How much should I make building/selling a computer?

danpiz23

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May 4, 2010
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Hey guys, I am a computer and electrical engineer major. I built my computer AMD phenom II X4 3.0 GHz, G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB DDR3, 1TB hard drive, 600w power suppy, thermal take chasis. Anyway I have been fixing computers for co-workers for a while now. One of my co-workers wants a new computer and ask me to build it. They said they would pay whatever it cost. I told them it would be under $800.00.

They want
Quad Core
23" Monitor, Wireless mouse and keyboard
500gb hard drive.

Nothing else is specified. I went on newegg and I can build them a AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition 2.5GHz DDR2 computer with 500gb, 23" monitor, wireless mouse and keyboard for about 400$. What should I charge them??

What is a average amount someone should make for spending there time to build a computer?? I dont want to build a 700$ computer and sell it to them for 750$. Seems like a waste of time.

Anyone have any ideas???
 
Solution
Hi Dan, For that try this if you may -

CPU : $100 AMD Athlon II X4 640

Mobo : $55 ASUS M4N68T-M

RAM : $95 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)

HDD : $55 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3

ODD : $21 LG DVD Burner - Bulk LightScribe Support

PSU : $35 COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus 460 Watt

Case : $40 COOLER MASTER Elite 330

Total - $401 + shipping. Also, please don't saddle 'em with the extra 100 for Windows if they don't insist on it. Mr Daz does it plenty well for most, I think :p

The charge for hardware & labor is upto you, and it's not my place to give you any advise, but I'll look at 500-ish maybe.
At least get them an Athlon II X4 with DDR3 memory, nothing about the system you listed seems at all promising. Remember, if it goes to hell you will be their first call in trying to fix it. As for pricing i would add either $50 or 10-15% on which ever is bigger for labor, much more than that seems a bit like price gouging to me.
 

danpiz23

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Yeah, These guys are good people. Do not want to rip them off. Just really had no idea on what somone who builds computer and sells them makes off a single computer build.
 

danpiz23

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Yeah your right, if I build them a quad core system is it stupid to install windows XP??? I already have that

This couple really does not care about performance. They are day to day users that have a computer for pictures, watching movies or veiwing web pages. I dont want to install a 200$ graphics card when they wont notice that its even in there.

 

calguyhunk

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Hi Dan, For that try this if you may -

CPU : $100 AMD Athlon II X4 640

Mobo : $55 ASUS M4N68T-M

RAM : $95 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)

HDD : $55 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3

ODD : $21 LG DVD Burner - Bulk LightScribe Support

PSU : $35 COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus 460 Watt

Case : $40 COOLER MASTER Elite 330

Total - $401 + shipping. Also, please don't saddle 'em with the extra 100 for Windows if they don't insist on it. Mr Daz does it plenty well for most, I think :p

The charge for hardware & labor is upto you, and it's not my place to give you any advise, but I'll look at 500-ish maybe.
 
Solution

danpiz23

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Awesome Calguyhunk thanks!

Its actually one of my former bosses. They had me fix their computer a couple time in the past. Ive told them that I had experience building my own and it was a little cheaper. They dont trust best buy or the bigger companies. They mentioned that they had someone build their first computer and they bought the current one for a local small computer repair store (PACT). They are currenly running a intel celeron, with 80 gb HD.
 

calguyhunk

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You're most welcome, danpiz.

I forgot to add the peripherals, so -

Monitor - Get something from LG/Samsung/Asus/Acer/Dell (min - 16:9, 50000:1, 300 cd/m2, 5ms) - $200 LG Widescreen LCD Monitor.

Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - $38 Logitech Wireless Desktop MK320

Speakers from Creative/Logitech (~20-ish) should do just fine, IMO.

It's just a personal thing & I try to stick to the well established brands myself, especially when building for/recommending to others & your reputation is at stake.

The aforementioned components are gonna add 'bout $250-260 to the cost, so that 750 that you were taking about is a reality for sure.
 

AllanCameron

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n
nSo I guess this $6300 system on Amazon.com was out of the price range?
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nhttp://www.amazon.com/Trinity-Lightning-Vapor-Cooled-i7-980X/dp/B0042R3A2W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A1GTL6BK21ZRP9&s=generic&qid=1286229542&sr=1-1
n
n:)
n