Building cheaper than buying generic ?

[Morvak]

Hello! This is not a troll spam thread (check my profile) and i'm not
here to advertise (see link below).

I've installed hard drives, memory, flashed bios', etc. just never
bought everything from scratch to build myself (power supply, mb,
cables, etc etc)

2 questions:

1. Is it cheaper to buy all the components separately and build the PC
yourself compared to buying a PC from, say, www.cyberpowerpc.com ?
(which is where i bought my last pc 5 years ago and for 2 friends as
well, seems cheap enough!)

2. Is it profitable to build a PC and then sell say, to a friend or
you know, advertise in craigs list or something ? could you make like
a couple hundred bucks ?

thanks!

Paul

 

[philo]

Hello! This is not a troll spam thread (check my profile) and i'm not
here to advertise (see link below).

I've installed hard drives, memory, flashed bios', etc. just never
bought everything from scratch to build myself (power supply, mb,
cables, etc etc)

2 questions:

1. Is it cheaper to buy all the components separately and build the PC
yourself compared to buying a PC from, say, www.cyberpowerpc.com ?
(which is where i bought my last pc 5 years ago and for 2 friends as
well, seems cheap enough!)

2. Is it profitable to build a PC and then sell say, to a friend or
you know, advertise in craigs list or something ? could you make like
a couple hundred bucks ?

Though I build most of my own machines from discarded parts...
I built quite a high end machine for my GF a bit over a year ago...
Though I had a few of the parts...most of them I did have to buy.

It was well worth it as the machine is better and cheaper than
what was commercially avail at the time...
However it's difficult to build machines for friends
and actually make any money

As far as Craig's list goes...
quite difficult to make any moeny there too

 

[FKS]

1. Is it cheaper to buy all the components separately and build the PC
yourself compared to buying a PC from, say, www.cyberpowerpc.com ?
(which is where i bought my last pc 5 years ago and for 2 friends as
well, seems cheap enough!)

I build PCs not to save $$ but to get exactly what I want. If you want to
save $$, buy a Dell.

2. Is it profitable to build a PC and then sell say, to a friend or
you know, advertise in craigs list or something ? could you make like
a couple hundred bucks ?

Not a smart move, IMO. You could make a couple hundred bucks but would end
up regretting it because you would have to support the buyers.

 

[ropeyarn]

Hello! This is not a troll spam thread (check my profile) and i'm not
here to advertise (see link below).

I've installed hard drives, memory, flashed bios', etc. just never
bought everything from scratch to build myself (power supply, mb,
cables, etc etc)

2 questions:

1. Is it cheaper to buy all the components separately and build the PC
yourself compared to buying a PC from, say, www.cyberpowerpc.com ?
(which is where i bought my last pc 5 years ago and for 2 friends as
well, seems cheap enough!)

2. Is it profitable to build a PC and then sell say, to a friend or
you know, advertise in craigs list or something ? could you make like
a couple hundred bucks ?

thanks!

Paul

Here is my rule of thumb for build vs. buy:

If you purchase the way you build, with choices from the vendor that
reflect your user needs, the price is going to be toss up. Maybe with a
rebate or about-to-be-discontinued model you can save some on a bought
machine, and maybe by doing some smart bargain shopping you can build
slightly cheaper.

But: when you build your own, you end up with a machine that is free of
both proprietary parts and software that you don't need. And presumably,
you've invested in those things that are important to you and maybe
selected smartly to leave room for expansion or future upgrades.

As for making money as a shadetree builder. Forget about it. The profit
margins on PCs are measured in the tens of dollars, not hundreds. The
big boys have such purchasing power that you can't build cheaper than
they can. And there's the question of how much (if any) post-delivery
support you are going be able and willing to supply your customers. I'll
build for close friends and family on request (and with the
understanding that after it boots successfully the first time...it's all
theirs!).

 

[John Doe]

1. Is it cheaper to buy all the components separately and build
the PC yourself compared to buying a PC

No. An Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) like Dell or
Hewlett-Packard gets parts in huge quantities for very little per
part compared to what we can buy them for one at a time. And the
manufacturing plus software installation process is automated.

2. Is it profitable to build a PC and then sell

Considering your competition, No. That might also depend on how much
your clients are willing to pay for high-quality technical help,
instead of chatting with scripted help bots from India and the
Philippines. Then again, you have to know what you're doing.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[Will]

Personally I find it cheaper with the following provisions

1) You are planning to go high end, with the lower end machines you
will lose any profit with the cheaper prices the major makers get.
2) If you are reusing parts. case, drives,etc

If you go beyond that you are probably better off purchasing a full
system.

Excluding installing the fan to the CPU and few other things like that
you have already done most of the stuff that would be required in
building your own machine. Once you get the parts in, have a
screwdriver available and a work area the building of the machine will
take around 1 hour. The pain and time comes with installing the
software and then seeing how much extra speed you can get with
overclocking and what the system is stable with.

 

[Frank]

The only thing I can add to what's already been said is that if you
liked upgrading your pc, you'll really like building one. You'll like
choosing the components, testing them and putting them together. And,
you'll find lots of help if you need it, here and elsewhere, like the
forums on hardwareguys.com and silentpcreview.com Good luck and
enjoy.
Frank

 

[Mike T.]

2 questions:

1. Is it cheaper to buy all the components separately and build the PC
yourself compared to buying a PC from, say, www.cyberpowerpc.com ?
(which is where i bought my last pc 5 years ago and for 2 friends as
well, seems cheap enough!)

2. Is it profitable to build a PC and then sell say, to a friend or
you know, advertise in craigs list or something ? could you make like
a couple hundred bucks ?

thanks!

Paul

1) No. The reason to build yourself is to spend JUST AS MUCH (or sometimes
slightly more) money on a better system. Pre-builts always cut corners,
somewhere. If they Do NOT cut corners, then they tend to be about as
expensive as you'd pay if you built it yourself, with the same components.
The only way to save money is to buy pre-built, but if you go that route,
you WILL get what you pay for. In other words, you might spend a couple
hundred bucks less for a system that is worth a couple hundred bucks less.

2) Anything's possible on ebay. I've seens some really crappy, no-value
computer systems with valid bids on ebay that greatly exceed (by several
hundred dollars) the sum of (their total hardware parts plus OS, purchased
retail). Computer hardware is something that (unfortunately) most consumers
are not very smart about, when it comes to shopping. It's easy to fool most
people into thinking that they are buying a brand mercedes when you are
selling them a kia with a salvage title. Not that I, personally, would ever
do that.

Building OR buying, the best advice I could give is to post all SPECIFIC
components (mainboard, ram, hard drive, cpu, video card, optical drive, PSU,
etc.) in this ng and quote a price for the total system and ask for
opinions. You will get lots of opinions, most of them pretty good advice.
While I disagree (vehemently) with some posters here, most posters here
really seem to have SOMEWHAT of a clue, and will at least offer you decent
advice. -Dave