Cost for building computers?

[RushFan]

I've started selling PCs and I'm going for around £50 extra for my time. Is this too much or too little?

[minibois]

Seems like a fair price for the customer.

But if it's a good price for you, depends on what kind of after-sales support you deliver (are repair under part warranty for free for example? Also depends on how much time you spend building a PC too. Depends on at what price you get your components. If it's retail pricing or volume pricing for example.

[Eigenvektor]

Maybe have a look at some local online shops that offer such services and see what their asking price is? Both Alternate and Mindfactory are asking 150€ for an assembled/tested custom system to be shipped. Mindfactory is asking 35€ simply to ensure mainboards have a current BIOS before shipping.

[RushFan]

14 minutes ago, minibois said:

Seems like a fair price for the customer.

But if it's a good price for you, depends on what kind of after-sales support you deliver (are repair under part warranty for free for example? Also depends on how much time you spend building a PC too. Depends on at what price you get your components. If it's retail pricing or volume pricing for example.

I'll give them any tech support they need after they get the PC for as long as they have it, and I'd only charge for parts if the repairs weren't because of anything that's the user's fault. I usually spend around an hour building the PC, and a couple hours setting up windows and installing all the drivers and any programs they said they'd want

[RushFan]

9 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Maybe have a look at some local online shops that offer such services and see what their asking price is? Both Alternate and Mindfactory are asking 150€ for an assembled/tested custom system to be shipped. Mindfactory is asking 35€ simply to ensure mainboards have a current BIOS before shipping.

They charge that much?! And 35 just for a current BIOS.... wow

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, RushFan said:

They charge that much?! And 35 just for a current BIOS.... wow

Yep I'm certainly glad I can assembly my own PCs. They do install the OS and perform some "rigorous tests", whatever that means, but apparently they don't install drivers for additional components like mouse and keyboard I'm assuming this is a basic Windows image and some pre-defined benchmarks.

[dizmo]

Depends how long it takes you to build the PC, and what you value your time at. If you're taking about half an hour, then yeah, that's probably about right.

EDIT: I see you have your times below. A couple hours installing Windows and programs? That seems...excessive.

 

13 minutes ago, RushFan said:

I'll give them any tech support they need after they get the PC for as long as they have it, and I'd only charge for parts if the repairs weren't because of anything that's the user's fault. I usually spend around an hour building the PC, and a couple hours setting up windows and installing all the drivers and any programs they said they'd want

For as long as they have it?
You're likely going to lose money there.

12 minutes ago, RushFan said:

They charge that much?! And 35 just for a current BIOS.... wow

Makes sense. Having to take it out of the box, set it up on a test bench, check the BIOS, and tear it all back down? That's a lot of work.

[Kilrah]

1 hour ago, RushFan said:

I'll give them any tech support they need after they get the PC for as long as they have it,

So in one year you won't be manufacturing PCs anymore, you'll be spending 100% of your time helping existing customers for free.

 

About the price, professional services seem to be billed around £75 an hour in the UK, that gives you a ballpark to start from.

£50 is about what shops here will ask to just set up Windows and install Office and antivirus (i.e. click next 20 times) on a prebuilt they sold you.

[RushFan]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Depends how long it takes you to build the PC, and what you value your time at. If you're taking about half an hour, then yeah, that's probably about right.

EDIT: I see you have your times below. A couple hours installing Windows and programs? That seems...excessive.

 

For as long as they have it?
You're likely going to lose money there.

Makes sense. Having to take it out of the box, set it up on a test bench, check the BIOS, and tear it all back down? That's a lot of work.

Nah I usually just text them about it and get them to do it with my help, cause if they learn they need me less

[RushFan]

15 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

So in one year you won't be manufacturing PCs anymore, you'll be spending 100% of your time helping existing customers for free.

 

About the price, professional services seem to be billed around £75 an hour in the UK, that gives you a ballpark to start from.

£50 is about what shops here will ask to just set up Windows and install Office and antivirus (i.e. click next 20 times) on a prebuilt they sold you.

don't sell that many haha, like one every few months. It's just to friends

[RushFan]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Depends how long it takes you to build the PC, and what you value your time at. If you're taking about half an hour, then yeah, that's probably about right.

EDIT: I see you have your times below. A couple hours installing Windows and programs? That seems...excessive.

 

For as long as they have it?
You're likely going to lose money there.

Makes sense. Having to take it out of the box, set it up on a test bench, check the BIOS, and tear it all back down? That's a lot of work.

No, you update the bios once the PC is built

[RushFan]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Depends how long it takes you to build the PC, and what you value your time at. If you're taking about half an hour, then yeah, that's probably about right.

EDIT: I see you have your times below. A couple hours installing Windows and programs? That seems...excessive.

 

For as long as they have it?
You're likely going to lose money there.

Makes sense. Having to take it out of the box, set it up on a test bench, check the BIOS, and tear it all back down? That's a lot of work.

Also I'm including the time windows takes to install there

[EchoBlue]

7 hours ago, RushFan said:

I've started selling PCs and I'm going for around £50 extra for my time. Is this too much or too little?

I think that is too little. In fact it is a huge deal for buyers. I would raise it up to 100

[RushFan]

13 minutes ago, EchoBlue said:

I think that is too little. In fact it is a huge deal for buyers. I would raise it up to 100

Really? Why would it be a big thing for a buyer?

[EchoBlue]

15 minutes ago, RushFan said:

Really? Why would it be a big thing for a buyer?

It's too cheap. But if you are just starting out then I guess 50 is fair. Do a great job all around it.

[RushFan]

Just now, EchoBlue said:

It's too cheap. But if you are just starting out then I guess 50 is fair. Do a great job all around it.

So maybe £75?

[EchoBlue]

Just now, RushFan said:

So maybe £75?

100. But totally up to you. Maybe charge it based on the total cost of the PC? 

[RushFan]

1 minute ago, EchoBlue said:

100. But totally up to you. Maybe charge it based on the total cost of the PC? 

I've been sorta doing that recently but I wasn't too sure what kinda percentage would be good. Is +10% decent?

[EchoBlue]

20 minutes ago, RushFan said:

I've been sorta doing that recently but I wasn't too sure what kinda percentage would be good. Is +10% decent?

No more than 100. Make it worth it.

[mr mans]

Frankly I would consider that price quite low. Unlimited pre-sale support at that price is not something I would recommend. It's easy to forget being in an enthusiast forum but most people out there haven't got a clue and they will contact you about everything unrelated to the system. Fortnite is crashing? Must be this Pc I bought!

 

I know this from experience so I would recommend greatly increasing that cost if you're doing this as a business. If you are just selling to friends and such then that's probably a fair price.