Why Choose a Custom Built Computer? - The Glory of Customisation [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

Why Choose a Custom Built Computer? - The Glory of Customisation [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

Question by liveAndLearn: how to market custom built computers? what are the most effective ways in order to sell custom built computers? I am thinking about starting to custom build computers and I want to sell to a wide base of customers because the little town I live in. I am an it technician and I fix computers in my small biz. I am thinking about building a website and sell online, if any one has taken that path before how is it? sorry for the bad grammar. and thank you in advance. Best answer for how to market custom built computers?:

Answer by dfw2442
This is a great article on the subject. Sorry the links didn't copy. Building a PC is one thing, but selling is another thing entirely. Over the years I have seen many try to sell PCs. And very few of them ever make a decent profit. This is because there are several things going against the local PC builder. 1. You can’t compete with Dell. Dell is known, huge, has a huge advertising budget and moreover can sell PCs far cheaper than you can. The reason they can do this is because they buy in bulk. 2. You can’t turn a profit unless you sell at least 25 low-end PCs. The way to make money like Dell does is to do the same thing. Buy in bulk. BUT.. you still can’t get the parts as cheap as Dell can. It is extremely difficult to buy parts to build 25 computers (the minimum to get a good bulk price), sell the completed units for as low as Dell does and turn a tidy profit. At best you’ll only get back 15% over what you spent to build all those units - and that’s being generous. 3. Selling used doesn’t work unless you’re selling laptops. Laptops command a decent price. PCs do not and never have. But to get the laptops to sell, you’ll have to pay more for them then have to sell them at a higher price, therefore making them harder to sell. Is there any way to make a decent profit with PC building? Yes, but it requires a complete rethink and larger startup cost on your part. First, what you need to do is purposely sell high-grade machines that sell at premium prices. You can’t beat Dell with low-grade, so high-grade is where you need to go. Don’t even bother going low. Second, you need to target kids as your market. Specifically, kids with wealthy parents. They are the ones who beg and plead mommy and daddy for high-end worthless PC boxes. Third, you need to be visible in a way that’s flashy and shiny. Doing this puts “wow” factor in your computers and sells them better. Fourth, optionally you need a flashy well-programmed well-designed web site. If your web site looks like crap, nobody is going to buy your high-end machines from you if you’re web site looks cheap. And here’s how we do this: The case Must be black and have decorative lighting on it, like this one. The keyboard Must be black and have something on it that looks “cool”. The easiest way to do this is to have a Microsoft keyboard that’s curvy, like this one. The mouse Must be black (can you see a trend here?) and have something that lights up every time you move it. Again, make it Microsoft for the “cool” factor, like this one. The operating system Must be Windows Vista Home Premium or better. No Linux. The guts of the PC box Quad-core CPU, 500GB HDD, 4GB RAM, 512MB video card. It doesn’t matter what manufacturer made the parts. How to display the PC? The best possible way to show off a “cool” PC is to show it doing something. And the best way to do that is with a video game on a large screen. Grab a game like Crysis, Half-Life 2 or other type of game, load it in and run it when displaying it. This puts tons of “wow” factor into your PC box. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have it being displayed thru a large 32-inch LCD television. That really works well - even though you’re not selling the box with a monitor. Where to display the PC for sale? Flea market. Rent a booth (cheap), run the box there. Outfit your booth to look as professional as possible. If kids come up and start playing the game, let them play, but keep their food and drinks away from the PC for obvious reasons. How to display you Clean-looking with a black polo-style shirt with your company logo on it. This makes you look like the real deal instead of just another fly-by-night cheapo PC builder. Should you have floor models ready to sell? Not required. You can go there with just one computer and take orders to have the others built. But it is better if you have boxes ready to sell there. How much can you sell the boxes for? With the flashy case and the other parts mentioned above, you can probably get away with selling for $ 1200 or more. Should you list the price or the specs on the box? NO. The only sign that should be on the box is “Like this computer? Want it? Ask me for more information.” And the people will ask. How often should you do the flea market thing? In Florida these are held every weekend all year round. You should go at least once a week. The initial goal is to make at least $ 300 monthly. And each time you make cash, put it back into the biz, recover your costs and build a better booth display and not better PCs. The bigger and flashier you are, the more kids will beg their parents to buy your computers. And yes, that’s the way to do it. Cut the small change crap and go for the big guns.

Answer by Karan S
Its really necessary to know what place you are in. As you said your town is small and your current business is small, there is no need for a website hosting other than for advertising purposes. Website is used when your client or vendor database is the world. You don't have that(its what i am assuming), you are just starting your business. There is no need to even open a shop if you don't have sufficient funds or even if you have them. You can just try out a few months without the shop see how business is then opt for it. Saves you the initial investment on your business. Start slow and then pick up the pace if you see the scope in it. May you succeed. I too am an IT technician

[custom built computers]

One problem with store-bought, off-the-shelf computers is they are well-rounded, average machines built for general use. That may not seem like a problem, and for people just needing a small home office, it isn't. But for people using their computers for very specific purposes, store-bought general use computers are often just not good enough. When you buy a custom built computer, on the other hand, you can carefully pick out the best hardware and software for your specific purpose. You'll end up with a computer better suited to your needs, and often cheaper than a store-bought PC. Here's some examples of people with special hardware needs:

The Gamer. New video games constantly push the limits of what PCs can handle. Buying a store-bought PC fast enough to run the newest games basically means having to buy the most powerful and expensive one available. Consequently, lots of hard-core video gamers have custom-built computers designed to run games at optimal efficiency (and often at a cheaper price tag).

Gamers love speed. They seek out motherboards with fast system buses and forward compatibility (upgrading the CPU and RAM as newer, faster models become available). They stuff that motherboard with the fastest processor they can find and all the memory they can squeeze into it. After that, a powerful video card with its own graphics processor is crucial to make full use of the game's realistic visual effects. Those are the essentials, but nice speakers and two big monitors never hurt.

The Laptop DJ. Mixing your own music is increasingly popular, and a custom-built computer designed for audio engineering will perform better than store-bought, general-use machines. Like gaming PCs, a fast motherboard with a powerful processor and lots of memory is a good starting place. If you're on a budget, give memory higher priority. Next, a high quality speaker system is essential. The dinky speakers bundled with store-b ought computers are inadequate for audio engineers, who need to hear subtle nuances in music on multiple tracks. At the very least, you'd want speaker systems with a subwoofer. At the other end of spectrum are high quality 5-point surround-sound speakers. Finally, to take full advantage of your awesome new speakers, you'll need a powerful audio card.

The Armchair Editor. If you plan to make movies on your PC, once again a custom-built computer gets you the most bang for your buck. Video editing and video game computers share a lot of hardware requirements, but with a different emphasis. If video gamers love speed, video editors love storage.

First of all, get a fast motherboard containing a powerful processor and all the memory you can, or your video rendering times will be only slightly faster than a turtle with arthritis. You don't need the most powerful video card on the market-go one step down instead. It will be a little less powerful and a lot less expensive. Finally... storage. Unrendered movie files are measured in gigabytes, not megabytes. Add to that the size of raw footage, and hard drive space becomes crucial. You'll want at least a 500 GB hard drive, especially when working on multiple video projects simultaneously. Finally, get a fast DVD-RW for burning your movies to disc.

Just three reasons why a custom built computer is superior, even necessary for some. Something to think about if you're planning a new purchase.

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