Question about putting someone else's rig together

[Hymn]

my friends dad wanted me to make a computer for him, he said if i bought all the parts n . like so, i give him the total, and he would slap on an extra 200$ more.

 

for instance if i spend a total of 600 dollars on his computer, he would give me 800$.

 

such a nice man

 

i declined on the offer because my friends family does alot for my family so i just told him if he gets the parts, ill put it together for him for no cost.

[Dynomutt]

$100 - $150 sounds very reasonable, considering the amount of effort and paitence you have to put into a new build and when its done there is the hours of tweaking and benching to ensure is working at its best and then the overnight prime95 torture just to be sure. and then your only finished if its still priming the next day. you could also offer to Overclock it for him too and this will give him even better value for his money, oh not to mention the fact that your the garauntee and will have to fix it and the rest of his family's PC's from now on. so could turn out to be a pretty good money spinner.

 

I buildfixtweak for familygood mates for free and others for a charge, how much depends on what they want doing.

[Angel.O.Y.S]

A Fallen Angel.

 

If YOU build it, you will definately have to hassle with fixing it when he dork's it.

I think the Beer + Money + Barking Orders is well thought out.

 

Or maybe upgrade one of your components as well in the process.

Have him pay for the Upgrade as part of the deal and he can prolly use your "pre-owned" stuff.

 

You see.... now you're a man indeed smoking from the same pipe as me...

 

I have in the last week spent in excess of £850 on an upgrade (1 British pounds = 1.8011 U.S. dollar) aka $1530

Sold my PSU £40

Sold my old mobo, ram, prescott and CPU cooler for £200

Sold my Leadtek 6800gt for £150

grand total £390

 

combind total of money owed to me was £350,

 

£350 + £390 = £740 £850 - £740 = £110

 

My new rig cost me £110,

 

Aaaaah!

 

Noobs buying second hand parts makes upgrading eaaaaaaaaaaasy

[soundx98]

You see.... now you're a man indeed smoking from the same pipe as me...

 

But I didn't Inhale

[njswift10141980]

thanks for all of your input, but I'm a little hesitant because of the I think something is wrong could you help. I guess I just got to think about it some more, any mor comments are welcome.

 

 

Thanks

[tristancarton]

only build for close friends and family. even then it can be a pain. the computer noobs you build for will hound you to death if something is not working or if a part goes bad. you will end up spending extra hours troubleshooting and fixing things. (this is if you don't put in the stipulation that once you build you are done with help.)

[Skip04]

Lol, 1 of my brothers threw out that question this weekend.

 

Him - "How much can you build a new puter for me for?" as he has a crippled HP pavilion sitting on his desk.

Me - How much do you have, and what do you want to do with it?, as I'm thinking oh about as much as it will cost me to have a new rig with a dual core, a couple gigs of good stuff, and a couple 7800's hahaha.

[PoppyMcShotgun]

I've become known to be "the computer guy" here on my base... I'll be walking around, and some complete strangers will come up to me and be like, "You're that computer guy, right?" ... I'll hesitantly agree... "Well you see I've got this problem... Blah Blah Blah..."

 

But, I have no one to blame but myself. I've traditionally built my own computer since back in the old Athlon days (before they hit 1GHz), but since I joined the military I've been building for other people as well. I show no discrimination. If they want a computer built, I would build it. And I offer free tech support as long as I'm on the base... When I move, they can rely on someone else (thank God I'm moving to Iceland next month...).

 

I have built well over 60 machines in the past 3 years I have been here in Japan for other people, and every single one of them I charge the same thing. Donation only.

 

Why do I do this? Well, for one, we're in the military, and we don't make a lot of money to begin with. Two, I don't know what it is, but I seem to get MORE money from people when I say "donation only" then if I charged a set amount. For example, I would charge only $40-50 to put a system together when I first started doing it. Then, I built for a few friends and said, "ehhh, just pay me whatever you feel like I deserve" then BAM, there was $85 in my pocket. Plus, it makes me look better by saying donation only! People don't feel OBLIGATED to pay the high amount, but do because they know I deserve it with all of the reading, research and hands on training I have done.

 

If you are just starting out, charge a set price, but don't do it too high. You're new and not as experienced as you COULD be. With that, you shouldn't charge as much. Kind of like the visible changes "level of hairdresser". They have like 4 or 5 different "tiers" of experience and they charge more for a really experienced person to cut your hair (I learned this when I was back on leave this past July... Wife was getting a haircut). The more experienced you become at building computers, the more I would say you could potentially charge. Hell, I remember when I was new to building computers and would forget stupid crap, like putting the motherboard headers on, or not setting the IDE drive to "master". It would take a lot longer to build a computer back then. Now with all of the experience I've had building computers, I hardly miss a thing.

 

If this becomes a "thing" you end up doing for a while (building computers for people), take my advice above. Good luck!

[e_lion_1]

also, it might depend if the fellow you're building for expects free tech support (once your finished the build) ... in this case it would be easier to give the computer parts list to a store and let them make it work. Let him become "somebody else's problem"

[red930]

Heh, when I was in the Marines I used to tell people what to get when they wanted to purchase a computer. Back then, 286s were high-end systems (yep, I am an old fart, sort of) :tooth: Most of the systems available in the areas I were stationed at didn't have a lot of customizability. All I could do was examine the components used and make my recommendations.

[Smoken Joe]

Heh, when I was in the Marines I used to tell people what to get when they wanted to purchase a computer. Back then, 286s were high-end systems (yep, I am an old fart, sort of) :tooth: Most of the systems available in the areas I were stationed at didn't have a lot of customizability. All I could do was examine the components used and make my recommendations.

 

 

I rember when I tyalked my dad into a 386 with dual speed external CD rom and a color screen! Wow I felt like the ___.

 

 

Imake other people do it anyone that can do the thinks I do- work in an ICU ride a bike better be able to follow directions.

 

If you do it charge whateverr you fell is appropriate but it should be either 100 or for free and you should have input on the parts. I rember trying to install a d@m maxtor drive on a nforce board for a fiend Grrrrr. spent hrs and hrs trying to get it to work and it never would..... of cource no problem with a WD. If he goes cheap you pay the price.

[Cooler]

Two, I don't know what it is, but I seem to get MORE money from people when I say "donation only" then if I charged a set amount.

I've had pretty much same experiences! I usually try to make some limits to who I'm working. I.E. for close friends it's free, for strangers it's either impossible or very expensive, for others between it's... whatever they want to pay.

 

Surprisingly, even closest friends want to pay! It's not like "I could pay something...", but "I insist you take this money! Don't argue with me!". :nod:

 

Actually, it's somewhat confusing. The same person who screams in pain and agony when told to pay 20€ is more that willing to part with 50€ when told "if you really must pay something, pay whatever you want"! :cool: