From browsing the forums, I can tell a lot of our readers shop at NewEgg. And why not? Their prices are competitive and service is very good. If you frequent NewEgg for your computer needs, then you might be interested in the Daily Deals RSS Feed.

From the RSS description:

An up-to-date headlines on our latest sales, deals, and promotions. Subscribe now and never miss a single Newegg.com deal.

Not too much to add here. Some of the deals are one day only, but for the most part I have found the deals are price reductions (most of the time permanent) on items. Regardless, if you are always on the lookout for upgrade for your computer, this might be a feed you are interested in.

There are those who need big honkin’ hard drives and those who don’t.

Typically, those that need the big-big drives do one or more of the following:

• Video editing. Camcorder, DV, DVR, Tivo, DVD ripping, etc.
• Multitrack audio editing. The raw WAV files are quite large.
• Gaming. Many newer games require a significant amount of space.
• Photography. Even on point-and-shoot digital camera photos, each photo can easily be over 3MB in size. If you take a lot of photos this can add up in size rather quickly.

Those that don’t do any of the above or only on a semi-regular basis typically don’t need the big-big drives (or just use an external when required).

With that being said, here are the numbers as of now for what you’d pay if you decide to add on a hard drive.

All prices are listed in US dollars. All drive types are standard 3.5-inch form factor with SATA connector. Links provided are lowest price offerings from NewEgg. Always remember to do your research with hard drives before buying one. Just because something is lowest price doesn’t mean it’s the best offering (obviously).

80GB: $35

It makes no sense to purchase a 40GB any longer because the 80GB versions are cheaper by a few bucks. This is the smallest and cheapest available offering for SATA.

If you are still going super-old-school with Windows 98, this is the drive you want because the 120GB versions are tough to come by new and that is the maximum ‘98 will recognize (technically it’s 137GB but you obviously can’t buy a 137GB drive).

160GB: $42

I have no idea why this size is still even offered. It’s too big for old-school operating systems and to small for newer ones. I’d skip it.

250GB: $50

I wouldn’t bother with this one either. See next listing.

320GB: $50

It’s amazing that for just 8 bucks more you double the size from 160GB to 320GB.

500GB: $55

Yes, you can go for the big guns for just 55 bucks. Most would agree that this is the start of big-big territory by current standards.

640GB: $70

The 640GB size is a bit of an oddity because the 750GB version is just 5 bucks more (see next listing).

750GB: $75

We started at $35. Forty dollars later we’re in 750GB territory.

1TB (1000GB): $100

Twenty-five bucks after that we’re in terabyte territory.

1.5TB (1500GB): $120

Twenty bucks beyond that is one-and-a-half terabyte territory.

…and this is where we end.

For now.

NewEgg currently doesn’t stock 2TB internal hard drives – but I’m sure they’re right around the corner and waiting to be sold in ‘09.

Is the terabyte range worth the price?

Yes. When it broke $200 it was worth the asking price.

However for most people that don’t do a ton of video stuff (be it DV and/or DVR, etc.), 500GB will fit the bill nicely.

Shopping for a computer case is at times a daunting task because there are so many to choose from. The video in this article will show you how to use NewEgg to review cases on your own without spending a dime. When finished you’ll know how to get to reviews and details on which case is right for you.

NewEgg (a favorite online computer retailer for many PCMech readers) is one of the best places to save a buck when buying computer hardware and get access to the stuff that’s not on the shelf at major retail.

Each month NewEgg updates its Customer Choice Awards that show off some of the best-rated hardware – by customers. If you were looking to upgrade some of your computer hardware you might want to check this out. Even if you decide not to buy from NewEgg you’ll still get to see what people think of specific hardware and why people rate it so highly (in the form of customer reviews).

For the month of July ‘08, some of the winners include a 22-inch monitor by Samsung, OCZ memory, a Canon PowerShot camera and several others. Be sure to check it out.

Don’t Make Me Think is a book about web usability. It’s an older book but required reading for anyone who designs web sites. In a nutshell it states that if you want a successful web site, make it stupidly easy to use. Go complicated are it’s nothing but a big ball of fail.

In the world of tech commerce there are basically two types of consumers: The 18-27 market and everyone else. I fall into the “everyone else” category as I’m 33 years old. Many PCMech readers also fall into the same category as well – and that’s just fine.

Given our choices with internet tech shopping, who wins and who loses? Let’s find out.

I’ll be using a 1 to 5 scoring system. 5 = best, 1 = worst.

Apple

Score: 5

Design is a cornerstone of Apple philosophy concerning all their products. Their own web site is no exception. This is one of the absolute easiest places to shop. Right on the home page it’s obvious you click on “Store” to go to (duh), the online Apple store.

Product pages are easy to navigate, easy to read (important) and prices are listed up front. There’s no hassle involved.

Dell

Score: 4

The recent redesign of the Dell web site is a welcome one. It puts a fresh face on Dell and makes their products look more attractive.

The reason this site doesn’t score a 5 is because it’s not entirely obvious that you have to hover (yes hover, not click) over “FOR HOME”, “FOR OFFICE”, or “FOR DATA CENTER” and then select from the drop-down.

When on a product page you’re greeted with lots of itty bitty tiny text. That’s bad. All the nice large text on the front is gone at this point. But at least the prices are listed up front.

NewEgg

Score: 4

NewEgg’s home page was redesigned a while back and it desperately needed it. All text on the home page is very legible. The SEARCH field is placed on the left side which is smart.

Considering the monster inventory of stuff NewEgg has it’s actually fairly simple to get around and find what you’re looking for. The left sidebar on any product screen is helpful to sort by manufacturer or other options presented. Prices are also listed up front for just about everything.

CDW

Score: 2

CDW is a bit of a mess. Too much really small text. Menus at the top that stretch out to the right.

The links on the left are more or less worthless. If you click on Small / Home Office, you get this:

This tells me nothing. I don’t want to “discover” anything. I want to see the stuff you have for sale, get a price and BUY.

In addition there’s a poll on the home page. There is no reason for polls to be there. This is a place to shop, not take polls.

Circuit City

Score: 3

Circuit City puts categories direct on top of the home page in very easy-to-read format. The drop-downs only go one way – down. And that’s great compared to the down-and-to-the-right way CDW does it.

Product pages suffer from the same fate Dell does – lots of itty bitty tiny text. But prices are listed up front.

In addition, Circuit City puts links on the right that are actually useful, such as the Outlet store, Consumer Reports buying advice and other items. Very nice.

Best Buy

Score: 3

The first thing I notice about the Best Buy site is that it’s aligned to the left. This is 2008! Center your web site!

Aside from that this site is fairly easy to get around and the Outlet Center is directly linked on the home page – that’s good.

For products listed the price couldn’t be any easier to spot. It’s in bright yellow. Ugly? Yes. But effective and I appreciate it.

Alienware

Score: 1

Yeah you just knew I had to put a “1″ (worst) in here, right? I won’t disappoint. Alienware has an awful web site designed with all the “cool factor” in the world but very little in the way of being helpful.

You are immediately greeted with useless Flash animations and images on the bottom that you don’t know you’re supposed to click on unless you hover over them first. On Web Pages That Suck this is called Mystery Meat Navigation.

The product page has LED-looking bars that basically say nothing. It looks like stats for characters in a video game – which is exactly the intent. And it sucks. Bars don’t mean anything.

This is what you get when a company tries to target the 18-27 market. Lots of fancy useless Flash, information that’s worthless and a doomy dark look.

No thanks.

Even though Alienware is under Dell’s umbrella and has been for some time, you can obviously tell Alienware is totally gunning for the 18-27 market.

I have written in the past about how valuable a system memory selector tool is when you are looking to upgrade the amount of RAM in your system. For the most part, you just find the “type” of RAM you need and then buy it, of course if you do not know what type you need a system memory selector tool is invaluable.

The other day, I stumbled across Newegg’s “Memory Configurator” (not sure if that is even a word) which basically runs a search in their product database for all memory which is a fit for your system. Considering Newegg is, seemingly, the most popular online vendor with this site’s readers, this makes a great tool.

I have recently placed an order which resulted from use of this tool and plan to use it a lot more in the future.