Broadband Tech > General Questions > Selling custom built PC's, your thoughts.

Selling custom built PC's, your thoughts.

I'll give you something to think about before you start. With the OEM you're responsible for support, not Microsoft. So, are you ready to deal with all of the idiots out there who don't know how to use a computer?
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When will the people realize that with DRM they aren't purchasing anything?

Yeah I know about that part. Good thing is that I work IT all day at work, so im kind of use to it;). Warranty would be like whatever the minimum warranty is from the products and throw in like a few months or a year email support.

reply to Kilroy
And there wouldnt be that much invested at first. say $800 for parts that I can build 2 "budget rigs". Domain for a year is $10, web hosting like $5 a month. Also get free email so it could be dura@company.com. If I want more email accounts its $3 a month for 5 accounts and unlimited storage. Not sure how I would receive payments, going to look into that. If it works I can print cards from vistaprint for less then $20 and pass them to coworkers who might be interested. If it doesnt work I can cancel all the accounts and sell the computers on the classifeds at work. Really not expecting to make much, just going to be a side job thats really a hobby for me.

Could be the beginning of something or could just be a big flop but hey, you live and learn. What Im really trying to avoid is legal trouble, that would hurt me big times lol.

On the anti virus part, looking at a few custom PC's companies, I see they have something called "Courtesy Install" that includes microsoft essentials and open office. In fine print it says "Offered for your convenience. No technical support"

And almost the same specs of the computer I would build, they are charging more then $1K! And their support is only 30 days.

hmmm....

reply to Duramax08
I seriously doubt you'll be able to undercut the Dells and E-Machines of the world. Why would I give you $500 for that when I can give Dell $449 shipped for this...?

reply to Duramax08

reply to OZZY
One of my pitches would be "its easier to upgrade". Alot of those dells come with the bare minimum PSU. Mine has a 530W PSU. Another is look at it, its another dell. My budget pc has a rosewill blackbone with "lights and fans" people might like. My motherboard has 1 PCI E 2.0 x16, 1 PCI E and one PCI slot. I can always say theres more room to upgrade. I can also put a freebie like if they want to install a new video card or so, you have up to a year email tech support to look for something that would fit in your rig and no cost for installation if you do so within a year. After that I can charge them a low fee. They buy the card, I install it. Dell doesnt do those kind of things.

Also I would start out locally which alot of people rather buy something assembled locally then in some foreign country. Its things like that I hope people like/enjoy. Thanks for the thought, its something to keep in mind.

reply to Loco

reply to Duramax08
Well, the Dell also has 2 more gigs of RAM and about 800GB more storage. And, I may not love Dell, but I'm pretty sure they'll be in business to support the machine 10 months down the road. Your lights and fans don't do a thing for me. I'd buy the Dell, dude. Sorry.
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You Can't Kill Rock 'n' Roll!

Yeah the hard drive is what the kicker is today. Damn thailand floods.

reply to OZZY
Did a bit more research, upgraded the hard drive from 160 to 500 for $10 more. I could even upgrade the ram for $10 more to 8gb. Freakin dell, We were buidling a precison laptop that had 4gb of ram, dell wanted to charge like $400+ to add 16GB. Bought the laptop with the default ram and bought some 4 gig sticks at new egg for $80....

Yeah, I think im going to stay locally. Shipping a computer ups ground is like $50+...

reply to Duramax08

reply to Duramax08

reply to Kilroy
This--->

reply to Duramax08
I know a guy who does this on the side. He makes a few K a year in profit.

The only way he makes it work pricing wise compared to Dell.com and such is by scouring sites like Slickdeals.net, craigslist.org, and other such websites. He buys stuff that's cheap and in bulk. His apartment is full of computer parts.

He also keeps a huge spreadsheet that tracks rebates, and makes photocopies of everything.

The thing is, he freaking loves doing this. It's a hobby, and he doesn't offer too much support... though his target audience of somewhat savvy users looking for a $400 gaming tower capable of running Skyrim on Ultra settings is via word of mouth. He doesn't provide support for PCs.

Don't expect to make a ton of money from this. Do it because you want to have a hobby.

reply to Duramax08
"I work IT all day at work"

You must be rather new to IT. Eventually you will want to leave work at work.

I guess you don't have any of those high maintenance users. The ones that are fine once you get everything set up the way they want it, but murder starts becoming an option after the second week of near non-stop phone calls and e-mails trying to get to that point.
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When will the people realize that with DRM they aren't purchasing anything?