Onbaord audio = good, even great. Onboard video usually equaled RAM
sharing junk. Though you me be able to find decent video onboard, video
cards from ATI & NVidia that complete with what say Dell offers in their
"economy" PCs are available.
As to stock, you will never get ahead trying to keep stock on hand
unless you have distributor that will take it back when it doesn't sell
in 30 days or do enough sales to keep it turning over. Better to order
what you need when you need it and take a week to do proper build &
burn-in. Hell you can get stuff ordered on Monday and have by Thursday
depending on where you are. Trying to support multiple socket types by
having replacements on hand is just suicide if those parts don't serve
double duty as stock to build from and get sold.
Tech support is always a problem when it comes to competing. Bur it is
something that a shop with at least a desk jockey kid could do since
there are no real Einsteins working for the big guys and it's supposed
to TS not be free education/training of how to use PC's anyways.
We had customers come in when I worked in a shop who would not listen to
reason, would bring quotes from chop shops that list mysterious things
like "mobo, super socket 7; Video Geforce2" (dating my experience) and
no brand but would be cheaper than our builds. You try to educate them
about the differences and many would just buy elsewhere. Some people
think Compaq means quality and continue to do so even after being burnt
by it or care more about price than quality. Those people I'd send away
with "Here's my card, see you next year when you learn your lesson" and
sure enough, many would return next year ready to buy after dealing with
Compaq or some chop shop vendor. All can say is they came to us & bought
because we were honest, they even came back for more when our shop's
owner got bad about supporting what it sold.
As to knowing what's good and getting your hands dirty learning it. You
can learn here & on the web what is hot and then build at least 1 system
to "test" that can be sold, even at cost, to a customer in a month
assuming you are doing any new sales & pick the right system to build.
We did this all the time and then built systems for months using the
same template so we had no gotcha's. Even if you built a box as a demo
and sold it below cost 6 months later, we had to factor in the benefit
of having been paid to learn with it by just breaking even.
I'd likely be selling no technical support boxes on EBay if I had an
answer on how to ship them w/o the heavy, performance HSF screwing up
the PC during shipping. Even if I had to offer email only, basic support
I'd be trying as I see them for sale on ebay all the time.
Truth is there is more money in servicing in-house than there is in
sales & upgrades, YMMV.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thane Sherrington (S)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "The Hardware List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 12:25 PM
Subject: RE: [H] AMD CPU question
I agree with Chris. When you decide to be a small computer place, you
take on the challenge to be better than any of the big, uncaring
stores. Getting the best product for your customers, even if it means
a lot of work for you is just part of the job.
Slow sales of new computers means less overall experience for me and
dramatically increases the situations where motherboards and CPU's
become obsolete on my shelf before I sell them. I am hammered with
competitive pricing of the overall computer. When somebody researches my
prices, line by line, my prices win everytime. I am further seeing the
need to build an economy AMD computer with video onboard. I was a
SoundBlaster PCI 128 and Live diehard back in those days of Windows 98
and Me. I let myself be forced to audio onboard. Am I now facing the
same situation with video onboard? If 10% refuse to buy from me because
the video is onboard, but I double my sales by lowering the overall
price of the computer, I come out ahead. I just may have to compromise.
Many of you say that I am killing my gains of using video cards by using
Intel CPU's.
I am seeking a larger computer business who is not in competition with
me to give me advice. Since each computer shop has a different approach
I am sure I can offer some beneficial ideas in exchange for their help.
No matter how large or how small a computer shop is, the technician(s)
have unique approaches to things others do not have. The exchange of
information and advice may appear to be one sided, but both can offer
helpful information. I have found that giving support to my customers
via phone and in person makes me do research. I am seeking advice from a
computer business that is located in the U.S. since I have unlimited
long distance phone service here. I learn a lot from this. I often have
no specific method to offer that is known to be better than another. By
offering ideas to try I get the feedback and learn what worked and what
did not work for things I do not practice in my shop as I have no need to.
I would be more willing to take the plunge and try some AMD's and
perhaps even video onboard if I had a mentor I could just pick up the
phone and call for advice etc. That mentor would have to be somebody who
felt I could give them some useful information from time to time in
exchange for their assistance. For some, if they are truly proud of
their success, they want to share it with others who are not in
competition. I am seeking one of them.
Is there any one of you who has known me for years interested in
providing telephone guidance to assist me to produce a better product
than what I am building? Many of your ideas (Wayne's for example) look
real good in letters but I do not have the resources to experiment. I
have always said that Intel has never failed. The CPU did not burn up,
but it could very well be Intel that has kept my sales in the toilet.
I have had many customers that came here for an Intel and would not
accept an AMD. Let me toss this at you. They did not come here for any
Intel. The Pentium 4 drew them here. They accepted the Celeron if they
demanded a price lower than the Pentium 4, but still, in their minds,
they had bought Intel. I will still have to stock Intel for those, but I
will replace the Celeron with the AMD, not the Pentium 4. I need to
continue as I am now, having an economy box and a premium box. On the
premium side, I see that adopting AMD will most likely cause me to have
to stock both Intel and AMD premium components, making me offer 3 boxes,
1 economy AMD, 1 premium AMD and the premium P4. I am seeking one
technician who loves to brainstorm on the phone.
Chuck
