Building PCs for money

[canopenertrooper]

I really enjoy building gaming rigs. I built my first rig last summer and have endlessly been upgrading it. I've considered buying parts from amazon or some other retailer and building the computer myself, then selling it. What is the business like out there with gaming computers? I do realize that it's not a "get rich fast" solution, but it's what I enjoy doing and it improves my knowledge over the computer hardware/software areas. Would asking 50-100$ in profit be a decent amount to ask for? Would buying the parts from Amazon at the right times and building them be a good solution? What's the best and safest way to ship out delicate computers? Is it ok to sell parts from Intel, EVGA, AMD, Nvidia, and so on without a license? I'd love some of your guys info and advice.

 

[g-unit1111]

When you start a business especially one that sells goods like computers, there's a lot that you have to take into account, and it's not exactly easy. You also have to support the systems you sell, both with a warranty an with phone support. And you can't just guess what you're going to be selling your systems for. You have to have a break even point which is when your revenue is equal to your expenses per unit. No accountant in the world is going to agree with that logic. There's steps like:

- Calculating the manufacturing costs which include overhead, machine setups (your setup and testing equipment), and your direct and indirect overhead
- Purchasing the materials needed per unit (factored into the cost)
- Calculating the cost of materials needed per unit
- Calculating the cost of goods manufactured and your inventory expenses
- Machine depreciation which is based on number of units manufactured per machine
- Maintaining enough inventory to make a profit, and you usually want a high turnover, low volume inventory
- Calculating the number of systems you have to sell in order to break even (also factored into cost)
- Calculating cost of goods sold and finished goods inventory

I could go on and on, I'm taking manufacturing accounting right now so it definitely helps to know this stuff. :lol:

 

[canopenertrooper]

I was thinking more of the lines of a solution where people would order a build and I (with some friends) would build it.

 

[g-unit1111]

I was thinking more of the lines of a solution where people would order a build and I (with some friends) would build it.

Like I said it's not that easy. The first thing you have to do is calculate how many systems you would need to sell in order to break even. You have a certain amount of materials that you need to build a system. Then you also have to test the system, and that's factored into overhead. The overhead is added to your cost of goods manufactured. And then what you sell them for is usually above the cost of goods manufactured. So to calculate the exact price of what you would sell a PC for is that you would need to figure out how much inventory you have, figure out the amount of overhead it takes to build a system, then figure out your cost of goods manufactured. There's a lot more math to it than just adding $100 - $150 to the cost of materials you purchase.

 

[Tradesman1]

Sounds like you are looking at it as a part time or as it comes up type thing, building rigs is a part of my business and I charge a flat $100 for a build, that includes help in component selection and the base build w/ OS installed... If they want you to install other software, that's extra. If they want it OCed, that's extra (normally not till a week or so after the build anyway, let the TC cure). Can let your friends know you build (and would throw in doing upgrades, maybe repairs) and offer them say a $5 referral fee for anybody that brings business to you after it's all done and you've been paid. I've had a number of people that have worked ffor me learn and then branch off on their own, a half dozen or so have their own consultancies now