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Tech on the Cheap?
andyatkinson asks: "A technology enthusiast always has more products and services to buy than he or she can possibly afford. A variety of methods will help you save money: discount, deal, and coupon websites, price comparisons, eBay, and rebates. How do you save bucks on tech?"
I steal tech from people on the subway.
Born on a mountain, Raised in a cave!
Bring on the free software people.
adventure-today.com
We'll call it... Dotslash Now I just run these blurbs of texts on it, and I get all sorts of stuff for free. I've even given one company, we'll call them DMA, it's own "vendor" section on the site. Cha-ching!
KernelBurrito
Because you can always get more for less if you wait 6 months.
6 months from now, repeat.
Alot of large companies have surplus sales of oldish (2-3 years) equipment. This is how I have acquired the lab that I have.
$diff terrorists hippies
$
$rm -rf *terrorists *hippies
Oh wait, that's not me that I'm thinking of.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
The latest and greatest is seldom so great. Now is a great time to buy a GameCube or PS2 if you don't have one. All the good games have been made and are available for bargain basement rates. Also, at my home we have several old Macs that we use for the wife & kids. We find them more than adequate for our purposes. I guess it all comes down to learning to be content with getting things later rather than sooner.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
"How do you save bucks on tech?"
You know, if I disclosed that here I could end up in jail.
Just kidding of course...why am I posting anonymously again?
You can get $20 from taking Chase Bank's online survey - haven't you been getting their emails?
I just got myself a shiny new Dell M70 laptop, 256mb video, 2gb RAM. Reading around on the internet, its comparable with Alienware stuff as far as gaming goes.
I need it to.... um.... work on that big project coming up.... yeah thats it.....
Seriously, ask for as much as possible. The worst that will happen is they say no, most of the time you will bargain down to a compromise point which is still way more than you need anyways.... and at most places I've seen, the person doing the approving really doesn't understand the computer stuff....
or I guess you can clip coupons instead, if you're into that...
"In one 9 month period, I bought and sold 5 laptops, taking a loss of around $200-300 per sale, before settling on one to keep. This is a bit extreme and certainly involved a fair amount of hassle, but on the plus side, I was able to try out several brand new laptops on my own terms, and sell them for a relatively minimal loss. After about 9 months, I still had a new laptop for around US $1500 (as opposed to leasing laptops)."
Given the conservative estimate of $200 loss per purchase, that would $1000. That would mean that at the end he either had a $1500 laptop for $2500, or else he bought a $500 laptop for $1500. Either way this is not "Tech on the Cheap."
Insert Generic Sig Here:
Don't buy into a new technology for the first couple of years unless it is immediately apparent the item will repay your money over a 1-year time frame. Generally it takes 3 years for the rapid advancement period to come to a conclusion and product lines to stabilize. You will also avoid a lot of fads this way.
Avoid any proprietary formats - MD Disc, Blu-Ray, DVD-Audio. These never work out in the long run.
A technology enthusiast always has more products and services to buy than he or she can possibly afford
I don't have this problem. I'm not rich either. Is "tech enthusiast" some new code word for "sucker consumer"?
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Rule number one: Never buy the "top-of-the-line" product. Always purchase one or two notches below it. There's usually a major price point between the fastest CPU and those below it and the difference in performance is marginal.
If you're shopping for laptops, check the chain stores like CompUSA and others. Sometimes they have special versions of manufacturer's products that are better-equipped than more widely-available items at greater cost.
EBay is definitely invaluable. Like others have said, if a new generation product comes out, like a RAID array or new server technology, you can often pick up the previous generation's products at a fraction of the cost. When Compaq discontinued one line of high performance servers, the market became flooded with these units for pennies-on-the-dollar.
For other kinds of tech, like cell phones, look into the pre-paid plans as an alternative to the standard monthly contracts. It is true, you may not find the Treo 650 on a discounted prepaid plan like you would if you committed to a two-year contract, but you can often get great phones at the same price people pay who commit to multi-year contracts when you sign up for the pay-as-you-go plans. This is a great deal that is geared normally for kids or people with bad credit, but ends up being a better deal for others who want to avoid getting locked into a particular calling plan that costs them more money later.
"I guess it all comes down to learning to be content with getting things later rather than sooner."
Hmm that reminds me. *looks at screen* Yup, my torrent is coming through just fine.
Resign yourself to the inevitability that whatever you buy that's 'cutting edge' will only be so for a matter of months. Spend accordingly.
My father bought a Treo 650 about six months ago for around $500. After seeing/using his I decided to give the pda/phone combo a try. But instead of dropping the cash on a Treo 650, I bought the "old" 600 model on eBay for about $150.
It may not be cutting edge, but it still has all the basic features I need. In another year or so I'm sure I'll be able to upgrade to the 650 for about the same price, now that the 700 is out.
Sweet informative mod.
I have a great relationship with mine. They get off lease equipment from Dell and others which means that a lot of gear is two to five years old, but, for example, we just purchased some blade servers at 80% off of their new price. Make sure to find a good one and stick with them. My rep gives me calls when good deals come in and we get first whack. Not to advertise but my remarketer is Stallard Technologies http://www.stikc.com/.
Right now all the machines I own have come from various family members and friends who've upgraded – e.g., all three of the laptops I own (GRiD 1720 286, now dead; Micron XPE, Pentium-133, right now dual-booting Linux and OpenBSD; and a Dell Latitude CP, Pentium-233, my main laptop that I'm typing this on now) – or auctions (a Dell Optiplex GX100 with a Celeron-700, $55 on eBay; a Compaq DeskPro EP6000 with Pentium III-650, also $55 on eBay; and probably my favorite machine, a top-of-the-line HP box with an Athlon 64 3200+, SATA disks, PCI Express, and a ton of other new stuff I can barely even remember... got the CPU and keyboard at an auction for just $300!) Definitely a great way to save money, and if you know where to look and/or are extremely lucky you can often get really new stuff for far less than it should normally cost.
One other quick tip – if you have something people would consider worth paying money for, such as a Linux distribution, you may be able to earn a couple bucks from that... although so far I haven't gotten too too much money from my own distro, most people are just freeloaders...
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
There's no need to stay cutting edge unless you're really into the latest games or you feel a need to keep ahead of everyone else. I was that way once, but a period of extended unemployment caused me to reevaluate that attitude. :-)
I've actually been very happy using older PCs at home for years. Not only do I purchase most of my PCs and related peripherals on eBay, but I have a whole series of other sites I hit on a regular basis for various techie supplies and misc items (www.ubid.com, www.compgeeks.com, www.cyberguys.com, www.pcsurplusonline.com, etc.).
My Palm PDAs are all older (two Palm m105's, one IIIc) with the exception of my Fossil/Abacus WristPDA (which at US$49 on eBay was the least expensive of the lot). My digital camera is still a refurb Casio QV3000EX I picked up on uBid five years ago for half its retail price. The last piece of hardware I purchased was a new 16-port 10BaseT/100BaseTX auto-sensing switch for US$22 at CompGeeks. It seems to work fine. The second-to-last one was a refurb 8-port Belkin OmniView Pro KVM (F1D108-OSD-B) which I absolutely love. Cost: US$70 including 8 new 10-foot cables from a nice guy on eBay.
If you do the research, learn what what you actually need instead of what you want, and spend a little bit of time looking around, you can find a lot of good stuff for very little money.
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
I buy parts based on bang-for-the-buck factor. Price to preformance is what matters to me. Then I overclock it. I also dont buy "cheap" parts in order to save money. Because replacement costs, downtime, ect, means "cheap" parts aren't cheap.
He leased it. There's a huge cost savings when you lease. You see, with a lease you only pay for the part of... oh, wait.
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
Don't buy it if you don't need it. I bought a PDA 5 years ago, it just sits there. I won't make that mistake again. I don't need a video IPod, dvd video camera, pvr, etc.
And prioritise the spending on the needs, and only pick up the wants when they're a good deal.
And paying of your credit card bill is a great need than any of your wants.
For many things waiting just a few months can make something you want more affordable. This especially applies to computer hardware, but also applies to DVDs, CDs, as well. Patience has its rewards.
Don't underestimate missing out on your typical upgrade cycle and just sticking with what you have. Oh, and know your product release cycles by reading the geeky websites every so often.
OTOH don't become a miser! Don't buy cheap stuff just because it is cheap. Get good quality stuff even though it costs more, because it will last longer (in most cases).
Don't go to a retailer and buy a pre-built computer. Buy parts and put your own together. That way, you have exactly what you need, not what somebody else thinks you need. You also don't have to pay for a lot of software you'll never use. If, like me, you're not good with hardware, find a friend who is and trade favors.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
I just don't pay for it!
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Define "cheap"
:)
The way I see it, you can create a great news web site that lots of people use...then pass off promotional press releases as tech articles in exchange for um, the opportunity to indefinitely test said product. I'd say that's pretty cheap.
That or you can be one of those hardware testing folks.
Be sure to check out both the Partners and MSDN programs. Partners gets you one license for server software and 10 licenses for XP and Office for about $300/year. MSDN come in a bunch of different flavors and gets you dev tools and eval OS's at reasonable prices.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
I've found the best ways for tech on the cheap are:
1. Scavenging,
2. Buying older stuff, (When option 1 fails)
3. Doing for cash support and upgrades for people, take their old stuff and don't charge them to get rid of the old hardware. (Three's by far the best because you get new stuff and money)
One option is to find a store that sells refurbished computers or a nice sized ma & pop shop. many items that are marked as refurbished are actually end of line, open box, demo models, and among that sort of line up. You can usually save yourself a bit of money going with a machine that is marked as refurbished but are still widely being sold as brand new (you also usually get better service, but that is dependent on the store). I've even seen some of the latest machines like AMD X2's in the refurbished market, and often times these machines have the upgradability of most high end machines, but are cheaper than if you were to actually build them yourself by a fair profit margin. In addition, if you do find a good store you like, you will be in a better position at getting deals off of the merchandise, as they will also want to keep you as a client. If you are not interested in buying a prebuilt machine and upgrading, then find a computer hardware store. The prices will obviously be substantially cheaper than your local futureshop or bestbuy, but it can be easy to get carried away in building a system.
No, seriously!
If you think modular -- the Unix way, as it should always be -- enormous savings can be achieved.
Here are some ways:
- Don't buy multifunctionals. Buy a separate printer, video, phone, scanner etc. Thus, you can always get a better equipment for the same money. Integration must be done with Free Software, of course.
- Do it yourself. E.g., some audio cards now can output 6 audio channels (on the line, aux and mic, configured as outputs). With some cheap speakers, a graphics card with TV-out and Linux you can have your own dvd-player or, with a good TV capture card, a much more professional receiver. You can even have a PVR!
- Put up with lower expectations. That's how Castle Wolfestein was made: poor resolution, but fantastic gameplay for the time, thanks to some 3D simplifications. A video played on a 4.77 MHz XT comes to my mind. Did you know VHS resolution is very low (320x240 IIRC)?
- Share what you discover. If many join with some spice, you get a tasty stone soup at no price.
Be happy!
When I want to buy something I can't afford I get better paying work so I don't have to stand in line at Fry's with the the rest of you penny pinching open source hippies.
Maybe you have time to waste salvaging some POS out of the dumpster, but I spend that time making more money to buy things.
Now that doesn't happen all the time, but there are enough good deals to make it fun.
...
That should cut your tech spending by better than 90%. Next, channel the time you would have spent doing price comparison sna reading enthusiast sites for product reviews into spidering through wikipedia and learning how the technology you crave actually works.
Hi,
it all depends what you mean by tech. Most stuff on think geek etc is crap, don't buy it. Don't play games unless you like upgrading every year. When you do buy, by good gear that'll last.
My current rig is 1.4 P4, 678MB, 60gb. I run Deb so my graphics are 2d only. Man I wish the 3D OpenHardware was making more progress. I have a FPGA on a PCI slot for emulation etc.
My last expensive purchase was 1.6tb raid array $2,000 when I built it. now less than $1,000. Currently I'm looking to store 500gb on the net. I'll gladly pay a monthly fee for reliability.
Being a dev most of my cash goes on books. I buy classics Knuth, Patterson etc etc etc. My rule is that I want know how to build something not how to use something. Plato is still valid will the latest java extension still be around in five years?
I've had good luck buying refurbished machines from tigerdirect.com, and also got a great deal on my laptop (eMachines AMD 2800+, $600) about 15 mos. ago from bestbuy (when eMachines was about to get bought by Gateway).
I figure with refurbs they've already failed and been fixed once, so I'm ahead of the game.
If you're not too picky and can accept the "-1" generation, closeouts work well too.
What ever happened to good, old-fashioned, DIY geek systems. Honestly, you can get old computers for almost free, many of which still have good components in them. I have a freind that took a couple of old, nearly worthless servers and built a couple new ones using nothing but old parts. Install some open source software, and you've got yourself a decent machine that can handle most common tasks. This method also has the additional benefit that you can spend quality time messing around with hardware and software, and maybe learn something in the process.
Register the editry.
Want less.
(Normally I'm the first to hate this sort of snotty answer, but in the case of "wanting more than you can afford", it's a necessary, if perhaps not sufficient, part of the solution.)
(I suppose, technically, "make more money" also works.)
I live in México ! I have a decent job, and decent wage, but with a family, you simply cannot afford to spend money on tech. I live with the urge for a good cell phone, a nice USB memory, a good DVD burner, a better CPU, any kind of digital camera, but the money keeps going with what really matters, my family :-)
That's the kind of living of almost any person here, my wage is in statistics above the 95% of the population, and still can't afford those tech beauties :)
third word rules !
I'm positive, don't belive me look at my karma
I piss on your pirate software!
At first, I was a nitpicker who _chose_ not pirate. It was like: "uh, I do a lot of things wrong, but this shit I won't do, because Free Software is good enough".
Now, to be blunt, I think "why pirate shit, when Free stuff is better?"
Case in point, "office". OpenOffice.org is totally cool, totally usable on modern powerful machines. It is not only equivalent, it's way better.
And, boy, I pity M$ when KOffice is finally ready. They'd better be somewhere else by then.
Use the "F" word: Fraud. Every time an employee quits, it costs the rebate company a lot to hire and train someone new. Minimum wage people don't like to think they are helping break the law. Ask the employee how she or he can justify working for a dishonest company. Tell the employee he or she has the worst job in the world.
Call the manager of the store where you bought the rebate item. Use the "F" word again. Managers have a special telephone number. The rebate company will listen to them. Store managers don't like the word fraud applied to their store; that could cost them hundreds of thousands, if the word gets around. If you don't get satisfaction from the store manager, get his or her name and call the store's main office. The people who work in main offices don't want fraud calls; and they definitely don't like fraud calls in which the name of a store manager is mentioned.
Never let rebate companies steal from you. If you ever accept that once, they will know they can do it again. Remember, there are a limited number of rebate companies, and they keep databases on those who apply for rebates. Don't allow yourself to become a known easy target.
Tell the rebate company that you will file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and your state's consumer fraud department and do it. Tell the store that sold the rebate item the same thing. See the links for filing below.
Apparently all or almost all rebate companies are involved in fraud either for their own profit, or pre-arranged with manufacturers. They try to concentrate on the customers that will accept excuses. The stores will tell you they know nothing about the fraud, but that is not true; they know very well.
Typical experience with a rebate company:
I'm not the only one to have a huge amount of trouble with Parago; read this amazingly ugly April 22, 2005 story: Parago Rebate Gripes Keep on Coming. Here is Parago's Better Business Bureau information: Parago BBB info. My experience with Parago is that the company will try many, many tricks to get you to stop expecting a rebate. Other people have reported that Parago will ask a caller to fax some information, and then give an invalid fax number. Most people don't have a fax machine, and going to an office supply store and paying to fax something discourages them. Parago changes phone numbers frequently, apparently; on March 13, 2006, someone said that (888) 641-4109 is a good number at which to call Parago. (Parago operates Rebates HQ. )
This story by Jonathan Kamens at MIT about Parago contains many Parago tricks that are very familiar to me: My "Staples Easy Rebates" Horror Story. Here are the tricks Parago used to avoid paying:
Or an "old" Xbox (non-360). I just bought one that's already modded with one of the most expensive chips and a 40GB HD (not huge, but big enough to put some emulators on it and what not - better than stock) for very little. People are dumping them to pay for their Xbox360 seemingly.
Unless you like to play the latest games, it's still a great box (better than GameCube or PS2 IMHO). There's a bunch of discs out there with thousands of ROMs from all consoles that'll run on it as well as MAME (no need for a bunch of old consoles lying around to play 'em all). And the nicest part? XBMC playing videos off my new 1.2TB video storage (4x 300GB SATA HDs @ 119$CDN a piece from ncix; not bad at all) - all in mpeg4, right over the network (something like 1500 CDs worth of storage, or a LOT of movies!) using the remote control, and it works with the MCE PC too... And gaming wise, there's several hundred titles out for it that I've never played yet (including many the kids will love), the games are still as fun, even though they don't have as nice 3D realistic graphics as a 1500$ dual SLI setup or whatever. You can rent games online too (netflix-style). Best hundred bucks I've spent in quite a while!
Not spending saves cash. 'Nuff said.
1. Buy second-hand/refurb
I've done this for years with computers. The Mac Mini I bought last year was my first new computer in 10 years. In 2001, I was using a Mac IIci (yes, a 1990 design). Good thing Apple builds their computers to last.
2. Buy good stuff
When you do buy equipment, don't skimp. If it's well-built, it'll last. 2 of the loudspeakers in my HT setup are 18 years old - they still sound good, so why replace them?
3. Prioritize
To avoid spending more than you can afford, try to set a budget and stick to it. Can't afford product X now? Wait 3 months, the price will go down eventually.
My father bought a Treo 650 about six months ago for around $500. After seeing/using his I decided to give the pda/phone combo a try. But instead of dropping the cash on a Treo 650, I bought the "old" 600 model on eBay for about $150.
Yes, the 600 will do most of what you need. But the display on the 650 is spectacular in comparison, and the camera is far better. Also, the 650 has some things built in (like Versamail) that you'd need to pay extra for if you need them on the 600.
Of course, this points out another issue on saving money, and that's to make wise decisions. The parent poster can get by just fine with the 600, but perhaps they also wanted to be able to buy a couple of the hottest new video games, so they avoided the latest tech where they didn't feel they needed it.
The calls to wait and to buy used are also good advice. I've been wanting a digital SLR for a while now, but am just now getting ready to actually buy one, now that my finances are in better shape. For that, I'll probably buy new, because to me it will be worth it to have newer features and a warranty.
While not directly tech-related, buying used in other areas can save you enough money to feed your technology jones. Consider cars. With some careful shopping, you can find an excellent used car for a huge discount over new, saving you thousands of dollars. You may even be able to afford to pay cash for it, rather than taking out a loan.
Is probably 2-3 years in to a console's life not at the last year imo. I bought my ps2 for $199 (now four years later all you'd save is $50) probably a year and a half or less after release. If one buys the games at the end of a games lifetime they lose many years worth of new games.
Hmmm... Pie...
Hip Gizmo's aren't the only things tech enthusiasts aren't into. And depending on how broke someone is there can be quite a few things enthusiasts would want.
Hmmm... Pie...
Good post, but you missed a very important point if you get ripped off by rebate:
Complain to your state Attorney General. Ohio's has a website to submit claims (making it rather easy. Not much in correspondence, but after about 2 weeks I suddenly got a rebate check in the mail), and I'm sure others do, too. Few companies are willing to risk the wrath of any state AGs, especially not over <$100
Buy assets, not liabilities.
Definition: If you buy something that's not making you money or saving you money, it's a liability.
+++OK ATH