Windows XP Cheap?
Posted September 9th, 2006 @ 07:56am by Erik J. Barzeski
With a Mac Pro on its way (some day), I suppose I must start looking for an inexpensive copy of Windows XP (preferably not "Home"). I plan to keep the two 500 GB drives as my main drives - one for backup - and use one of the 250 GB drives in my current G5 as the Windows XP drive.
Does anyone have an idea where I might be able to find the aforementioned inexpensive copy of Windows XP? What's the best route? $300 (or whatever) is way too much for software I'm only going to use often enough to check how some sites look in IE/Win.
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Posted 09 Sep 2006 at 9:26am #
Though I don't have an Intel Mac yet, I've been planning ahead and have been looking for a cheap copy of XP Pro for about 3 weeks. From my own research, I've found that eBay is the best route. I did find some stores that sell OEM versions at about half the retail price, but there's just something that doesn't feel right about the sites to the point that I don't want to give them any of my info. Also, I wanted to stay away from an OEM version and go with a full retail version.
So what I've found on eBay is that you can pick up an unopened, unregisterd, full retail version of XP Pro between $110 and $150 on average. But, as with all eBay auctions, just make sure to read the entire description first.
Posted 09 Sep 2006 at 9:26am #
Not exactly an answer to your question; but if all you really want to do is test with IE, you can run IE under CrossOver rather nicely. $40's better than $300!
Posted 09 Sep 2006 at 10:41am #
You can get OEM from Newegg (which is the best online computer retailer period, IMO). XP Pro runs ~$145. Look here.
Posted 09 Sep 2006 at 10:55am #
Looks like Tiger Direct has XP Pro SP2 for $140.
Posted 09 Sep 2006 at 11:02am #
I suggest getting an OEM version from newegg.
XP Home $88 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116056
XP Pro $140 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116059
Posted 09 Sep 2006 at 12:52pm #
I would suspect some mom and pop build your own PC shoppes have an OEM version of xp they could sell you; you might have to buy a cable or something from them at the same time for them to release it to you as an add on.
Posted 09 Sep 2006 at 1:08pm #
My experience with CrossOver is that you're better off using Parallels or BootCamp. IE is just so... painful.
Posted 09 Sep 2006 at 1:48pm #
One way I know of is if you know someone who works at Microsoft, you could get them to buy you a copy of XP Pro (at a MUCH lower price), then pay them back.
Of course, you could always check Newegg, eBay, and so on.
Posted 09 Sep 2006 at 11:14pm #
If you know someone who works for Microsoft (corporate or retail) they could get you Win XP Pro for about $35 or so from the employee purchase plan. Microsoft also used to give good employee purchase deals to employees of retail chains that sold their producs, so if you know one of those you might get lucky too.
Posted 10 Sep 2006 at 11:09am #
If you have a friend at CMU, they can get one for 15$.