Fry's Weekend Deals, 11/8-12/02: Link To L.A. Times Ad

[Dan]

Enjoy!

 

[AAman]

thanks dan, you the man


pioneer dvd burner 199.99 AR $60 rebate, not to shabby, to bad
I already have one

 

[geckojohn]

Thanks Dan for getting up so early to post this. You're pretty reliable. Good Job

 

[mpbruin108]

11-8 - 12/02 is not really the weekend but thanks for the fry's deals heads up.

 

[SupermanCK]

p4 2.26 combo with ECS mobo for $199 seems to be a good deal...

 

[OS]

good deal on the boxed AMD 2k+/ECS combo

 

[WarSong]

Verbatim 40X CD-RW for $19.99 after rebate ain't bad.

 

[Harvey]

If the Verbatim 40x CDRW looks like the pic on the box, it's a Lite-On that can be flashed to 48x. The usual warnings apply that they may use several manufacturers.

Also, if you flash using Lite-On firmware, and you intend to use the software bundled with this drive, you may find the bundled software will not work after you flash it. FWIW, my copy of Nero was originally bundled with my Lite-On 24x. When I flashed my Memorex 40x to Lite-On 48x and upgraded to Nero 5.5.9.14, it worked perfectly. My copy has a file named MMC.DLL, that contains the text string, LTR-48125 and other Lite-On model numbers. I love DOS tools.

 

[jono8]

Up here in the bay area ad, I saw this deal for a D-Link Wireless PC card.

It's $39.99-$20 MIR

I saw it in Fry's ad today (11/8), there's a limit of 1 per customer.

The picture looks like it's the DWL-650.

I read some user reviews on this card at Amazon and it seems like the major downside is that you either can't or it is difficult to use this card in public "hotspots" (ie in coffee shops or at airports).

 

[simo]

I've got a DWL-650 and a DWL-1000AP to go with it - the WAP is great, but the card is crap :-(

You always get 11Mbps connection reported by the software, but it seems to drop to stupid speeds when under *heavy load* - e.g. try to copy a 650Mb ISO to a PC (with a 100BaseTX NIC and switch) and it'll take 2 hours, the software still says its 11Mbps though. The 128-Bit WEP could be slowing it down I guess......

The range is pathetic - my WAP is in the back of the house and I totally lose the signal outside the front door (my house ain't that big!) I might expect it to go slower, but not lose the signal! It did this at my previous apartment - it wouldn't reach from 2nd floor to ground floor car park!

The problem is not the WAP as my friend has one with an Orinoco Silver and it has a huge range.

Also, typical D-Link, the firmware it comes with is crap, you have to upgrade the WAP and NIC to get 128-Bit WEP/MAC filtering, which I expect only works with D-Link AP's as it uses some weird web frontend.

The WEP doesn't work at all under Linux and apparently only 40-Bit under XP (my Win2K Pro is fine with 128-Bit).

I dunno about hotspot problems (Starbucks is too "corporate whore" for me!) but I tried some wardriving, with the few pieces of software that work with this cards PRISM2 chipset, and found nothing in Sunnyvale or Santa Clara, which seems unlikely as it's Silicon Valley, so I guess the range is so poor that it just can't find any AP's.....

If you just want cheap WiFi and only for web surfing, then this is worth $20, for serious use, look for a Dell/HP badged Orinoco which are quite cheap (now 22Mbps/802.11a is coming out).

 

[breweyez]

does anyone know what the board is inside the XP1800 BYO system??? it sez integrated video...so maybe the SIS730 chipset???

 

[linuxthinker]

Ergh, are these ads accessible the day after? If not, can someone post all the mobo/cpu combo deals? Thanks

 

[Dan]

BYO System
Athlon XP 1800+, mobo (SoyoTek?) w/onboard video, audio & NIC, mini/mid-tower, 1.44MB FDD = $179.99

Mobo/CPU Combos
ECS P4VXASD2+ & OEM P4 2.26GHz = $199.99
ECS K7S5A & Retail Athlon XP 2000+ = $129.99

Memory
256MB PC2700 = $69.99
256MB PC133 = $19.99
128MB Smart Media Card = $39.00

Hard Drives
Western Digital, 120GB, 8MB Buffer, Retail, $169.99 after $30 MIR
Western Digital, 80GB, Retail, $99.95 after $40 MIR
Maxtor, 60GB, Retail, $68.99 after $20 MIR

Optical Drives
Verbatim 40x12x48x CD-RW = $19.99 after $40 MIR
TDK 48x16x48x CD-RW $69 after $40 MIR
DVD-R/ -RW = $199.99 after $60 MIR

 

[azoomee]

Just wishin that Frys would open up some east coast stores

 

[The_Dude8]

thanks. Yo Da Man.

 

[linuxthinker]

thanks for the post! bump

 

[gwlam12]

Originally posted by: linuxthinker
Ergh, are these ads accessible the day after? If not, can someone post all the mobo/cpu combo deals? Thanks

from whati remember, xp 1800+ amd athlon xp with msi k7t266a motherboard for $110

 

[Dan]

11-8 - 12/02 is not really the weekend...

11/8-12/02 = Friday, November 8 through Tuesday, November 12, 2002.

 

[ValsalvaYourHeartOut]

Originally posted by: simo
I've got a DWL-650 and a DWL-1000AP to go with it - the WAP is great, but the card is crap :-(

The range is pathetic - my WAP is in the back of the house and I totally lose the signal outside the front door (my house ain't that big!) I might expect it to go slower, but not lose the signal! It did this at my previous apartment - it wouldn't reach from 2nd floor to ground floor car park!

It's probably functioning normally -- if you had a clear line of vision, I bet the setup would function great! Keep in mind that each wall you go through cuts the signal down, and if you go through a wall at a very oblique angle, it doesn't see 6 inches of wall, it can see several feet! So if you just happen to be at one of those oblique angle, or you're going through a layer of thick concrete, or there's a big mirror in the path, then you might expect something like that. It's not really a fair comparison.

The problem is not the WAP as my friend has one with an Orinoco Silver and it has a huge range.

If you look at Practically Networked they actually test 802.11 cards for range and performance. You'll find that the D-Link actually has better throughput over most ranges, although the Orinoco Gold has slightly more range. Note that the Oirnoco SILVER is a 64-bit WEP card only -- also not a fair comparison to the 128-bit D-Link.

The WEP doesn't work at all under Linux and apparently only 40-Bit under XP (my Win2K Pro is fine with 128-Bit).

I ran 128-bit WEP perfectly fine under XP. Dunno what you're doing.

I dunno about hotspot problems (Starbucks is too "corporate whore" for me!) but I tried some wardriving, with the few pieces of software that work with this cards PRISM2 chipset, and found nothing in Sunnyvale or Santa Clara, which seems unlikely as it's Silicon Valley, so I guess the range is so poor that it just can't find any AP's.....

Most people wardrive with an external antenna to extend range -- it would seem silly to rely on a PC Card antenna inside a metal car. And the D-Link works perfectly fine with the Starbucks/T-Mobile internet service. (And thanks to whoever posted that deal for the 24-hour free pass however long ago.)

If you just want cheap WiFi and only for web surfing, then this is worth $20, for serious use, look for a Dell/HP badged Orinoco which are quite cheap (now 22Mbps/802.11a is coming out).

802.11a is getting a lot cheaper now -- definitely worth considering if you care that much about bandwidth...but a lot of people use PC Card WiFi adapters just to surf the internet, maybe transfer some small files, hook up to a home/campus network, etc -- not to transfer 650MB ISO's. I think $20 is a hot deal on this card.

Valsalva