ebay-how do they do it?

[Daysleeper]

I've been trawling around ebay UK a bit recently and although I'm a MAC man myself I cant help be amazed at the prices of some "new" wintel computers. For example there is one on sale, with a 3.2GZ P4 load of memory etc etc. for under £300. And there are loads of similar ones its like a cottage industry.

Now fair enough there is no O/S or moniter but the processor alone must be almost £200.

So how do they do it? Have PC's become so easy to plug together that any tom dick or harry with a mate in Singapore to post over some bits can put them together in their bedroom? If so why do people still buy from the likes of Dell?

So can someone who knows more about PC's enlighten me.

still they are darn ugly :D

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Daysleeper,

They buy OEM Parts in Bulk to get the price down. But when you are used to being with an over inflated monopoly like MAC, those PC prices which are created by free enterprise do look great. ;)

Take Care,

Richard

[Daysleeper]

Ah richard I thought I could rely on you for a speedy response:O

I still find it remarkable. Ive been hunting around on Dabs and the cheapest equiv (ie crap) spec I could put together is about £400.
I could understand it in the US with your huge market and high PC use. Even so the profit margin must be quite low.


As to the second question . Working with macs which we all know are hand crafted sorry put together by teams of reverant monks in high Himalayen monasteries where they have studied design for thousands of years (its just next to the martial arts monastery, 3rd mountain from the left.) Or at least you would think so by the price.;) Are PCs really that simple to put together these days ?

[Tinstaafl]

Pretty much. Most parts conform to specified dimensions & electrical interfaces. Lots of manufacturers & retailers of equivalent parts so rather more competition than Mac-world.

Buy a case, add a power supply if there wasn't one already in the case (usually there is), buy a motherboard to suit the class of processor you wish to buy, a graphics card if your chosen motherboard hasn't got built in graphics, a HD, CD or DVD & then bolt it all together.

If a part dies then buy a replacement & drop it in. Not always that easy since there may no longer be a processor available that fits the motherboard the dead processor came from. Solution is to buy a new MB & processor.

Upgrades are common. A motherboard will usually be suitable for a range of processors so you can often upgrade after a year or so when the high end processors become cheaper.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Daysleeper,

I completely agree with your assessment of how MACs are built. :D

As for PCs, it is much easier that 10 years ago. With all the options out there along with being 100% Upgradable of a system you build yourself, it is great fun.

As for the cheap comps you see out there, you will find a bunch of companies that are looking to sell at cost, and even below cost in order to get a name. Then there are others that are trying to make $50 to $100 per unit. (To me that is not worth my time.)

I prefer to make comps with the best parts possible in order to guarantee performance and reliability. In the long run I save a lot of money, since call backs for warranty work are extremely rare. (Businesses understand the value of not having down time too.) ;)

Take Care,

Richard

[Daysleeper]

So the reason I was asking, There always is one.:O is I was stuck down route the other week for 4 days. And in order to stay out the bar for a few hours the skipper and I went to the local internet cafe and played a few games. As the mac is not a renown games platform (we are about 2 years behind PC games on release.) I was thinking of putting together a stand alone games PC. for games like the new Rome:Total War. Besides which it would be something disposable for my young daughter to bash around on without jeopardizing the lovely apple laptops I have :cool:

The min spec is a 1Ghz Proc, 256 Ram and "reasonable" graphics card. So any suggestions on something a little bit better that meets those general criteria and is not expensive please.




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The Mac user mafia will have my guts for this so dont tell anyone :ouch:

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Daysleeper,

It would help knowing how much you want to spend, but for games, I would recommend:

AthlonXP 2500+ or higher
nForce2 Motherboard (With SoundStorm)
512Mb (2x256Mb) PC-3200
GeForceFX 5900XT or Radeon 9800Pro
80Gb 7,200rpm w/8Mb Cache Hard Drive
Dual Layer DVD Burner

If you want something with a little more kick:

Athlon64 (90mn Socket 939 the best option)
nForce3 Motherboard
512Mb (2x256Mb) PC-3200
GeForceFX 5900XT or Radeon 9800Pro
80Gb 7,200rpm w/8Mb Cache Hard Drive
Dual Layer DVD Burner

Take Care,

Richard