The PC price wars. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. The head of Compaq Computer calls it brutal. It may not be good for companies or investors... but for consumers, the PC price wars are making high end technology more affordable than ever. Gateway's marketing VP David Turner tells us his company's new ad campaign offering to beat the prices of its chief competitors is already spurring business...

"In the trial markets we saw a fifteen, twenty percent increase in lift and we're seeing that replicated as we deploy this thing nationally."

Gateway for instance has dropped the price of a Pentium 4, 1.3 Ghz systen with a 15 inch monitor to under a thousand dollars. That puts pressure on traditionally lower priced rivals like direct marketer Systemax. VP Bob Dooley...

"We're managing our inventory by the hour and we're working very closely with our vendors and noticing trends in the industry and taking advantage of price changes and adjustments."

Systemax subsidiary TigerDirect sells a Pentium 4 system for under 950 dollars... without a monitor. Lower end computers sell for as little as 350 dollars. How far will the price wars go?

"As not only just the CPU but the things around it come down... prices will get lower."

Both Turner and Dooley agree on one thing... for consumers, it's a very good time to buy. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.