Demand for sub £100 PC?

kvfb97 said:
Brilliant idea. You would struggle to make a profit at £99 though unless you where selling a lot.
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Agreed.

There is a reason why manufacturers dont sell many £99 computers.

Theoretically, if you think of...


Sempron £20?
Matx motherboard with onboard graphics £20
256mb RAM £10
40gb hard drive £30
dvd drive £10

You're not left with much for the case, psu, your time, delivery and VAT.
 
AdladUK said:
Margin is extremely thin, but you could make additional profit on upgrades, and also by what software you install on the PC itself (for example Firefox).
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How would installing firefox add profit? :confused:

I used to build PC's as part of my business. It was very hard to build to a budget and make a profit. It was very rare I would build a PC below £500 as it just wasn't worth it.

After a while I realised it was pointles. You cannot compete with major manufacturers on price. What I ended up doing was helping the person order the PC and then when it arrived, I would go there and set it all up for them.
 
Bug One said:
How would installing firefox add profit? :confused:

I used to build PC's as part of my business. It was very hard to build to a budget and make a profit. It was very rare I would build a PC below £500 as it just wasn't worth it.

After a while I realised it was pointles. You cannot compete with major manufacturers on price. What I ended up doing was helping the person order the PC and then when it arrived, I would go there and set it all up for them.
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Firefox offer affiliate programs so that every time someone installs Firefox on their PC you get x $s

I use to sell PCs myself as well, and yes it became pointless because of all the money eBay would be taking, and leaving me with very little (or none).

The point is no other manufacturer is doing a £99 PC. That's the only reason I'm considering this
 
I want a £99 linux pc to be a file server, going to need a kvm switch to make it that cheap though. I'm going to need to get £99 first though :)
 
yhack said:
I want a £99 linux pc to be a file server, going to need a kvm switch to make it that cheap though. I'm going to need to get £99 first though :)
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There are already quite a few small embedded devices that are suitable for NAS/small servers.

There's a small one, 300Mhz, 128mb RAM, 10GB HDD onboard sound/video, and usb. selling for $99

Another is 1.2GHz, 512MB RAM, 4GB flash drive, integrated 100mbps LAN, can connect a CD drive via USB. Costs $250 (£125)

A cheap and small computer to be used as a small NAS/server/backup server/remote file server/in-car PC is a good idea, but it's already been done. However most of these companies are abroad, so you could try aiming to do the same, but if you're using ATX or such, then they are going to be larger/use more power.
 
this is as cheap as i can get a full system

Logitech LX5 Cordless Optical Mouse - OEM £12.99

Maxtor DiamondMax 20 80GB STM380215A ATA-133 2MB Cache - OEM £22.99

Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC4200 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT533D2) £27.99

Logitech S120 2.0 Black Stereo Speakers - OEM £5.49

Asus VB172T 17" LCD Monitor - Black £94.99

Antec Basic 350W PSU £21.99

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU £25.99

BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 6200 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £19.99

Intel Celeron D 326 2.53GHz (LGA775) - Retail £19.99

Abit IP-95 Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £29.99

Sub Total : £282.40
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £51.69
Total : £347.04

Thats deffinatly not £99! if you can do a full working system for £99, well done :) and i wish you a rich and successful life

edit-just noticed i missed os, however your saying linux so add £0 :)
 
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I think you should up the budget, offer a monitor and the cheapest version of MS Windows, along with lots of free office software.

The problem here would be though that your margins would be ridiculously small. Add onto this user/tech support and you are thinking, "was this thing worth it?"

Keep in mind that your user market would be people who dont own a PC and probably never have (perhaps kiddies and grand parents). The mainstream public would be happy to spend £500 on PC from a big high st store and would be less comfortable buying from a small online/independent retailer.

Other users might include people who already own a PC and perhaps need a 2nd PC for internet and wordprocessing (nothing CPU intensive). You might also target schools and similar. If you could sell in bulk, you might be onto something.

I just feel that your margins would be too low, even if you do offer tech support via an 0870 number.


...unless of course you could sell these things in 10s of 1000s (in which case you begin to make cost savings and get discounts by buying/selling/dealing in bulk).
 
I guess if you had the time to do it, you could make it worth while. If you made an install disk that installed everything on it on one go it would be handy, plus if you had a few grand to put into it first, you could buy in bulk which would again bring prices down.

www.hundredpoundpc.co.uk :D
 
FrostedNipple said:
this is as cheap as i can get a full system

Logitech LX5 Cordless Optical Mouse - OEM £12.99

Maxtor DiamondMax 20 80GB STM380215A ATA-133 2MB Cache - OEM £22.99

Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC4200 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT533D2) £27.99

Logitech S120 2.0 Black Stereo Speakers - OEM £5.49

Asus VB172T 17" LCD Monitor - Black £94.99

Antec Basic 350W PSU £21.99

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU £25.99

BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 6200 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £19.99

Intel Celeron D 326 2.53GHz (LGA775) - Retail £19.99

Abit IP-95 Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £29.99

Sub Total : £282.40
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £51.69
Total : £347.04

Thats deffinatly not £99! if you can do a full working system for £99, well done :) and i wish you a rich and successful life

edit-just noticed i missed os, however your saying linux so add £0 :)
Click to expand...

You can get a 15" LCD monitor cheaper than the £95 you have listed. Also, you can also look for a motherboard that has integrated graphics, which should yield a slight saving. The case and PSU you have chosen are far too expensive. He would be looking to buy a case, inclusive of PSU for around £20 or less. Delivery will be free as he will be buying in bulk (not one system at a time). I think you forgot the keyboard, though this would be offset by buying a cheaper mouse.

I still think that £99 is pushing it, unless of course he buys discontinued stock. He could go into a business partnership with a retailer (maybe ocuk) and agree to buy their old stock at a rock bottom price.
 
FrostedNipple said:
Thats deffinatly not £99! if you can do a full working system for £99, well done :) and i wish you a rich and successful life

edit-just noticed i missed os, however your saying linux so add £0 :)
Click to expand...

Right, but you have all the extra stuff on that list such as monitor, dedicated graphics card, 1GB of memory. The one I'd be selling would basically be:

Black case with 350W PSU
Black 48x CD-ROM (upgradeable to DVD-ROM for <£5)
2.8GHz Intel Celeron CPU (upgradeable to Intel P4 3.0GHz for <£20)
256MB DDR memory (upgradeable to 512MB DDR for <£10)

And so on...

Yeah it's pretty standard and basic, but isn't that what most people use PCs for? Standard basic tasks
 
sunama said:
I think you should up the budget, offer a monitor and the cheapest version of MS Windows, along with lots of free office software.
Click to expand...

True, but then how am I any different to all those 1000s of other computer manufacturers?

sunama said:
The problem here would be though that your margins would be ridiculously small. Add onto this user/tech support and you are thinking, "was this thing worth it?"
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Again true, but the margins are worthwhile (otherwise I wouldn't consider it), and I would charge extra for tech support (just like everyone else does).

sunama said:
Keep in mind that your user market would be people who dont own a PC and probably never have (perhaps kiddies and grand parents). The mainstream public would be happy to spend £500 on PC from a big high st store and would be less comfortable buying from a small online/independent retailer.
Click to expand...

I think it's fair to say a very large % of the population now own PCs. So I think there will be a lot of people just looking to upgrade their base unit. Also remember that I will be offering pretty much any upgrade that could be wanted (monitors, dedicated graphics cards, memory etc)

sunama said:
Other users might include people who already own a PC and perhaps need a 2nd PC for internet and wordprocessing (nothing CPU intensive). You might also target schools and similar. If you could sell in bulk, you might be onto something.
Click to expand...

Bulk is a nice idea, but brings problems not associated to single level retail sales. For example you would definately have to be VAT registered (which I am not). Maybe something to think about further down the road

sunama said:
I just feel that your margins would be too low, even if you do offer tech support via an 0870 number.
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I guess margins depend a lot on your situation. If I could pull a couple of hundred quid a week from something like this, then I would be more than satisfied. More profit and possibilities usually present themselves as things develop.

I'm sure Dell would laugh at the margin on a system like this. But they also have 10,000 employees to pay. I just have myself :p
 
kvfb97 said:
I guess if you had the time to do it, you could make it worth while. If you made an install disk that installed everything on it on one go it would be handy, plus if you had a few grand to put into it first, you could buy in bulk which would again bring prices down.

www.hundredpoundpc.co.uk :D
Click to expand...

Suprsinly enough buying in bulk (in this country) wouldn't decrease the price that much.

I guess if it got serious (in the 1000s) then you could source the components directly from the manufacturers overseas
 
Demand yes, demand for what you suggest no.

it would need keyboard, mouse, screen, windows and speakers. To sell to that end of the market.
 
AcidHell2 said:
Demand yes, demand for what you suggest no.

it would need keyboard, mouse, screen, windows and speakers. To sell to that end of the market.
Click to expand...

Which could all be added as upgrades :p

Don't you think there are a lot of people wanting to replace their old worn out base unit with a new one?
 
The problem £100 is a false economy in many ways. Once it gets reviewed in a PC Mag it'd likely be slated for non-upgradability least to say the build quality issues. And even IF you managed to procude something near decent, where's your profit margin!?

And things have changed massively over the last 5 years. If you could do this 5 years ago you'd be minted (my first proper machine was a P133 for around 850, the only machine (base unit only) for £100 was a 386), nowadays relatively the costs of PC's have fallen to a level that £100 PC's are pointless in UK.

People are spending over £100 on IPODS! let alone computers.

Even the most hard up people I know still want a TFT monitor when they're looking for a PC. Even second hand I find it hard to source 15" SECOND HAND TFT's for under £35. Add £18 for case, keyboard, mouse and speakers you're left with £48 for components.

"puts dragon's den hat on" it's not a business my friend. Maybe you should think about joining the company that makes the $100 (well at the moment over that) laptop for DEVELOPING countries?!:p
 
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