8truths

Got the same model. Runs damn well, especially for $150. Has the PCI Express slot, plus SATA slots and the RAM is a single stick of 512 Mb. It does come with the Vista upgrade. Aside from dumping all the crap (Google Toolbar, AOL, McAfee), not much to complain about. I wasn't lucky enough to get more than one. They moved them over with the 52" TVs and made us wait. Still, I was first in line, as all the college chuckleheads were fawning over the highly unnecessary projection TVs. My plan work. Two straight Black Fridays go flawlessly.

I thought something was fishy.

Last year was bad because of the laptop. This year, BB and CC decided to go lower than Wal-Mart. And Wal-Mart is going to feel the pain as a consquence. If BB were closer (it's well over an hour away) or if I didn't snag the Wally laptop last year, I'd be at Best Buy. Instead, I'm doing Wally, maybe Staples and then going online to get anything I need for upgrades. Of course, NewEgg.com computer parts are like BF everyday, so...

I ain't leaving until 4. Our Wally never fills up that early. If five people want this desktop more than me, then they are welcome to it. I figure, all things being equal, it's a good deal, but not worth spending hours on end sitting in Wally for. I got my laptop last year, so my bloodlust has been quenched. This year is just looking for a cheap machine. Also, I'm still convinced there has to be more than 5 there, because it seems odd that their price point is only a little higher than Wall Street was asking them to dump the things for this year anyhow.

Keep an eye out for the $150 desktop with no monitor. If you can wrangle a monitor, it's not a bad deal. Consider that for the difference you could sneak onto NewEgg.com of Best Buy and get yourself a nice monitor. But, if you want an out-of-the-box solution, the $398 desktop is OK. Not the greatest deal, but most of those higher end desktop deals for BF are at Circuit City.

Not bad if it comes with 512 Mb RAM. Especially if it is one stick. Hell, at that point, the board plus the RAM and CPU is a bit less than the equivalent BF price.

The tower is going to vary by market. Apparently, they're just dumping all the low-end XP machines before Vista comes out.

6 PM, already? Geez. I called my WalMart and asked them about the desktop. They said they'd only have 5, but as clueless as they were about most of the BF questions I asked, I am figuring they probably meant 5 of the $398 desktop. They didn't seem to know anything about the secret items, so I still think Wally is dumping their old desktop systems. If they come close to the stock they had last year (20 laptops, plus about 40 more laptops with better specs for about $100 more than the first round were) I won't be too worried. I figure, the real line is going to be for the 52" TV anyhow.

Don't worry about Vista. It's not wise to buy MS Windows versions until they've had a year or two to work out the bugs. As good as XP is, a lot of people seem to have forgetten the annoyance of bugs like Sasser -- a horridly stupid mistake by MS involving an unnecessary process running.

We'll see, I guess. Thanks for the responses. That helped clarify. I have a pretty easy WM to get in and out of. Even for the laptop last year there were still openings as late as 4:30. So, I can actually sleep a bit and not worry too badly about missing out on a significantly lesser deal with these desktops.

Is Wal-Mart using this as an open-ended offer? I got to thinking about something I heard a few weeks ago in the stock report. They were saying that the major manufacturers were pressuring Wal-Mart to do a wholesale dump of desktops on Black Friday to make room for machines running Windows Vista. Is this the dump? If so, is this why the ad is worded so vaguely? Is Wal-Mart aiming to unload a ton of its low-end XP machines tomorrow?

Does anyone have the specs on the desktop? This looks suspiciously like the AMD 2800+ or 3300+ they have been selling for ages around $300. If it's anywhere close to that, it's a pretty good deal for an email machine, or a Linux desktop or whatever else for a second-hand tower. Actually, if it is the one with the Asus board, you can get PCI-X video card in there, too. Might not be a bad system to buy and then upgrade. (If you can't tell, I've bought a few of these in the past.) Just wondering if I'm right on this machine, or if it is something else.

Find a 24 hr Wally. If it's in a fairly rural area, you can go as late as 4-4:30 and be safe. Elsewhere... big ticket item spots may fill up before then.

I was there for the laptop last year, and you were safe as late as 4:30. I think the last claimed spot was taken a few minutes before 5. Seems fair to me. Only thing that sucked was they had us all seated and they were handing the laptops out, but then a few people stood up and a bunch of people jumped line all at once.

Um . . . not to be a tech dweeb, but have you guys actually sat down and benchmarked the systems against each other? (FTR, I have.) Generally, AMD chips -- even cheapo Semprons -- meet or exceed the Intel chips in their same price point. That's why Intel has to load 1Mb of cache onto a low-end processor while AMD can get away with 256 kb cache. If the AMD had 1Mb on die, I guarantee it would blow the Intel so far out of the water it wouldn't be funny. Also, the AMD chips have PowerNow, which is an incredibly handy feature and milks a lot more battery life out of a small battery. I don't know too many techies who would take an Intel over an AMD.

Got mine. Was #8 of 21 at 3 am. #21 cruised in a little after 4 am.

TigerDirect.com is running a sale like that.

EB Games is running the same sale. So . . . WoW, huh? Hope you have some cash stowed away, because you've obviously decided to quit work. WoW sucks people in deep. WoW is a lifestyle choice, not a game.

Kids don't want kids stuff! Geez. They want to go to R-rated movies and play GTA on their PS2.

Don't buy your kids GameCubes. There's exactly one must-have game for GC, Super Smash Brothers Melee (an absolute gem that almost by itself would justify a GC purchase). The PS2 offers a much better catalog of games. Unless your kid likes the core Nintendo games (the GC Zelda games are all good, and Mario Cart for GC is kick ass, but that's about it) they'll be mad at you.

If it makes it better, I'm the jerk in the sentence.

Ah . . . I dunno . . . 20 laptops and indoors at a Wally World . . . It might entice someone to drive out and compete with me. The most I will do, since I have contacts all over Wally, is let you guys know if our local Wally doesn't run out of the laptops after I leave. I need one very badly for my business, and I just can't risk competition for them. I'm sorry. I know it's cruel and dumb. I wish Wally would go to a raincheck policy on BF. At least for the folks who have to bear this horrid weather tonight in a line. Until then, you guys are my competition threatening about $250 savings from my business (I'll be getting the laptop for $360 even with tax, thanks to a relative of a Wally worker who's bringing the discount card). Sorry. Dog eat dog. Jerk take laptop.

I'd be curious to hear the answer to this one two. I'm in the stick not too far from SC, myself. It strikes me that the rural stores would be an easier fight, since they're ought to be fewer people and less money going around. Oddly, my area Walmart (in the interest of avoiding trouble I won't say which one) is supposed to have 20 laptops and an indoor queue.