How much do you charge to build?

B

BoyBlunder

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 10, 2003
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i build computers for some of my mom's friends. they give me a certain amt of money for a PC, and i build a pc within that price range. today i charged a lady $100 for the labor.

so what do you charge?
 
Well, I havent built one for anyone but myself, but I DO do troubleshooting/clean-up, and some upgrading for people. I dont stick to a set price(prob cuz I like monkeying w/ comp's too much). Usually like 25-30 bucks.
 
I usually do troubleshooting and clean up too and i get nothing and after i spend several hours at there house too. cought cheap neightbors cough :D
 
cheap neightbors
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:D

I started by not asking for anything, and getting a "tip" anyways. So now I ask, and dont get a problem, because the local computer store charges $35 just to leave it in the store, not counting the fix.
 
I really only help with/build/upgrade for close friends and family, so I don't charge. Just if I ever need something in the future, I'll remind em of the computer and they usually return the favor.
 
I usually charge the following:

Full system build: 15% on parts under $100 12% on parts over $100, plus $100 labor to build. Includes free lifetime phone tech support.

Full system build for CD duplicator: 15% on parts & $50 labor.

System repairs: $25 reformat and reinstall. $20-$100 per virus removal. $10-$20 hardware upgrade.

Compared to my only competition (Best Buy, CompUSA) which is about 50miles away, I am dirt cheap. They charge $99/hr to repair.
 
Hrm well the only thing ive gotten from other people was

60 bucks to install a hdd on a laptop from a neigboor... i didnt even ask for money... just for the part

And my dad is going to buy me the logitech MX700 keyboard combo and he is gonna take my l337 du0 when i build his puter
 
I don't build or work on computers for anyone except myself and immediate family (sister, dad). Not worth the hassle. Almost suddenly you become the 24 hour/7 day a week tech support kid. Everyone starts passing your name around "oh I know a kid who did my computer stuff and charges almost nothing". Then when something groes wrong you are the one they call and will think its your fault even though their kid has been downloading porn off kazaa and the machine is now infected with tons of viruses. I went through all that in highschool and the best advice I can give is that its simply not worth it.

edit: trying having a conversation with a VERY religious catholic mother about how she needs to stop her son from downloading "Brittney spears with five black guys" off of kazaa.
 
I think $100 sounds reasonable. Usually when I do build for close family or friends, I won't charge anything. If you already have a real job and/or go to school, you may not have a lot of free time, so that makes the time you spent building the system worth a little more. If you're doing this just as a basic hobby in your free time, I'd charge less and tell people to give you word of mouth business.

One way to avoid trouble shooting things is to install the virus scanner, firewall, and spy bot and show them how to use it and keep it updated when you drop off the comp. If you explain what can happen if they don't (trojans can steal credit card passwords and all thier private information) most people are willing to comply.

If you decide to make this a mini-business, you can begin increasing your prices.
 
Originally posted by maxelhombre

One way to avoid trouble shooting things is to install the virus scanner, firewall, and spy bot and show them how to use it and keep it updated when you drop off the comp. If you explain what can happen if they don't (trojans can steal credit card passwords and all thier private information) most people are willing to comply.
Click to expand...

that's exactly what i do! i install all the windows updates, SpyBoy & NAV! :) and i set everything to do weekly scans/updates.
 
Charging $100 for someone personal that you know?! That's rather steep.

I mean honestly, putting together a system is the easiest thing that you can do in the computer world. It's maintaining them and fixing problems which separates the amateurs from the true [H]ard technology gurus. When I built a system for my friend's father, I maybe threw on perhaps $40 for labor and Windows.

Although, I suppose I shouldn't be one to talk. I built a system for my sister this summer and I my proposed budget was way higher than what it cost, so she ending up purchasing me a new floppy drive to replace my broken one and a nice new Sapphire Atlantis 9500. I'm such a bastard, but she doesn't need to know that. I was desperate for better performance!!:D

Dark Assassin
 
Yes, but like others have said, when you build a computer for a friend or a friend of a friend, you usually commit yourself to lifetime tech support. So when you factor that in, $100 isn't that much.
 
5% of totally cost (except moniter) average seems $75- 80. $75 extra for mods like a window and stuff. Price includes setup as well as special wiring (like folding cables and hiding wires and other things).
 
I tack on $75-$100 (canadian) to the total price so it "hides" with the parts as a markup, and say that I'll put it together for free (which I do quite quickly)

Since I'm such a nice guy, people usually give me an extra $20 or so
 
Originally posted by maxelhombre
Yes, but like others have said, when you build a computer for a friend or a friend of a friend, you usually commit yourself to lifetime tech support. So when you factor that in, $100 isn't that much.
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I dont commit myself to nothing lol. Im just like Newegg, after 30 days my tech support and replaceing the parts is over and you'll have to take it up with the manufacter of the parts. Anything after that costs extra. $50 is pretty cheap compared to what you'd pay in a local computer shop to have one built but thats what i charge to put one togethor cause i enjoy doing it and it gives me practive with new hardware i havn't used yet. For a server or workstation i'd probably charge $80-$100 and up to $500 or more for networking a whole slew of computers. Wireless networking is quick and easy but CAT5 can be a pain in the ass if they want it real neat and the computers are well spread out.

I dont intend to give Lifetime support to anyone other then my family and select friends. Otherwsie you get alot of abusers that are really stupid with computers and mess the thing up all the time. And so $100 definiately isn't enough IMO for lifetime support of that nature. They bring me the computer and if its something minor i fix it for $10-$20 or the same if they want a new video card or pci card installed.

I mean you take a risk every time you open someones computer up to damageing some of the hardware THEY payed for and if im not getting payed its not worth it.

P.S. Newegg is going to have to change all their stupid A64 banners and descriptions on their website from saying "A64, the only 64-bit processor" when Prescott is released in a few days lol.
 
i've been recently thinking about building/upgrading computers for people for extra cash and was clueless as to what to charge. if i end up doing it, i'll probably charge $50-75 with a few months of free tech support

thanks guys
 
I've built one from scratch for someone I know from the 'net (configured very similar to the one I built for myself, below), and a major major major overhaul for another friend. Since I'm still just a somewhat knowledgeable hobbyist at this point, I built them for parts and shipping only. They were pleasantly surprised to hear that. For now, the ejumucation I get from building them is enough payback. Besides, I don't get to do it often enough for the cheap thrill to have worn off yet. :) I've only had two tech calls from them. The first one had a CPU fail, covered by AMD wty (thank goodness I convinced her to spend the extra few bucks for the retail package on the CPU), and the second one had a bad RAM stick (NOT one that I put in - they upgraded themselves and got a bum stick).

When I move closer to family in a couple months, I'm looking at maybe two more system builds, again for just parts and shipping.
 
I usually just clean up or upgrade other folks computers, I am the *IT guy at work so if I build one it is no charge but for other I take whatever they want to give me and I have gotten more than I bargain for sometimes. :D

That reminds me I need to install an new HDD for this really nice young lady.
 
I really try to stay away from working for people other than a little bit of help here and there for my family. I make my money by building boxes for companies with semi-skilled staff such as a local ISP. Depending on what is going on and how soon the server is needed I can make anywhere from 100-500 dollars per server. Just last wednesday one of the higher-up's called me saying that they needed 4 high end servers built for monday and gave me a redicoulous amount of money to spend. Parts arrived from Newegg on friday, (took the poor fedex guy 9 trips back and fourth to unload) and the boxes were built. Installed freebsd and delivered them today, and my large check comes next week (I was told by the CFO I woud be getting 1500-2000 for this round):D

/Edit, for prespective, I am getting 15% or so of the hardware value.
 
From now on I am never building at someones house again.
The labor rate will be 50 dollars for a New pc.
Depends on serverity of upgrade for price on that.
Never put yourself in the position to build a computer in front of someone.
always take computer to your house and build them or ask them a for a week to build

easy upgrades are ok do on the spot

thats just my 10cents on building pc's for people
 
Originally posted by FrozenOver2

Never put yourself in the position to build a computer in front of someone.
always take computer to your house and build them or ask them a for a week to build
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i would NEVER build in front of someone that wasnt a close friend or family. i'm sure everyone here has their own personal short cuts or different handling habits that would probably scare the crap out of someone who's computer you are building
 
Originally posted by FrozenOver2
From now on I am never building at someones house again.
The labor rate will be 50 dollars for a New pc.
Depends on serverity of upgrade for price on that.
Never put yourself in the position to build a computer in front of someone.
always take computer to your house and build them or ask them a for a week to build

easy upgrades are ok do on the spot

thats just my 10cents on building pc's for people
Click to expand...

I've never built one at someone else's house. I have to go and install it of course and get everything up and running but never do the actually building there. If im in a hurry i can usually slap one togethor in a few minutes but i like to take my time and make sure i dont make even the slightest mistake or scratch. People usually start asking questions or start thinking they've watched someone else do it so they can do it themselves now and thats bad for business lol.
 
I'm suprised to see that some people charge such a large amount just for putting a computer together. Just comparing to a local store, they only charge $50cdn. I would say that it is a great price especially if you don't want to bother with putting it together yourself.

You guys are making one large profit :D
 
Originally posted by viper11885
I'm suprised to see that some people charge such a large amount just for putting a computer together. Just comparing to a local store, they only charge $50cdn. I would say that it is a great price especially if you don't want to bother with putting it together yourself.

You guys are making one large profit :D
Click to expand...

Your local stores are generous. I was looking at prices for parts in one the other day where they order the parts and put them in your machine and they wanted like $700 for a 3.2Ghz P4! I was like WTH.
 
Originally posted by viper11885
I'm suprised to see that some people charge such a large amount just for putting a computer together. Just comparing to a local store, they only charge $50cdn. I would say that it is a great price especially if you don't want to bother with putting it together yourself.

You guys are making one large profit :D
Click to expand...

Well, one of the reasons they pay me so well (I never asked for the amount of money the company Ive been doing work for, they just offered it) is because I will sit down with them to get a feel for their exact needs. After learning about what they need me to build I will then come up with a few diffrent possible configurations and explain the pro's and cons to each, leving the final decision up to the buyer. Fastfoward, the parts are ordered/received and assembled. I then run the computer at 100% load for atleast 24hrs strait before I will even concider delivering it. I allmost allways run them for a week stright under load. A lot more than "just assembleing" goes into it.
 
Yea its always a good idea to put them through good stress tests for a while to make sure they aren't going to just stop working an hour after delivery. I usually do the normal 24 hour bit with the popular stress testing programs. I dont go as far as to do it a whole week though.
 
Well for our home systems 1 day is fine..... but if i didnt know how to build computers...... and i was a smaller company needing some good servers on a small budget, I would have some one build it, but Id be really happy to hear that it ran stable under full load for a week straight.



I dont know if super high up companys use dell or something just because they have the money and they wanna have someone to sue when something breaks and they lose profits.... I wouldnt wanna be on the end of that deal
 
i built a computer for my brother for $150. it was sort of a going to college present. it costed me about $500 to build.

i felt bad about giving him such a good deal so i stole his motherboard/cpu after mine died on me.

the rest of his computer is just sittin here doing nothing. but i gave him a decent laptop for $80 to make up for it.
 
I usually only build for friends and family so I charge parts only...They usually give me a nice tip though:D

If it isn't a close friend or family, I charge 50 ish...
 
For close family and friends, I only charge them for the parts (and on occasion I've thrown in some parts on my own dime).

For other people, if I like them I'll do the same (they usually give me a C note for my trouble though). If I *DON'T* like them, I charge $100/hr. If I *REALLY HATE THEM*, I also charge travel time. I have one whopper of a story that would make most people here cringe at the thought of becoming a freelance computer tech. I'll give the cliff notes version first though.

Two years ago, my sister asked me to help out a friend of her's. Their computer was overrun with spyware and a virus, and it was completely useless to them.

I ended up becoming their personal tech guy, who'd they call whenever they had a problem, and always at the most unconvenient times too (because obviously I didn't have anything better to do but answer their innane questions).
I ended up changing my phone number because of them, but it didn't last long. They managed to get ahold of my new number. It wasn't until I started getting irrate with them that they finally got a clue and stopped calling me.

This month they asked me (through my sister) if I could stop by their house and fix their computer again (mind you, their house is roughly 50 miles away from mine). No problem! (yeah right..). The computer had the *EXACT SAME PROBLEM* that I fixed before (their son screwed up the computer before, and managed to do it a second time, even after I asked him to stop downloading porn and other crap off of Kazaa). They uninstalled the firewall software I installed on the machine because they were getting annoyed with the prompts from it. To top it off, they bought a wireless router so their daughter could use her laptop on their network connection and they didn't bother setting up even basic security on it (and someone in their neighborhood was using their connection). It gets worse than this, but since this is the cliffnotes version, I'll cut it short.

Let's just say that I ended up really hating these nimrods, mainly because it was too much to ask them to even read the frigging error messages they were getting. I don't mind helping people, but when they won't even make an effort to help themselves, I charge them an outrageous rate to make them think twice. Don't get me wrong, everybody makes stupid mistakes every now and then. It's when it's habitual that I get annoyed and get a little nasty.


-FH
 
Originally posted by Frosty_axe
I really try to stay away from working for people other than a little bit of help here and there for my family. I make my money by building boxes for companies with semi-skilled staff such as a local ISP. Depending on what is going on and how soon the server is needed I can make anywhere from 100-500 dollars per server. Just last wednesday one of the higher-up's called me saying that they needed 4 high end servers built for monday and gave me a redicoulous amount of money to spend. Parts arrived from Newegg on friday, (took the poor fedex guy 9 trips back and fourth to unload) and the boxes were built. Installed freebsd and delivered them today, and my large check comes next week (I was told by the CFO I woud be getting 1500-2000 for this round):D

/Edit, for prespective, I am getting 15% or so of the hardware value.
Click to expand...

hmmm, a local isp needs someone to put together a computer for them? I wouldn't have much faith in that isp unless of course this is a different company than the isp you referred too.
 
Talk about an ego boost though, knowing that you built the servers the ISP is running on.
 
i dont let anyone know that i know anything about computers. they will want me to work on them etc. when they have crappy computers and impossible problems to fix.

build them for people? i tell them to get a Dell, that way i dont have to mess with parts that crap out, or customer support when they can't figure out what happened to the Solitare or Freecell icon.

IMO, it's just not worth it...

edit: FH, building servers sounds kind of cool... i'm never messed around with server hardware before, and therefore know nothing about it... always thought it'd be interesting to learn about though.
 
$60/hour for Software/Repair/Troubleshooting.

If I build them a complete Machine, then part + $100 labor. this does not include installing an operating system, that count's as Software/Repair/Troubleshooting.

/IoWnZa
 
Originally posted by rickten
I don't build or work on computers for anyone except myself and immediate family (sister, dad). Not worth the hassle. Almost suddenly you become the 24 hour/7 day a week tech support kid. Everyone starts passing your name around "oh I know a kid who did my computer stuff and charges almost nothing". Then when something groes wrong you are the one they call and will think its your fault even though their kid has been downloading porn off kazaa and the machine is now infected with tons of viruses. I went through all that in highschool and the best advice I can give is that its simply not worth it.

edit: trying having a conversation with a VERY religious catholic mother about how she needs to stop her son from downloading "Brittney spears with five black guys" off of kazaa.
Click to expand...


I agree with you 100%!
 
who wants to watch brittnay spears anywayz

we have Paris HIltion now :D

Teach the pr0n0 watching kid how to use ad-aware
 
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