Custom built PC business

[HassanZ]

Hi all,

 

I have always had an interest in PCs and am considering starting up a custom built PC business.

 

Has anyone ever considered or have ran a custom built PC business themselves or know someone personally that does something like this?

 

Do you think there's money to be made in this market if I found a cheap supplier for components?

 

I just thought I'd post a thread on here to see what your views are, as there seems to be plenty of experienced/knowledgeable members on here. I haven't look into this in any detail yet and it's currently just an idea...

 

All input will be very much appreciated!

 

Kind Regards,

Hassan

[Stew]

Depends if you want to do it on the side or as a career.

 

In my honest opinion anyone that wants a custom PC will probably be interested enough to find out to do it themselves. I could be wrong though.....

[Ekona]

You'd do well to beat the big guys right now, and unless you want to run it as a sideline for friends I don't think it's worth the bother. I just bought a custom PC from PC Specialist, and not only were they very competitive on price but their service was also unbeatable.

[HassanZ]

Depends if you want to do it on the side or as a career.

 

In my honest opinion anyone that wants a custom PC will probably be interested enough to find out to do it themselves. I could be wrong though.....

 

I was looking to do this alongside my career, in my spare time.

 

I was planning to build PC's based on 3 budget levels, depending on what the customer will be using the PC for.

 

If it's at least 30%-40% cheaper than other suppliers (i.e. PC World, HP etc) then I believe people may consider purchasing a custom PC instead. The only aspect that will need serious consideration would be to supply them with warranty or not.

 

If the price is low enough, people may be willing to take the risk and benefit from a significant saving. To clarify, all this is just my assumption and I've not done any research into this yet.

 

That's a good point though but I'm sure there are people out there who'll rather just throw the cash at someone instead and buy it ready-built? Obviously as long as they are making a good enough saving on the purchase.

 

I'm sure someone may correct me if my assumptions are wrong

[rabbitstew]

I used to build PC`s for friends and family many moons back. They would spec exactly what sort of thing they wanted i.e. business pc or gaming, or media centre etc... then I would source all the components, build it up and add on a little for my time & effort, or do it for a couple of pints or something.

 

I stopped doing it because you ended up being their computer support person for the rest of your life, and trouble shooting issues could be hard... was it the hardware? software? or user error.

 

But the main reason I stopped was that there was no money to be made in it. Most people will run to Dell or one of the big names. When I last looked, Dell was knocking out desktops incl windows for a fraction of the price I could build a similar spec one for by buying bits from ebuyer. If I wanted a more specialist pc then there were hundreds of little computer shops in town. You could even buy ready made gaming pc`s from websites like overclockers.

 

Back in the day a lot of people were scared of PC`s and didnt understand them. But these days nearly everyone I know is comfortable at building their own system or installing windows etc...

[HassanZ]

You'd do well to beat the big guys right now, and unless you want to run it as a sideline for friends I don't think it's worth the bother. I just bought a custom PC from PC Specialist, and not only were they very competitive on price but their service was also unbeatable.

 

If you compare the spec of the PC you purchased to a similar spec'd PC at a supplier like PC World, how much did you save?

 

The place you purchased it off cannot be touched with regards to cost as I'm guessing they buy components in massive bulks, resulting in slashed cost per unit.

[Keyser]

I run an IT support Company and we supply PC's to customer spec because as there IT company they want us to be a 1 stop shop.

 

IMO there is no money in it the hardware, the market has no decent margins - If you could beat PC world by 40% I'd buy all my PC's from you

 

We can't make 10% on a PC and be competitive, The profit is in quantity with PC's make £10 a box but sell 1000 boxes a week you have a business.

The big boys make as much out of the accessories as they do the PC - 2m USB cable PC world £3 -£9 I can buy them at £0.65. (ever noticed printers don't come with cables?)

Then as mentioned above - every time they have a problem you get a call.

 

I wish you all the best but (again IMO) the money in IT is in repair, software development or support roles. To make money on hardware it's all about quantity, accessories and "interest free" credit along with the warranties they sell you.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide though.

[UNABASHED]

your issue will be that you are too late to join the game!

 

There are hundreds of very reputable specialist PC builders out there now that build to exact requirements or budget level PC's, and also offer top notch customer servie and warrantys. The choice is no longer just the mainstream Pc world, comet etc.

 

You can still have fun and maybe make a slim bit of prifit but i doubt you would make much if anything now tbh. Do you really want the hassle of people coming back to you when some peice of hardware goes kaput and start arguing about who is responsible for the repairs?

[geoff-r]

There must be more money in repairs, just my opinion.

[Michael robinson]

My mate has his own company . It started off as abit of a side earner for uni and ended up his business, he builds computer but also airbrushes anything you want on it . He has a range or thing other than computers that he offers so he isn't a one trick pony so to speak .

This is his web site check it out

http://www.rbcustoms.co.uk/Index.html

[Chris`I]

But the main reason I stopped was that there was no money to be made in it. Most people will run to Dell or one of the big names. When I last looked, Dell was knocking out desktops incl windows for a fraction of the price I could build a similar spec one for by buying bits from ebuyer. If I wanted a more specialist pc then there were hundreds of little computer shops in town. You could even buy ready made gaming pc`s from websites like overclockers.

This. I used to build PCs but you spend all your time doing their support and also you can get much better spec'd PCs from people like Dell with onsite warranties for a lot less now.

 

The money in IT is in consulting. Anyone who has been one or knows one will know this Builders, developers, support all get paid pish unless you do something niche which you can then charge more money for.

[rabbitstew]

 

The money in IT is in consulting. Anyone who has been one or knows one will know this Builders, developers, support all get paid pish unless you do something niche which you can then charge more money for.

 

It doesnt help that a few years back every man and his dog jumped on the IT band wagon. Ive been in IT all my life, started programming when I was 10 on a BBC Micro. What I noticed is that a few years back every one started saying "theres money in IT", there were adverts in all the papers "get a high paid job in IT" and you had plumbers and bricklayers all doing IT courses and walking into IT jobs. The result of that was that the more experienced IT guys were made redundant and then were faced with cheaper competition when trying to get another job.

 

Of course, when the IT recession hit, and loads of people were laid off, those plumbers / bricklayers went back to their original jobs and continued earning loads of cash. But us IT guys struggled to find another job and if we did the salaries were less than you`d get doing plumbing or bricklaying.

 

As an employer what I am seeing with the programming jobs is that a lot of companies will go for the cheapest option. For example, my company employed a developer a few months back who is from India. He is more than happy to work every hour in the day for basically minimum wage. I fail to see how the guy can survive, but he told me that he shares a 2 bedroom house with 8 other guys and so his outgoings are quite low. Compare that with some of our other developers who we have to pay good money too and I can see why my company went for this new guy.

[DoogyRev]

There must be more money in repairs, just my opinion.

 

+1 ....... as long as you know a whole lot more than the numpties behind the desk at.......... er.... where in the world...... er.....nope its gone

 

I guy I know now has a little PC repair shop..... he's making a mint from it. But I think he has had to work hard to get the contacts and prices for components...... especially laptops (specific screens and the like)

[BulletMagnet]

Unless you can build and provide support for stuff like this, then I'd say no

 

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1036

[Chris`I]

As an employer what I am seeing with the programming jobs is that a lot of companies will go for the cheapest option. For example, my company employed a developer a few months back who is from India. He is more than happy to work every hour in the day for basically minimum wage. I fail to see how the guy can survive, but he told me that he shares a 2 bedroom house with 8 other guys and so his outgoings are quite low. Compare that with some of our other developers who we have to pay good money too and I can see why my company went for this new guy.

Dont get me started with off shore resources and guys from overseas. There are a few that are geniunely very good, but 99% are just crap. But the bean counters just see that they are cheap and they can get 10x over there for the same as my day rate. However they chrun out @*!# and I'm left to sort it all out, costing them far more than if they'd just had a few onshore guys do it. Fortunately I now work in a fully onshore team so dont have any of this crap.

[maz0]

I used to manage a PC building workshop, and even with our buying power of £30,000 worth of hardware orders a fortnight, we still were not buying enough to give us a great profit on hardware.

 

To beat the big guys you would need to be ordering literally thousands of components at the one time, which would cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds.

 

The money was mostly made with the warranty. But even that was a headache as people with a computer warranty will be on the phone 24/7 moaning about the computer running slow, or a pop-up thing, or a slight buzzing noise, blah blah.

 

The whole ordeal was a sore head and the pc supply side of the business barely made a penny. The company only survived because it got paid to train individuals in using the PC which was golden.

 

Not to discourage you, or anything!

 

Maybe you could try and add a unique approach to your idea. Making custom built PC's with a visual design aspect. Then your charging people for the same old hardware but an artistic theme. More or less what Apple do

[Railgun]

I've built my last 3 PC's pal, though for me It's been kind of like some of the guys modding their cars. It can become something of an obsession. It does work out cheaper if yer willing to put a few hours into it, and you do get exactly what your after. With the larger companies like Novatech and overclockers offering pretty good deals on budget pc's right through to gaming rigs, I'd say they had a good chunk of the custom pc market. BUT!! If you check out their website design for their ' custom' PC's, its all drop down menus for each component, ie, whatever components they supply. Perhaps the independent guy can provide something a bit more ' bespoke'!!

If It's a hobby for you, and you enjoy doing it, give it a bash as a sideline and see how you get on. Good luck!

[Peter10]

Whilst I am far from a PC building expert, I have built several over the years. I am quite into recording music, games, high definition video etc and I am a self confessed gadget freak. My last PC which I built myself cost me ~£1000 to build, it was at the time a very high spec computer. When looking around to build a new one, I found it was actually cheaper to have it built for me. That said, the arse has fallen out of the custom PC building market. There is probably ONE good company left (which is the one I use). Mesh computers has gone into administration as did Vadium, Commodore's new adventure into custom PC's and a lot of others.

 

There are people out there who still want custom PC's (hell I'm one of them), the issue is that some the profit margins aren't huge unless you buy so many parts at once from suppliers to save money. PC Specialist is probably the best company in the UK now. I have bought two from them (got one for my dad also recently). Their level of customer service is very good (which is why Mesh failed) and their prices are actually better than sourcing components yourself (which never used got be like that).

 

My new PC is a toy really. I bought it with the intention to upgrade it when I want to. It has some pretty high end stuff (which is already out of date). One thing I do like are SSD's... booting a PC up in about 10-20 seconds is quite good when you're in a rush to do something.

 

The one thing custom companies have over 99% of commercial companies like Dell, Hewlett Packard etc is knowledge. Almost all computers in PC World, Comet and Currys are terrible. They are slow, ineffective, poorly made and outdated. Unfortunately, these companies prey on those who don't know a great deal about computers and sell people junk. My dad went there a while back and asked for a computer that he could use his full HD camera & his DSLR camera on for editing. They sold him a computer without any HD graphics capability and a monitor which couldn't handle full HD even if the PC could. I didn't even let him unbox it and took it back. They still tried to say it was capable of full 1080p work... If more people were wise of their sales tactics and the state of what they are selling, I think custom PC companies would flourish more.

[HassanZ]

Thanks guys, all of your input has been very beneficial and has given me a greater insight into what I'm getting myself into Everything said makes great sense! I really appreciate you all taking the time out to share your knowledge and experiences.

 

I am actually falling asleep at my keyboard whilst I'm typing this but I will reply to your posts tomorrow when I have some energy!

 

[geoff-r]

There must be more money in repairs, just my opinion.

 

+1 ....... as long as you know a whole lot more than the numpties behind the desk at.......... er.... where in the world...... er.....nope its gone

 

I guy I know now has a little PC repair shop..... he's making a mint from it. But I think he has had to work hard to get the contacts and prices for components...... especially laptops (specific screens and the like)

 

I have a mate, ironically a 350 driver as well, who runs a support/repair business. He used to work maintaining an IT infrastructure in a school but complained the money and work was not good enough. He built up some contacts and now works for himself and earns well enough. Agreed you must have the contacts and know machines and operating systems inside out!

[JetSet]

I've built 100 or so custom machines since 2003 but only 2 in the last 18 months and maybe 10 since 2006. My profit margin on each machine was £20-£30 but I wasn't really doing it for the money, just enjoyed the satisfaction of building them TBH. The market for them has now dried up as most people go for laptops and the high end gamers have switched to dedicated gaming machines. Some of the machines I built from 2003-2005 were actually given back to me . Cheaper just to buy a custom made one from E-Bay than build it yourself these days.

 

 

Pete

[rabbitstew]

There is a lot of satisfaction to be had in building your own pc, and you get it the spec you want. I built my last one about 2 years back now. A nice media pc with a case which looked just like a hi-fi seperate. 2 2tb hard drives, dual processors, 4gb ram. The graphics card alone cost me more than a ps3 would. But, even now, its awesome playing games fully maxed out on settings. I plug it straight into my telly via hdmi and audio is streamed into my 7.1 surround system, so I can stream HD movies straight from the media pc. Total cost, I think was something around about 1200quid.

 

But, for that cash, really I could have just bought a ps3 and used that!

[BulletMagnet]

There is a lot of satisfaction to be had in building your own pc,

 

+1

 

Built this a couple years ago, since updated with fill lines and different GFX card

 

[planetsurfer2]

No money to be made in PC hardware anymore. All the big boys have pulled out of the PC market simple due to there being very slim operating margins.

If IBM and HP with their buying power can't make a profit (If you buy CPUs/Memory/Disks/Boxes by the 100000, you get a bit of discount) I suspect you might struggle a bit. I think the day of the PC is over. Most laptops have more than enough power/memory/disk space for the vast majority of punters.

Power users will still use them, but I think this will be a dwindling market. ( Don't know many people that need a serious number cruncher in the house )

Obviously the NAS/Storage boxes will get bigger. But there no money in building them either

(This is written by a grumpy f***** who's been doing this rubbish since the days of the Commodore Pet 2001 1978 )

[sasha@lazytrips]

I've built my own PC as well and most of what was said above is true...

 

BUT. Given the situation and all the information that people have provided, you could try and adapt to the world around you and think how best to make use of your skills & knowledge instead of a simple go/no go decision.

 

What if instead, you offered a Computer rebuild/upgrade/refresh service. Instead of selling people the full package as per almost all shops, you'll find almost everybody already has a screen which is usually good enough for their purposes, ditto with the keyboard, mouse, speakers. Very often the box & power supply are only 2 years old as well as various cables. Often the RAM sticks and even the motherboard can be reused in the right circumstances. I would reckon if you offer a personalised approach and work to significantly improve customers' existing computers at a fraction of the cost of buying a new one, you would likely be able to have a much larger mark-up for the service, thought & work. In the end everyone's a winner.