OCZ Barbone Gaming Notebook in-stock at Buy.com for $669.99 after mail-in rebate.

In mid-May, DailyTech broke the news that OCZ would be entering the DIY notebook market with its Barebone Gaming Notebook. Less than a month later, the notebook is finally hit e-tailer store shelves.

"For years consumers have wanted to build their own mobile computing platforms, but the product offerings and market simply did not serve them as they did in the desktop do it yourself segment," said OCZ Systems Solutions Product Manager Eugene Chang back in May. "With the OCZ Do-It-Yourself Notebook initiative, OCZ empowers with the resources like validated component guides, documentation, tech support, and a warranty to allow consumers to configure and build a true gaming notebook with the exact specification that matches their unique requirements."

Buy.com now has the OCZ Barebone Gaming Notebook (OCZNBIAS15DIYA) in stock for $719.99 with free shipping. Buyers can send off for a manufacturer's mail-in rebate to drop that price to $669.99.

That price will get you the actual 15.4" notebook, requisite Intel PM965 chipset, 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT mobile GPU, 8x DVD burner, and 9-cell battery. The processor, memory, HDD, WiFi/Bluetooth adapters, and operating system must be provided by the buyers which would easily push the price close to, or over the $1,000 mark.

It's nice to see that OCZ is giving buyers a choice with a system that they can configure and put together themselves, but many may wonder what if any cost savings can be realized by going this route considering the steady drop in pricing for notebook computers.

Source from DailyTech

Dell and MSI talk of their upcoming mini-notes

ASUS may have created the low-cost, mini-note category with its Eee PC 701 4G, but more and more companies are looking to jump in with their own entries. Over the past week, Dell confirmed the existence of its "Inspiron Mini" and MSI officially announced the Wind which will be available June 16.

Dell recently gave some in the media a chance to look at a pre-production Inspiron Mini that was decked out with a glossy black lid instead of the glossy red lid featured in the original press photos. The pre-production unit also had some minor difference in the keyboard lettering and Function modifiers.

Speaking of the keyboard, Dell Consumer Group Senior VP Alex Gruzen went on to discuss the missing feature that had many potential customers up in arms when the firsts images were revealed online: the lack of a top row of Function keys.

"This was a trade off so the rest of the keys could be bigger," said Gruzen. "The reason we were later to the market is we’ve been working on getting the right keyboard."

The keypad design accommodates as best as possible the best user experience for this class of products."

Maybe Dell knows something that the rest of us don't, but the lack of a top row of function keys could be a deal-breaker for some people in what looks to be an otherwise attractive machine. In its current iteration, the Function keys are eliminated due to the intrusion of the battery.



In other mini-note news, MSI is already talking about the next generation Wind. The current model, which was officially announced earlier this week, has seen rave reviews from around the web.

The 10" notebook is already quite small, weighing only 2.2 pounds in its base configuration. MSI is not content, however, and wants to launch a thinner, lighter version during the first quarter of 2009. The new version would be targeted at business customers and will use the same processor/chipset as the current Wind.

MSI is also looking at yet another variant that would be even smaller and more in line with Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). The device is expected to have a screen of 7" or smaller along with a slide-out keyboard.

Source from DilyTech