White Box Poop!!!

I have built white boxes for my friends for years. There is no profit in it for the small guy. You try to explain to a newbie why the components and the entire system costs more than Dell and they think you are trying to rip them off or they do not appreciate the difference in performance. Then, you get to the software side and unless you have a retail establishment, one can no compete on the software packages that are included. Top this all off with support, warranty issues, etc. and you have a business that can not compete with the Marketing engines like Dell and Compaq. If you thought you were dealing with the more intelligent percentage of the pc market, why would they be buying Dell's and Compaq's in the first place????????????

Then there is the never ending responsibility once one builds a box. Your friends will keep coming back, calling at all hours, wanting you to set up their internent connection, etc.

Lastly, I will not sell junk!!!!!!!!!!! And that is exactly what you would have to do to do business. Put in the worst graphics card you can find that still does 2D, A cheap mobo with all the peripherals built in from three years ago, and memory that would make your grandparents Parkinsons look noteworthy.

Why don't you give up your day job and try to make it in the white box world as you describe? You will labor yourself out of the market helping friends. Thats unless you do not need friends any more.

Athlon 2000XP, A7N8X Deluxe, Corsair 3200XMS, WD Raptor 36GB, Radeon 9700 Pro, Yamaha EZ3200CDRW, 19" Mistubishi Diamond Pro 900usb, Antec 430W TruePower, Klipsch GMX A-2.1

This is the part where you get a few friends and teach em a thing or 2 about comps so they can fix stuff too and know in worst case reinstall windows. Works pretty well- just give em part of the profit.

The one and only "Monstrous BULLgarian!"

Lol, there r prolly other friends tho.

The one and only "Monstrous BULLgarian!"

I totally agree with the OP, I don't think I could undercut Dell as a small white box PC vendor. I see on Dell's site today a 2.4g celeron computer w/ XP, 256mb Ram, and a DVD burner for $500 - $100 rebate = $400.

To build my own super-cheap-ass box using pricewatch you're talking
70 cpu
35 mb
30 case/psu
20 ram
30 hd
10 cdrom
90 DVD burner
90 Win XP
---------
375 total

So I make $25, maybe, if I sell at $400 w/ no extra software. And why would someone buy my POS box for $400 when they can get a Dell for $400? So I'd have to undercut, which means I need buddies in China or economies of scale in order to get cheaper parts & cheap OS licenses.

The two white box possibilities I could image are
- sell high-performing enthusiast boxes for newbs. I could put together a great overclocked AMD box that would perform well, & I wouldn't need to charge the $3000+ that other fancy-pants enthusiast vendors are selling. I can't imagine anyone paying $3000 for a PC these days, but apparently there are enough people with too much money who say "I like games, I want the fastest box I can buy. Ooh, Alienware Aurora Extreme for $3200? I'll take it!"
- sell Linux boxes for basic internet & office tasks. Then I might be able to sell those for $300 or something. But the support calls could be a nightmare (why doesn't this PCI card I bought work? How do I hook up my son's MP3 player? Why doesn't this game work?) blah blah blah. Jesus, I get enough calls from my family about the FREE computers I gave them, I can't fathom the calls from actual customers.

How could I convince people to buy from me...the article seems to imply I could wow them with my expertise, which ofc would go against the el cheapo parts I would need to buy in order to make any money. And non newbs are gonna build their own stuff. So where's the market?

You can't out-Dell Dell, it's like trying to build & sell my own DVD players when someone can just go to Best Buy & get a Sony or Panasonic.

The price list above states $90 for a DVD burner. In Australia, the cheapest DVD Burner on the market is about $200AU, or US$140. The cheapest computer you can build including monitor and software comes to damned near AU$900. Where do the small white box vendors fit in? The rule in most places is they DON'T.

The most successful computer stores in my area are the ones that sell components. and only components. Oh, they have adverts in the newspapers for little [-peep-]-box systems, and they sell a few of them, but most of the market is in the enthusiasts buying components as upgrades/to build a friend/relative a computer.

It took my 2 weeks to convince my uncle that a 2.66 from Dell wasn't as good as it seemed - he was blinded by the "dell" and the fact that it looked nice. In the end, I built him a 50% more powerful system wit printer/scanner for $300 more($2k). But the point of this aimless rant is that the average joe consumer out there doesn't want to be given options on their computer. They want to go in and buy something, and preferably receive it on the spot. Conversely, they don't want to tell people what they want in it/want to do. The solution: Dell. You get ur standard box, with integrated graphics and a backstock 40GB hd, with a nice little manual on how to plug the damned thing in, and ur off. total thought: 0. ttal thought in getting a system made :~10 minutes. But the 10 minutes thought scares a lot of people.

Athlon XP 2400+ @ 2160 180 FSB
GF4 Ti4200 @ 275/575
GA-7N400Pro
1GiG Kingston PC3200 @ 432MHz (Dual Channel)

I've pretty much built all my own PCs for the past few years, and have built a couple for people I know. Of all the ones I built, I was able to give a cheaper and better computer than the big makers could offer. This was with assistance from AMD and the nForce chipset. They were reliable, fast, but still beat the other makers in 3D performance because they were using crappy integrated Intel or SiS graphics, or old add-ins that were worse than the nForce.

But, I was recently approached with the oppurtunity to build another computer for someone's freind, and with what they wanted with the money they had, I said it would be better if they got a Dell. I could have built it for about the same, or maybe a little cheaper, only if I would not accept any money for my services, which is fine for close freinds or family, but not for other people I don't know.

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<font color=blue> "Trying is the first step towards failure." </font color=blue>

I hate those A to B people they walk through life with blinders on and not enough of them catch a much needed BUS to thin them out.

If you are not building something or learning something just go away and die some place out of the road THNX much ta ta.

P.S I would eat their rotting corpse to stay alive. Please pass the salt.

Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Liquid
2x512 KinstonHyperX PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9@80Gig
SONY CD 52x
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x

Ya we at home builders at the very least get all our porn hot and fast it is the A to B people that cant figure out why the girls ass takes 4 minutes to load. smirk lol

Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Liquid
2x512 KinstonHyperX PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9@80Gig
SONY CD 52x
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x