How much should I charge for building a PC for somebody?

Honestly, it's going to be very tough. There's not a repeated customer base (at least not if you do it properly), at least not a frequent repeat customer base. You need to factor in marketing & time also - where would you advertise, how often?

You'd want a minimum amount per hour etc of your time (what that needs to be will vary depending on the person & the location etc) $5 an hour may work for you, for others, probably not.

You're likely fighting a losing battle, as most companies offering building services obtain their components for wholesale cost. Without being a business, or having the relevant contacts, you'd be paying full retail for the components & then having to charge a fee/percentage on top.

How long do you expect the average build to take? If you're experienced, you can likely build it in well under an hour - but what are you offering an OS install? Driver install (even the OS install) can vary dramatcially depending on the quality of the setup.

What other "value add" are you planning to offer? Commonly used programs installed? Ongoing service/maintenance? Warranty? How about shipping? Even the added time likely doubles that original hour to 2 hours.

It's tough to stand out from the crowd - it's near impossible to stand out from the crowd, while offering something cost effective to your customers.

A markup of 10% on a $500 build nets you $50...........which is $25 an hour. Even less if you're offering warranty/service included @ no cost.............. if you're offering shipping, that's likely going to cost more than $50 anyway - so negating any profit for you.

Compare than to a company who can purchase at bulk/wholesale etc, so the $500 build for you, is likely only $350 for them (as an example).

All else being equal, they can charge $450 and still make a small profit (without addressing warranty, shipping, service etc) whereas to compete, you'd need to better that price. You'd be losing $50+ per build to compete on price.

My advice...........find a niche market. Find something you can do that is not readily available, that's the only way you'd stand a chance.

Good luck to you.

At $550 incl OS ($400 of parts at retail), convince me why I should pay you instead of BestBuy/Amazon/Walmart?

I could write a long list of why not.
But if I were a regular person, convince me...

OP, USAFRet makes a great point.

While I assume $500 (including OS) was an example, if that truly is the pricepoint you have a lot of convincing to do to a potential customer for them to part with their cash to you, than to Walmart etc.

There's a tough line. Anything in the <$700 range, you're targeting the same people who would normally buy from a 'big box' store and it's near impossible to compete with them (on price/warranty alone). >$700, you're then targeting people who really should be looking at building their own....... even if you find the people who want a substantial setup and don't want to build their own, there are numerous companies (iBuyPower*, CyberPower* et al) who offer what you're intended to do, while utilizing bulk pricing, OEM volume licensing & provide a warranty etc.

*Not that I'd suggest anyone uses any of those companies, but people do - and that's who you're trying to compete with.

While I agree 100% that there tends to be lower quality components.......... those components exist to meet a pricepoint.

Anybody whos looking for a $500 PC (as an example) wants the finished article for as cheap as possible.
You might be able to talk the occasional person into using quality components, but most will pass.

The benefit (to the consumer) of those cheap component rigs from, say Walmart is price first & foremost.
Beyond that, they're also backed with a return policy and a warranty (usually from the manufacturer of the completed system).

So not only would you be a more expensive option for most customers, you also can't provide the same level of warranty in the event something goes wrong. A defective component has to be RMA'd to the manufacturer..........are you prepared to foot the bill for a customer to get a replacement while you wait the X number of weeks for an RMA'd replacement?

There's lots of considerations. Locally, I can find 20+ individuals offering exactly what you're offering. Now, I can do whatever I need (and if I can't, I can find out how to)....... but assume I can't.

How would you persuade me to buy from you, over anybody else offering the same service(s)? Or simply buying from a Walmart or BestBuy etc where I would be entitled to a return policy & warranty?

I've considered doing something similar a few times. Other than for the odd friend here & there, it's not worthwhile overall.

Not trying to be a jerk, just playing devil's advocate here.

I know that, and you know that, and just about everyone reading this knows that.
However...

'Upgrade'? People in the market for a $500 PC will not upgrade, ever. Maybe buy a new mouse. 3 years from now, when it dies, they simply buy a new one.
Customize? The difference between a 280 and 290 GPU is what exactly? You're talking greek.
Warranty? Can I call you at 2AM?

At $50 for your labor, break it down:

1.5 hours for Selecting, ordering, accepting delivery, unboxing
2 hours assembly
1 hour testing and setup
1 hour delivery to the customer
mumblemumble taxes etc

5.5 hours min.
For $50, that is $9/hour. You can do that working at McDonalds.

We'd all love it to be different. But it is near impossible for you and I to compete with the billion dollar companies.
Especially at the low end, AND you have to include that $100 OS. That kills the deal.

1 final question:
Do I give you the $500 (or $2,000!) first, and then get a PC in a week or 2?
Or is this COD?

Can you? To be sustainable, you'd need to be putting some money from every sale into a 'pot' to deal with warranty issues.

If you build a $1,000 system tomorrow, include a ~$350-$400 GPU in the build. Let's say you charge a $100 fee for building.

That GPU fails on day #2 and you haven't made any additional money (from this 'business') in those 2 days.... You're down $250-$300 right away. You replace the GPU and RMA it....... you don't get the card back for say 4 weeks. Worst case, the GPU manufacturer fixes the card & sends it back = you're now $250-$300 down, and you have a used/refurbished card. You take a $100 hit on the list price for a new card, just to sell it.

You lose your $100 profit margin by having to take a hit on the GPU as it's no longer 'new', and you had to wait X number of weeks just to get back to $0.

What would happen if something else failed in the meantime? Rinse & repeat.


Sure, cheap laptops & desktops from Walmart are nothing special. They're slow, full of bloatware etc.......... but that's all the average user needs (although I think we all need a little less bloatware).



Then there's this point ^^

Who wants to give someone $2,000 without an instant payoff (after all, they don't know you or have any reason to trust you).

Can you afford to fork out the $1,500 in the meantime, with a $500 downpayment?

If you don't have th ecash upfront (which will be tough to get anyway), what safeguards would you have in place for a no-show buyer? You're no longer selling a 'custom' PC if you have to turn around & sell it to someone else. You end up taking a loss there too.

We get what you are saying.
But so far, I have not seen anything that would convince me to trust you, Mr. Andrew Neal, to give you several hundred dollars in return for a PC that, to the untrained eye, is no better (and more expensive) than what I can pick up this afternoon at Walmart.

What WOULD be a way to make money in this enterprise?
Service. Local service.
Fix your friends PC. Fix his brothers PC. Based on that recommendation, fix his boss's home PC.
Then, recommend some small changes to the boss's LAN at his small business.
Then...he will talk to his other small business friends - "I know a guy"

Build some local cred.
Be 'that guy'.

No, I wouldn't be surprised. I've built them.
I own them.

Honestly, no - I wouldn't be surprised at the builds available in the $500 range, we see them here daily. I've built a couple.

Pick any at random, and you can't compete with the ones sold by BestBuy, Walmart etc - what corners would you need to cut to do so? The same corners being cut already, and they can do it for much less.

As for a ~$200 office computer - it simply cannot be done, at least not while maintaining your other 'selling features' of upgradeability etc. In the $200 range, you're using the bottom of the barrel motherboards, cheap, junk or 'included' PSUs that come with a case, older tech, dual core CPUs, minimal RAM etc.......... all things that a multi-national company can do cheaper with collective bargaining agreements, OEM volume licensing and sometimes even their own overseas factories etc.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a dual-core, 4GB RAM and a 210, but you can't provide that & claim upgradeability.

For example, look at this Walmart listing I found by selecting 'new' and ordering low>high.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Pavilion-550-153wb-Desktop-PC-with-Intel-Core-i3-4170-Dual-Core-Processor-6GB-Memory-23-Monitor-1TB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-10-Home/46429968

How do you compete with that? Other than something like this:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($16.69 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Hitachi 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.75 @ Amazon)
Case: Apex SK-386 ATX Mid Tower Case w/300W Power Supply ($32.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($84.88 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $374.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-21 17:41 EDT-0400

Could you even sell that in good faith, including a junk PSU?

Then, there's no monitor. Most people would like a 'new, fancy' monitor to go with their long overdue new desktop.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($16.69 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Hitachi 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.75 @ Amazon)
Case: Apex SK-386 ATX Mid Tower Case w/300W Power Supply ($32.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($84.88 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Acer G236HLBbd 23.0" 60Hz Monitor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $474.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-21 17:44 EDT-0400

So now there's less than $25 between you and them (less if you don't factor in the rebates). Does that leave any money on the table for you to make a profit?

Even say you could offer it for $475 somehow. That $25 difference is going to be worth it to most people for a (usual) 12 month warranty vs your 30 days.

Although pre-builts do tend to use some junk components.......... I'd actually prefer the HP OEM PSU over the one included with that case. The desktop is smaller, looks better than the Apex case etc etc.

Do you want to do it as a side job? Or your main job?

$25 is all you're likely to achieve from a 'budget't build, absolutely. But the question is, if the build is $475, and you need to make $25 to make it worth your while (debatable)..... why would a "cheapo" buy from you opposed to Walmart et al?

Your 'warranty' idea is a little flawed. Cover your human error within a specified time, absolutely. But don't get involved in components. Either you have to be prepared to replace (out of pocket) a defective component, or you distance yourself fully from the components. It's a slippery slope.

Think about it...
You'd replace a (say) $10 wifi adapter? Seems fine, right? No big deal.
What about a $20 HDD? Still pretty cheap.
A $30 CPU cooler? Still pretty cheap, if you'll cover $20, $30 isn't too much of a stretch.
What about a $40 RAM kit?
What about a $75 CPU (in a budget build?)
$100 motherboard/GPU?

See where I'm going with that?

While the manufacturer's warranty should replace any defects, there's downtime. Something you don't necessarily have from a 'big box' store. A retailers warranty in a lot of situations would replace the product entirely in the event there is a defect, and they would handle it with the manufacturer.

Your proposal would see your customer without their product for X number of weeks while an RMA is completed.....
And at no point did you save them any money. That's a tough sell.

Sure, the higher end builds would net you more money. They'd also be to buyers who may appreciate the RMA aspect a little mor.e................. but the majority of people in that space, can/would build their own.