Custom Building Questions

.Kencs · 13 May 2011 at 21:01

Do I need insurance to build custom pcs for people?
Going to start building custom pcs for friends, not charging them, only charging for parts and it's an ideal way to broaden my experience on building pcs, but not sure what, if any, insurance il need and 'roughly' how much? If all goes well I can start making a small profit from it later down the line...

Thanks in advance for any advice :-)

stulid · 13 May 2011 at 21:08

I wonder if you wouldn't get better advice in General discussion?

pcAnywhere · 14 May 2011 at 06:56

What do you want insurance against? Damage caused to components during assembly? A pseudo warranty for your new builds? Insurance against causing damage to other things/people from a badly assembled pc?

hybrid572 · 14 May 2011 at 07:17

Insurance against possible damage caused to components during assembly (and even overclocking!) is very popular among big sites such as Overclockers, but I doubt there's an insurer who'd bother with a mere couple of units a month.

You're better off investing in a power surge protector, where 99% of the problems are anyway if you know what you're doing, and charging a bit of a markup so you're not out of pocket if something goes **** up. Besides, if you start off doing it for free, you'll struggle to charge for it in future, and you'll be putting other local people out of business. Charge £50 for it; it's not much in relation to standard markup.

.Kencs · 14 May 2011 at 08:36

hybrid572 said:
Insurance against possible damage caused to components during assembly (and even overclocking!) is very popular among big sites such as Overclockers, but I doubt there's an insurer who'd bother with a mere couple of units a month.

You're better off investing in a power surge protector, where 99% of the problems are anyway if you know what you're doing, and charging a bit of a markup so you're not out of pocket if something goes **** up. Besides, if you start off doing it for free, you'll struggle to charge for it in future, and you'll be putting other local people out of business. Charge £50 for it; it's not much in relation to standard markup.

I was more looking into if I build a pc and something goes wrong after I've done the build and they try and say it's my fault I just wanna cover my own back...

ins0mn1ac · 14 May 2011 at 08:48

.Kencs said:
I was more looking into if I build a pc and something goes wrong after I've done the build and they try and say it's my fault I just wanna cover my own back...

When I build PCs for friends I make sure they use/mess around with it for a good couple of hours at my house so I know its left in a perfect working condition. Once you leave with it its your responsibility and I make sure they know that!

pcAnywhere · 14 May 2011 at 09:33

.Kencs said:
I was more looking into if I build a pc and something goes wrong after I've done the build and they try and say it's my fault I just wanna cover my own back...

Sounds like warranty insurance. I know you can get that for cars but not sure if companies cover the PC market.

Remember that all the parts will come with a supplier warranty anyway.

bedazzled · 14 May 2011 at 09:40

Don't start building them for free that was one of the mistakes I made, you get recommended by word of mouth and everyone expects a pc built for the cost of the parts. Also don't try to build down to a price because they can get a cheaper pc in the shops. That was the second mistake I made the customer is never happy when they find their budget pc won't do the things they want such as run the latest games or they find it can't be upgraded in the future.
If they want to go and by cheap crap from the anywhere in the world, or these catalouge shops then let them get on with it.

DJ_Hughesy · 14 May 2011 at 10:20

bedazzled said:
Don't start building them for free that was one of the mistakes I made, you get recommended by word of mouth and everyone expects a pc built for the cost of the parts. Also don't try to build down to a price because they can get a cheaper pc in the shops. That was the second mistake I made the customer is never happy when they find their budget pc won't do the things they want such as run the latest games or they find it can't be upgraded in the future.
If they want to go and by cheap crap from the anywhere in the world, or these catalouge shops then let then let them get on with it.

considering for the same price these cheap ass systems cost you could build yourself a fairly good budget gaming rig...

hybrid572 · 14 May 2011 at 10:53

DJ_Hughesy said:
considering for the same price these cheap ass systems cost you could build yourself a fairly good budget gaming rig...

They do seem like a ripoff- I mean, you can build a decent Phenom II X4 9xx system with a 5850 for £500, which seems about standard pricing for a PC World - esque computer, but you have to bear in mind that the people who buy PC World computers have no interest in gaming, and also want an entirely new OS and set of peripherals. Once you've added Windows 7, a keyboard, mouse and monitor, you're looking at a good £700 for your PC. To get it down to £500, you'd have to stick with onboard graphics and drop the processor down to an Athlon II X2. Even then, it's a stretch.

Prebuilt cheapo systems are really good value for money if all you want to do is MSN Messenger, Internet Explorer (ohgod), and Microsoft Word, and for most people, that is all they want.