I am planning on starting a custom PC building / shipping business, where people order systems built by me for their original cost + shipping + build fee. Say, how much would you pay for this system? Imagine you have a $2,000 budget for a kick@$$ PC machine, and here are my specs: what would be appropriate for you and what would be the most you'd pay for this:
Case: Kingwin Silver Mutant X Gaming ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side
Motherboard: Mach Speed Venom V2DP Via Socket A ATX Motherboard / Audio / AGP 4x / 10/100 Ethernet LAN / USB 2.0
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.0E Prescott 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 478 Processor
RAM: 2 x Kingston ValueRAM 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (1GB total)
Video card: Radeon 9600XT 256MB 128-bit
Hard drive - 200GB Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L200M0
Floppy - Mitsumi 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive
CD/DVD: LG Black 48X CD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM DVD-ROM Drive Model GDR-8163B
Keyboard + Mouse: Logitech Cordless Desktop Optical
Speakers: Logitech S-100 BLK 5 Watts RMS 2.0 Speakers
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (installed)
Monitor: Acer AL1912 / 19" 500:1 contrast
Printer: Z615 Inkjet Printer - FREE with the system as a complimentary bonus!
I try to get my prices to be lower than Dell's and have at least 20% profit at the same time, which is HARD with a monitor which is like 20% of the cost of the system :/
Hate tell you this Vasily , but That is not a Kick -ass System these days
and Dell Sell similiar for $1200 AUD about 900USD In Aust.
Don't know the US Price. for Same system
You can Buy Better Spec ACER Laptops under 1500AUD
Dell make thousands of PC"s Monthly ,No one can compete unless their name is Gateway ,Acer or Someone that size
Dell and other major PC assemblers deal in system deals with as little as 2% - 5% Margins
I understand it's not the system nowadays, although it's more than enough for a gamer these days, and it will be enough for about 2-3 years. I have contacts with reliable suppliers for cheap computer hardware, so I thought I can try something there.
I, being a gamer, don't see this system as "More than enough", and it will certainly not last 2-3 year. Maybe a year, but not more than 2 years. The video card is pretty good, but there's better. The processor - there's a lot better. (Especially that Pentium D Series )
But, if you plan to sell to just regular people and not people that know much about computers, then you might have something going on
With a 3GHZ processor and 1Gb ram I can't think of any modern game that won't run on this. And with a 19" LCD monitor and a 500 contrast ratio the colors are vivd and very... umm... colorful
IMO, why not have a database of parts? (Use pricewatch.com), and basicly let the user choose what they want, have a $50 build fee, having a shipping and handling fee ext... thats how i would do it...
I thought about it, and pricewatch is exactly where I find the lowest prices on hardware
But making a pre-made system turns out to rake in more profit. Ex, with the cheapest parts on pricewatch this system would cost $960. As you can see, people are willing to pay $1100+ for it!
Yea, I know, but I mean, I could have a 40000ghz Comp with a terabyte of ram, but if I have a 32mb video card, there's no way I'm going to be able to play Doom 3 now is there?
3ghz is pretty good right now, but, just wait a month or two, you're gonna find games needing atleast 256mb of vram (512 recommended), and unless you have a very fast Video Card, your going no where.
I help run a business similar to what you want to start. We sell systems on average over $2k. You can basically pick any market you want in the custom computer business. But its usually impossible to compete with dell on prices (so usually not the general consumer market)
Yes, competing with Dell is impossible, so IMO atm the only way to make this business profitable is to sell dream-machine type computers with 6GHZ processors, 2 video cards, 5GB ram, the top-of-the-line motherboard, sound system etc. And maybe even 2 monitors (as featured in September's MaximumPC )
going by the attachment and current exchange rate i would pay just over $1400
its not even a kick arse system and the monitor is probably the worst ever.
in todays standards the graphics card youve put in it isnt very good imho. and yes the games might run with that system but they wont run very well at all. and certianly wont last 2-3 years.
i have a 3.4ghz system, 1mb cache, pcie, ati-radeon x800 pcie 256mb, 1gb ddr 3200, dual channel mode, windows xp sp2, latest drivers, sata drive and in half life 2 i get 40fps max and in some cases drops to 10-20
your also using old chip technologys, if you want to allow your customers the freedom to upgrade as and when the tech suits them id look at pci-e chips / systems.
I would reccommend focusing on AMD based systems, that's the way you can pimp dell. For example, the AMD 64 X2's, intel don't have an equivelent out yet. Dell can't use AMD parts in building their PCs, since they have an agreement with intel. By using the dual core AMD systems as a niche, (very useful for multi-tasking in the business world), you could get a lot of customers.
PC system #1 - POLL 
system nowadays, although it's more than enough for a gamer these days, and it will be enough for about 2-3 years. I have contacts with reliable suppliers for cheap computer hardware, so I thought I can try something there.
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