Since it was just released a couple days ago, I don’t have a wealth of information on it, but it looks similar to websites like Ben’s Bargains, Slickdeals, and other deal-finding websites, except with the always stylish woot! layout and design.  Here’s what I know that may be different:

• Members gain “reputation” for posting deals that people like and can rely on
• Deals posted by members get to the front page by being recommended by other site-goers
• The deals on the top of the page are “Sponsored Deals” much like woot!’s original concept and don’t need recommendations from other members to make it to the front page, but rather can also be put there by approval from woot! from the selling company.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and make sure to check deals.woot for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday needs!

Tech Bargains.com

TechBargains.com is a quite reliable place to find any tech related deals, and if you’re subscribed to the RSS feed, you get some quick posts that sum up the latest deals available at the site right in your favorite reader.  These posts will consist of a Title giving the basic details about the deal and a post body with a picture of the item and a link to the shop. Simple, and straight to the point.  Don’t expect to see any articles rather than deal postings though.

xpBargains.com

If you thought TechBargains.com wasn’t simple enough, then xpBargains makes it even simpler.  Their RSS Feed consists only of a title that details the deal mentioned.  The title can then be clicked where you are taken to their site for more details.  xpBargains uses a Digg-like structure of approving deals and having the most-liked deals showing at the top.  Not bad.

Geekpedia’s Tech Bargains

For a little bit more complexity and helpfulness, website Geekpedia offers an RSS Feed for their Tech Bargains.  These consist of a title explaining the deal, and a post body that contains a picture of the item AND and an article written in blog format about the deal.  This adds a nice personal touch that helps you to know that they care about the deals they show you.  If you like their deals, make sure you check out everything else Geekpedia has to offer!

That’s it for now, but there are definitely more RSS Feeds out there.  If you know of any good ones, let us know in the comments!

1. BFads.net is great for a listing of many stores and their items going on sale, message boards, and buying guides
2. BlackFriday.info will show you all store-specific ads as soon as they come available, as well as being able to create shopping lists
3. Black-Friday.net offers ad-tracking and shopping lists like other sites, but has a more blog-like structure to it
4. BlackFriday.com may be the .com site for Black Friday, but it lacks the appeal and general user-friendlyness of other sites
5. And finally, always remember FatWallet posts Black Friday deals on their site as well. Here’s my blog post with a review of the site.

All of these websites also offer some degree of Cyber Monday tracking as well.  And remember, always get to your stores as early as you can possibly imagine yourself being there for, bring refreshments, and it always helps to have a friend with you!  Also remember a lot of e-stores offer Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that you don’t have to wait at physical stores to get!

Let's hope you don't encounter something like this!

Got a website suggestion for us to put in the links?  Let us know!

In Facebook Marketplace, items that are listed for sale are divided into many different categories, spanning more than just the usual classifieds listings.  The ones in particular that readers of this blog may want to pay attention to are the “Electronics” and “Computers” categories.  Each section is composed of a list of posts that look similar to Facebook wall posts with much more information, and a link to enter a more detailed view.  From this link you enter what looks like an ebay-style listing of the product being offered, with pictures, a description and seller comments.  These posts do not have to be made solely by your friends or friends-of-friends, but can be anyone in your area who wants to list an item for sale.

Some other interesting things to note is that you can find free stuff by clicking on a filter labeled “Give it Away” or you can create posts yourself for stuff you want by clicking “Ask for It.”

Look closely on the Application Page for some useful filters

Overall this is a very nice feature of Facebook, and definitely worth looking at, especially if you’re in the used market or want to see what your friends might have for sale.  And of course, all this comes to you free of charge.

Here’s how RetailMeNot puts in on their sign-up page:

“Welcome to the RetailMeNot social network.  Connect with other shoppers so you get the best coupons, offers and deals. Share the fashions you love, hook up for shopping events, see what coupons your friends are using, add your favorite deals, make a wishlist for all your friends to see and more!”

Yes, they are so driven with the community that they even call themselves a social network.

So what are some features to look for when joining RetailMeNot?

There are so many intricacies to RetailMeNot, that I cannot even describe how detailed and helpful the website can be for finding good coupons, but I will give you a brief overview.  Besides the community aspect that provides users with the “MySpace” of coupons. RetailMeNot has three main features: Coupon Codes, Printable Coupons, and Grocery Coupons.

Coupon Codes

The appeal of this part of the site is to be able to enter any online shopping site, and have RetailMeNot do all the dirty work searching and providing you with coupon codes to get special checkout discounts.  RetailMeNot does this in a very interesting way by going the extra mile labeling each coupon code with its “success rate” aka the rate at which this code has worked for those that have tried it.  This factor is gained solely on user input, and is surprisingly very reliable.  These coupon codes can be copied with a click, which also brings you to the site, so you can choose the item and attempt to use it at the checkout through a quick paste.

Printable Coupons

RetailMeNot now offers a great tool for finding local coupons that you can print out and bring to stores in your area to receive a discount.  The website provides you with a Google Map of your zip code and puts icons on the map for areas around you with coupons available.  You can also see the Top Coupons for your area in another section, and search using simple terms for others.  Here’s and example result from searching for “food” within “78741.”

Results can vary but are still very helpful!

Grocery Coupons

Grocery Coupons are handled in a way similar to Printable Coupons, but specifically focused on grocery items and with a different view.  At this page, you enter your zip code and then RetailMeNot will automatically filter their available printable coupons to only your area and display the in a sort-of Redplum style.  These are also sorted into easy to recognize categories. From there you can choose which ones you want to “clip.”  Once you’ve chosen all the coupons you wish to print out, you just have to hit “print coupons” button to get them, though it seems they require you to install their “coupon printing software” in order to actually print them.  This feature is very useful if you want grocery coupons and don’t want to sift through a huge pile of store magazine ads.

Getting its roots as FatCash in 1999, it used to offer a program that gave small percentages of cash back to the customer for shopping at participating stores.  Since then, it has expanded to be known as one of the most popular site to get ads and deals from top stores.  This popularity has lead it into legal trouble at times, though. FatWallet is known to break Black Friday (a date quickly approaching!) deals to members of their site often much before any of the stores release their ad.  Due to this, big names like Wal-Mart and Best Buy have threatened to sue FatWallet  referencing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and saying that their ads were copyrighted.  Luckily for shoppers, it seems as if none of the potential cases have actually gone through.

FatWallet has four main features that I would like to discuss:

Coupons

Though not done perhaps better than sites like RetailMeNot for coupon codes, FatWallet does a decent job in showing users the hottest coupons currently available by top stores on the web.  These are coupons generated from the sites bustling forums with many active users submitting all the coupons.  These are then sorted by category and by store name, giving you a not so pretty list view of the coupons for each store.  Where the “Coupons & Cash Back” section of the site really shines though, is the cash back part.

Cash Back

Here’s where the uniqueness of FatWallet comes into play.  FatWallet has signed with stores to get commission on sales that they bring to those stores, and in turn FatWallet has decided to give a percentage of cash back to the customer as long as they are a member of their site.  These percentages seem to range anywhere from 1% to 10% cash back, depending on the store.  Also, stores will sometimes run “sales” where they’ll give double cash back, or some increased percentage for a small amount of time.  A word of warning from us here at Tech on a Budget: Make sure you intended to use this feature often, or at least want to save up over a few purchases, because the minimum amount they will give you back is $10, and it might take awhile to earn that amount of money.  Here’s how FatWallet explains it.

Top Deals

FatWallet has a very nice, and good-looking Deals section to their site, in which they will post the best deals (chosen by their staff) available to customers right now.  It even has a great function for getting rid of expired deals so you know all of the viewable deals are available.  These seem to be sorted in no particular order, and are given a small preview with a picture for each deal.  Upon clicking further, you can see the specifics for the deal and even a small snippet on why the FatWallet staff likes that certain deal. Very slick and user-friendly.

Forums

The forums is where the meat of the site exists, though it may not be the site’s most popular feature.  Here is where many forum members will post about new and hot deals coming out from retailers everywhere, so that they can then be put in the other sections of the website, though these deals often tend to be somewhat skewed in favor of tech items (not a problem for us!). A couple things worth noting are that the forums will often feature a lot of wonderful posts on free stuff you can find around the web, as well as financial help, and contests and sweepstakes.

If you are looking for a website that has it all, then FatWallet may be right up your alley.  Just make sure you don’t spend too much time there, or you may forget what you were looking for in the first place!

Student Discounts

Microsoft is doing something downright AMAZING for students with this iteration of Windows.  At Win741.com, students can get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade (32 or 64 bit) for only $30 until January 3, 2010.  That’s only about the price of 72 packages of Ramen! To qualify, all you need is a .edu email address (or a friend with one *hint* *hint*) that you can confirm and you’re all set.  Also, if you are eagle-eyed enough, you can upgrade your copy to Windows 7 Professional for free!  All you have to do is click the link that says “Need to connect to your school’s wifi network?” or something along those lines before you check out.  Remember though, this is an Upgrade version, so you need to have some form of Windows already installed on your computer to upgrade from.

Furthermore if you need yet another copy of Windows 7, check with the computer store on your campus and see if they have it in stock.  Usually, their prices are way below retail prices (UT Austin’s is $35 for Windows 7 Ultimate).  If you are a technology student, look and see if your department has MSDNAA access and you might be able to snag a copy for free!

System Builder’s Editions

For about $105 to $175, you can get the “System Builder’s Edition” of each of the different Windows 7 types.  These are a lot like the full retail version, but without the box and fluff manuals, etc. and without free-tech support.  The other more serious downside is that it can only be installed on one computer, or as keznews.com puts it:

“The System Builder of Windows 7 can only be installed on a single computer, and it will become intimately connected with the motherboard. So intimately in fact that customers will not be able to install a System Builder copy of Windows 7 on any other machine, even if it [is] removed entirely from the first. In fact, if the computer that Windows 7 SB is installed on dies on you, the operating system will die with it.”

Even in spite of these downsides, it is definitely worth the money you put down for it.  In some cases you can buy TWO System Builder Editions for the price of one retail edition!

1. For students, Win741 can get you a copy for $30 or most Campus Computer Stores have copies for around $35.

2. For others, Newegg offers a “System Builder’s” Edition of Windows 7 for around $100.

Finally, for ease of shopping, I will be using solely Newegg again to gather all the components, but as you may have learned from my other posts, it may be even cheaper to try to look for better prices with online tools like Pricegrabber or Bizrate.

So, here’s what I came up with:

As you can see, we have a pretty powerful computer on our hands.  Here’s a couple things to take note of on this build:

• We’ve upgraded to the new Core i5 architecture (awesome!) for a top-notch CPU
• We’ve upgraded to some fast DDR3 memory
• We’ve upgraded to a mainstream level DirectX 11 GPU (awesome 1680 x 1050 performance in almost anything, “future-proof”)
• We also have a much better case with better ventilation (for overclocking), tool-less setup, and a more powerful PSU
• No tricky Mail-In-Rebates or Combo Deals that come and go (though if you’re actually looking to buy, you may want to consider these options)!

All in all, we now have a great computer for gaming, with very nice overclocking potential, as well as a more “future-proof” design.  That $200 definitely didn’t go to waste!

Have any suggestions for another budget build?  Or do you think you can put together a better $700 computer?  Let us know in the comments!

They are not always the easiest to find, but once subscribed to, finding deals on RSS feeds could be as easy as checking your email.  Let me highlight a few feeds of interest for you (click the titles to access and subscribe to the RSS Feeds):

Lifehacker

Website Lifehacker is not a website completely devoted to deals, but it IS devoted to finding unconventional ways of improving your life through simple (often cheap) DIY ideas and projects, often involving technology.  Their companion RSS feed contains every post made to the site, and about once or twice a week, they feature posts with the tag “Dealhacker.” These posts are often time-sensitive discounts that stores or websites are running and are also often tech-related.  Many of these “Dealhacker” posts are specifically called “Gadget and Gear Deals of the Day“. These gems of posts aggregate a section for Computer Gear, Not Computer Gear, and Free Stuff from various different deal sources and put them in one post.

Gizmodo

Part of the same network as Lifehacker, Gizmodo is a website all about technology and gadgets.  This is a very cool website if you want to keep up with tech news and the latest in gadgets.  Their RSS Feed works in the same way as Lifehacker’s and contains posts tagged with “Dealzmodo” that feature tech-specific deals. Their most watched ones are called “Gadget Deals of the Day” which aggregate even more tech-specific deals from a lot of the same websites as Lifehacker (which means you’ll get a bit of overlap between the two feeds).

Kotaku

For the more video game oriented people out there, this is for you.  Kotaku is a website dedicated to video game news and reviews, and is also on the same network as the last two feeds. About once or twice a week, they also feature posts tagged with “Dealtaku” which gives insight to the best deals and weekend coupons specifically on video games and accessories.  This feed is a definite must for anyone who loves video games and doesn’t want to pay a lot for them.

These sites are most certainly not the end-all-be-all of Deal RSS Feeds, and I’m only scratching the surface, of course, but they are a great way to start.  If these interest you, definitely subscribe to them and also see if you can find some more from readers like Google Reader, or just check back with Tech on a Budget for some more featured RSS Feeds soon!

In the world of websites dedicated to finding and providing you with deals and specials on products, there are some that are truly unique. One of these such websites is Woot. Taken from the modern term meaning “An exclamation of joy or excitement,” visitors and shoppers of Woot often find much joy and excitement out of the deals that they provide.

First a little history about Woot. Woot is a Carrollton, Texas based Internet retailer that was founded in 2004 by Matt Rutledge, a former electronics wholesaler. Woot started as a deal-a-day website that offers a specific product every 24 hours, usually in limited supply and at a highly discounted price. Since its inception Woot has expanded to include shirt.woot, a deal-a-day website offering unique artist designed t-shirts, wine.woot a deal-a-day website that offers deals on all types of wine and wine accessories, sellout.woot, a website made in partnership with Yahoo! shopping that offers a daily deal previously sold on Woot, and the brand new kids.woot, a deal-a-day website specifically geared towards products for children, such as toys, school supplies, and kid’s entertainment.  More information can be found here.

Woot’s tagline is “One Day, One Deal” and as a business model, traditionally people would call it crazy. A retailer only selling one item a day may not make sense at first, but Woot seems to have gotten it right. The reason it works is because they are able to buy items in wholesale, and sell them to customers at wholesale prices, as well as “showcase” the items they sell providing the manufacturers with some advertising. Not only that, but Woot also often features refurbished and used items for sale at even better prices.  Items are sold to each customer with their choice of up to 3 of an item, and either until the day ends at midnight Central US time, or the item sells out (which it often does).

So for our tech-seeking readers, what does Woot have to offer? Not only does Woot often feature electronics and other technology as its main daily deal, but Woot even has special events that our readers will want to look for.

Two For Tuesday

On “Two For Tuesday,” Woot simply puts two identical items for sale, usually resulting in colossal savings for the customer.  When the item on “Two For Tuesday” is tech-related, it’s usually hard to find a better deal for two of those items anywhere else.  The only problem is that sometimes the item might not be very useful to have two of, and the item is not always technology, so each Tuesday can be kind of hit-and-miss.

The Woot-Off

When Woot hosts a Woot-Off, which it does about once every month, everyone who visits the site seems to be buzzing with excitement, usually for one of two reasons: the rapid-fire sales of discounted merchandise, or waiting in anticipation for the coveted “Bag of Crap.”  Woot undergoes a bit of transformation during a Woot-Off, selling much more than just one item a day, instead offering item after item for about three days straight, putting up a new item each time one is sold out.

Every time Woot has a Woot-Off, sometimes once sometimes twice, it puts up the “Bag of Crap”, BoC for short, to be sold.  This is usually followed by Woot’s servers fatally crashing about 30 seconds afterward due to the huge amount of customers trying to get their hands on the BoC.  Your chances of actually getting one are very slim unless you have a really fast reaction time.  So what’s so amazing about the BoC?  Technically nothing.  All Woot promises with each BoC is that the customer will get something. Items are taken from the Woot warehouse or offices and are thrown somewhat randomly into boxes to be shipped out to each customer who was able to get an order in.  This means that you may end up with not only something you don’t need, but something that’s completely worthless.  In actuality, the items you receive often far outweigh the $8 price that you paid in order to buy the BoC and have it shipped to you.  For instance, in the latest Woot-Off and my first BoC, among other items I received a brand-new Kodak Easyshare M893 IS that usually retails from $100 – $200.  If you have the chance, I highly recommend taking part in every Woot-Off and trying to get yourself a BoC.

Here are some things that might help:

1. Use a tracker! Websites like wooters.us can greatly help you by refreshing the items being sold on Woot as soon as they are sold out, without you having to manually refresh the webpage.  Not only that, but this specific one can automatically hit the “Buy” button for you when the BoC comes up and gives you a unique audio cue so you can be one step ahead of the competition.
2. Have your account ready to go! Make sure you already have a Woot account set up with your credit card number and billing/shipping details, so that when the time comes, the only information you have to enter is the CVV code.
3. Check Woot everyday!  You never know when they might decide to do a Woot-Off.

If you’re interested in the subject of Woot-Offs and the BoC, website bagsofcrap.com offers great statistics and history on Woot items, as well as Woot-Off predictions and past BoC contents.