Having been revisiting some of my old build photos, I'm considering feeding my PC build habit again, but the only problem is that I don't really have any need to build new rigs, and I think my fiancée would chop my head off if I just started spending money willy-nilly. The only way I could realistically start building machines again is if I ended up selling on the machines I built to at the very least recoup costs. I'm not about to open up a business or a website advertising services, I'd really only like an outlet for the occasional build when time permits. My questions are: a) Is there enough of a market demand to build PCs to order, when anyone can go to Scan and order a 3XS build? b) If yes, how would I get around the slightly tricky situation of warranties - most retailers will only accept RMAs raised by the original customer, and I'd ideally like to "sell and forget", for convenience more than covering myself. Opinions/comments appreciated
You'll be working for peanuts. Scan et al will have large overheads and wage bills to consider, but they also have the buying power to get the component costs down and even then the margins aren't great on budget rigs.
It's a niche market and on the cheaper machines hard to undercut the big boys and make enough of a profit to make it worth while. The larger the budget the easier it is to make a decent profit as you can undercut the big boys by some margin. You would have to honour the warranty of the machine, it's up to you if you give a set amount of warranty on the "tower" or give full individual product warranty. Top and bottom? Don't bother, I make ALOT more money on repairs than I do builds even though gaming builds are satisfying.
That won't be possible. A buyer's warranty would be with you, not the manufacturer of individual components. If I bought a Dell and the hard drive died, I wouldn't be contacting Western Digital. If you want to sell people machines, you'll have to take on responsibility for the warranty - and that includes taking the hit on the chin if you have to replace parts out of your own pocket. The only alternative is to offer a PC building service, where people buy the parts themselves and you assemble them - like a less energetic version of those people who come to your house and built your flat-pack furniture. You'd still be expected to provide support, though, if something went wrong. As Spreadie has said, though, you'll be doing all this for peanuts. Try speccing a mid-range PC using retail parts, then compare the price to a pre-built system from a box-shifter of your choice. You'll find that your bundle of parts costs more than the ready-built version - and if it doesn't, the chances are good you forgot to pay for a Windows licence. If it's something you want to do because it's fun, go ahead; don't expect to make a profit, though. (And remember you'll have to pay income tax and National Insurance on anything you do make from it!)
I build PCs mainly as a hobby. I normally quote friends/family a price for the parts, then add £50-£75 ( depending on the difficulty) or so for my own pay. It's still cheaper than buying from PC world or some crap, and they get a quality build. It's hard to do as a business, and big companies like scan can get lower than retail for parts. But it is still a low paying business.
As have I, and it's fine most of the time. However, you absolutely WILL get some customers who think you are now providing 24/7 lifetime support. This will include Sunday morning phone calls to tell you that their desktop has suddenly flipped 180 degrees "all on it's own", and no amount of careful explanation will make them understand your instructions to correct the problem - you will be expected to hot foot it down there and deal with it in person.
Amen to this, and those that visit all the dodgy sites in the world, fill their computer with crap and then shout at you when it runs slow and they have popups all over the place. Luckily for me my good customers outweigh the bad ones.
There's no money in it now, let alone 10 years ago. Dell killed the market a long time ago with cheap (cheaper than it cost for you or me to buy the parts) off the shelf PC's.
It depends on your market, repairs are where the money is at though in hardware respects. Software seems to be where the real money is though.
This is similar to what I did for many years, and still do occasionally. That said, the computers are not cheaper than what a buyer can get from Dell, HP or Acer, or an eMachines from Walmart. Dell, for example, can go to Microsoft, ASUS, WD, and Kingston and promise to buy 1,000,000 copies of Windows, 1,000,000 motherboards, hard drives and sticks of RAM over the next year and demand and get HUGE volume discounts. If I buy 3 of a kind, there's a good chance 1 will never sell and go obsolete on the shelf - because something new is always just around the corner. So even if I wait for Newegg to put something on sell, I am not going to get the great wholesale discounts the big guys get. So I tell my clients I cannot beat their prices, but I can build a better computer in any class - one that is tailor suited for them and their needs, not what Dell thinks they need. The Windows licensing is the big issue. The terms of the OEM/System Builders license state that the "system builder" (you!) is responsible for 1 year of tech support for Windows issues. You (your client) can buy a full retail, and then that is not a problem - but they cost more. And in fact, for Windows 10 and self-builds, full retails are now the only legal option. The good new there is Microsoft is on the hook for tech support, and unlike OEM licenses, the full retail licenses can legally be transferred to their next computer and the next computer and so on. OEMs are NOT legally transferable to a new computer under any circumstances. But here's what I do to get around the licensing and warranty issue and this has been my "business model" for some time now. I say "We build it with you". So I sit down with my client and help them first and foremost, decide two critical points; (1) the intended use of the computer and (2) their budget. Then we go from there and we (that is, I pretty much stand over their shoulder) use Bing Google to research their parts - with me explaining the pros and cons of Intel vs AMD, NVIDIA vs AMD, Gigabyte or ASUS or MSI, etc. Harddrives vs SSD, 32-bit vs 64-bit and so on and so on. I spend a good deal of time on the importance of sizing and selecting a good power supply and case (the foundations of a good system that can support years of service and upgrades). Once the components have been selected, they use their credit card to buy the parts. When all the parts come in, I help them assemble their computer, discussing ESD and proper handling, application of TIM, etc. along the way. Then I help them install Windows and setup their security. We go into great detail in "practicing safe computing" so they keep their computer and security updated and they avoid risky behavior. We go into great detail in doing regular inspections and how to clean out heat-trapping dust. And we discuss in detail system monitoring and heat management. So in effect, they become the System Builder and they are on the hook for all the tech support and RMA stuff. But of course, I would be a scumbag if I did not remain available so I do tell them I am always here - and I am. I generally charge $100 for this but when done, the client has a computer that is custom fit for him or her. They know what a motherboard, graphics card and hard drive look like and are not afraid to touch them. They are not afraid or intimidated to open the case and clean it properly, or swap out a PSU or add RAM. And they can then build their own computer next time without help. I basically lose a customer that way because they generally don't need my services after that. They can do it on their own. But I do generally pick up a new friend and the warm fuzzy I get is knowing I have properly tutored a new user to have a safe and secure computing experience. And those new friends typically send new customers my way too. I don't advertise - only word of mouth. I don't make a lot of money this way, but I am basically retired anyway so I don't need the money. I do it to keep my skills up and stay in the game with current technologies.
