weekend. We have projects due for Memorial Day, as it looks like our parade will be virtual.
If you are a NP then you should check out techsoup.com
 

Pesky Pole

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EBay has a selected promotion running right now. It’s basically $25 off $25 to selected accounts. I received no email but was able to apply the code at checkout and buy a Larry Bird Jersey for $5.

Check it out and see If it works for you. Details here and code is HAPPY25

EBay deal
 

Hendu for Kutch

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EBay has a selected promotion running right now. It’s basically $25 off $25 to selected accounts. I received no email but was able to apply the code at checkout and buy a Larry Bird Jersey for $5.

Check it out and see If it works for you. Details here and code is HAPPY25

EBay deal
Wow, nice one. It worked for me, got a $40 game for $15. Thanks!
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Just got $25 off of $26 worth of stuff I had been putting off buying. Thanks!

Edit: did not work for my wife’s eBay account. But she hasn’t used it in ten years and mine gets occasional use.
 
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Fisks Of Fury

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Did not work on the newer account I inadvertently created a couple years ago, but when I logged into the account I was using to buy and sell used books 15-20 years ago, I was able to buy-it-now an item priced at $25.03 for 3 cents. Sweet!
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
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Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Black Friday deals are starting even earlier this year, tho calling them One Day Deals or similar.

Admittedly entry level TVs, but fine for a child's room or dorm room. Walmart, goes live 7pm tonight, 43" 4K Roku UHD $88 and 70" 4K Roku UHD $298:

https://www.walmart.com/m/deals/limited-time-event?athcpid=434c3801-3931-4446-b8a1-1d656f155abd&athpgid=athenaHomepage&athznid=athenaModuleZone&athmtid=AthenaMultiLinkPOVCarousel&athtvid=5&athena=true&athstid=CS042|CS041&athguid=466001f5-9a18a716-4743473b9f15260d&irgwc=1&sourceid=imp_S0O3Hx3ysxyJT080MvSyQWlBUkExHG3NI2QFUc0&veh=aff&wmlspartner=imp_10451&clickid=S0O3Hx3ysxyJT080MvSyQWlBUkExHG3NI2QFUc0&sharedid=
Point of reference: last year MicroCenter had a 40" dumb TV for $59. We gave it to my MiL for Christmas, and she lectured us for spending (what she mistakenly assumed was) so much
 

tmracht

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Really something how many stores are blowing out 50" TVs with built in Roku or Fire for $125-150; 55" with built in for $199.
Yeah, our company cut the 65" line completely, there is just no money to be made there. The 85" are barely making margin by the end. Luckily our 135", 190" and 225" are doing okay. Consumers are going to see some insane things in the next 5 years or so.
 

NortheasternPJ

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I'm not surprise at all by this. 7-8 years ago people were buying 42" LCD TV's that literally looked like shit, couldn't even process a signal without massive ghosting and soap opera effect for $300. Now we have larger screens, people are used to shitty quality so a decent panel (which would have been an unreal panel 5 years ago) is blowing them away and they have zero need for an OLED or anything that costs money. It's a complete race to the bottom. I'm not against it as I'm not in that business and i love my LG OLED a ton and don't regret it but 90% of consumers don't care.
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
Anecdotal: neither of my sons has used the 42" in either of their bedrooms in MANY years, not even when home on college break and vegging out in bed. 19 y/o watches stuff on his laptop, 21 y/o uses the curved 27" gaming monitor on his desktop. In August, I offered to get 21 a 32"-40" for his dorm room or 50"+ for the lounge in his suite, he said not to bother (tho one of his suite mates went rogue and got a 50" for their lounge)

I have two 55" with built in Roku sitting in my front hall at $120 each, and I may just have to return one or both of them for lack of need..... (not going to replace the 50" in our bedroom, and we already have a 70" in our living room, no room to upsize the 32" sitting on top of the microwave in our kitchen)
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Amazon lists two off-brand speakers that have pretty good reputations for loudness without distortion and bang for your buck: the W-King D8 and the VTIN linked below. The VTIN is currently $35 if you clip the coupon on the product page:

View: https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Speakers-Waterproof-Powerful-Wireless/dp/B07TSRP1ZT/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=vtin&qid=1606305484&sr=8-3


(The W-King D8 is usually around $65-75, but it sometimes drops to ~$55, at which point it's supposedly a steal.)
 

Harry Hooper

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Spotted a notice on Slickdeals.net that the no-longer-existing-in-printed-form PCWorld magazine (published by IDG) has a software shop attached to its website that is running some impressive software specials this weekend, including a Windows 10 Pro license for $40 and Bitdefender 2-year Family Pack (15 devices) for $40.
 

gtmtnbiker

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Yeah, our company cut the 65" line completely, there is just no money to be made there. The 85" are barely making margin by the end. Luckily our 135", 190" and 225" are doing okay. Consumers are going to see some insane things in the next 5 years or so.
What kind of TVs are these? Laser projection?
 

tmracht

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What kind of TVs are these? Laser projection?
It's a blended line the smaller form factors are touch enabled LCDs.

The larger forms (135+) are the proprietary Laser Phosphor Displays or LPD for short which function similar to a laser projection but have a phosphor front plane similar to a CRT design.
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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New i5 HP desktop PC W/12gb ram & SSD, not a refurb, at Staples for $380:

link
There's a variation on this that I'm wondering might be more cost effective if/when upgraded: $349, only 8gb single stick of RAM, and a 1TB HDD. Move the HDD over as your file storage D: drive, add a 256GB SSD as your boot drive, and add another 8gb stick of RAM. Then maybe stick a GTX 1650 in it, and it's a middling gaming desktop.

In 2020, there has to be an nvme slot on the board, no...?

EDIT: Reported that the $380 version has a 256 GB SK Hynix BC501 NVMe SSD, so yes, there is a slot.
 

Couperin47

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There's a variation on this that I'm wondering might be more cost effective if/when upgraded: $349, only 8gb single stick of RAM, and a 1TB HDD. Move the HDD over as your file storage D: drive, add a 256GB SSD as your boot drive, and add another 8gb stick of RAM. Then maybe stick a GTX 1650 in it, and it's a middling gaming desktop.

In 2020, there has to be an nvme slot on the board, no...?

EDIT: Reported that the $380 version has a 256 GB SK Hynix BC501 NVMe SSD, so yes, there is a slot.
Even if you have a version with a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, it will be effectively useless because virtually no modern video card will run without addition 6 or 8 pin power connection and the 180w power supply in these form factors cannot deliver the requisite power. My latest box, a Thinkcentre M710t was bought (first box I didn't build) because it was barely more than the cost of an i7-6700, the last i7 that can run under Win 8.1 without extensive hacking. It includes a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot and has a 225w PS. I've been running it with a Visiontek variation of an AMD 7750 that includes 2 DP 1.4 and one HDMI output. It requires 65w and can be powered by the slot alone. Since I have loaded the box with 32 Gig of ram and additional drives I was always worried I had the power supply near the edge. Recently I purchased an adapter available via Amazon that can convert the Lenovo weird 10 pin main power connection to a standard 24 pin ps connector, managed to reconfigure the whole case into a larger old Lan-Li case I had lying around and now the 'puter is powered off a standard 650w ps and has the available connections to upgrade my video when I decide to do that. Absent such machinations, the form factor and power supplies in such SFF boxes make video upgrade difficult if not impossible (not enough room for the length of most cards, remember the power connection at the rear requires at minimum an extra 3/4 inch beyond the quoted card size).
 
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Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
That's the selling point of the 1650: no power cable, and maxes out at 75 watts under full load. It replaced the IIRC 1030, which until the 1650 came along, was the best choice for tight case, ultra low wattage power supplies.

In hindsight, this SkyTech for $499 was likely the desktop steal of BF/CM. A few folks priced out the parts, and it came to at least $500 WITHOUT including the Windows license.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 9400F Coffee Lake 6-Core 2.9 GHz (4.1 GHz Turbo)

Case:
Thermaltake Versa H18

CPU Cooler:
Stock Air Cooler

Fans:
3x 120mm RGB LED Fans, 1x Rear Fan

Motherboard:
B365

RAM:
8GB DDR4 Gaming Memory 3000 MHz

Graphics:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 6GB

Primary Hard Drive:
500GB SSD

Power Supply:
500 Watt 80 Plus Certified

Networking:
802.11 ac

Operating System:
Windows 10 Home, 64-bit

Warranty:
1-Year Lifetime Tech, Parts, Labor & Shipping Support

Dimensions (H x W x D):
15.4" x 8.1" x 15"

Weight (lbs):
23
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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DDB Jr. has asked for a video card for Christmas. As far as I can tell it is sold out everywhere and the only way to get it in time for Christmas is to pay nearly double its value on ebay, which is way too much.

Not even sure what I'm asking other than for help if anyone knows a way to get stuff like this or whether there are websites I can look on other than just googling the name of the card. It is this:

https://www.newegg.com/asus-geforce-rtx-3070-tuf-rtx3070-o8g-gaming/p/N82E16814126461
 

Red Sox Physicist

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DDB Jr. has asked for a video card for Christmas. As far as I can tell it is sold out everywhere and the only way to get it in time for Christmas is to pay nearly double its value on ebay, which is way too much.

Not even sure what I'm asking other than for help if anyone knows a way to get stuff like this or whether there are websites I can look on other than just googling the name of the card. It is this:

https://www.newegg.com/asus-geforce-rtx-3070-tuf-rtx3070-o8g-gaming/p/N82E16814126461
There's a shortage of GPUs right now. Any stock of the Nvidia RTX 3xxx series, and AMD RX 6xxx series sells within minutes. There are some bots that are tracking stock and sending alerts that you can sign up for, but your chance of getting one is very low. This is the worst time since the Bitcoin mining craze to buy a video card.
 

tmracht

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DDB Jr. has asked for a video card for Christmas. As far as I can tell it is sold out everywhere and the only way to get it in time for Christmas is to pay nearly double its value on ebay, which is way too much.

Not even sure what I'm asking other than for help if anyone knows a way to get stuff like this or whether there are websites I can look on other than just googling the name of the card. It is this:

https://www.newegg.com/asus-geforce-rtx-3070-tuf-rtx3070-o8g-gaming/p/N82E16814126461
I've got 3 discord Bot Trackers, my BiL has a twitch bot feed up all day trying to get my sister a 3060ti or 3070 near MSRP. I've had 3 in my cart across different vendors only to lose out at checkout. Best of luck but this is the worst I've seen in years. The other option is based on budget, to buy a prebuilt machine some can be had for $1000 and then sell off either old computer or parts from newer computer. It's a rough ride for any Nvidia 3xxx or AMD 6xxx.

Edit: yeah what RSP said.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Oh jeez! Ok, wow. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Thanks for the help. I guess it's time to look for an alternative.