Thoughts on a Business Idea - Custom PC Gaming

Hi All,

I have had a simple idea for setting up a small business building custom PC gaming rigs and would like to hear your thoughts on the viability of this idea. All comments are welcome :pac:!

A little bit of background on what I am intending to do:

I am planning on starting out small literally and figuratively. I intend to do this by initially building gaming PCs using LAN Party sized PC cases. The intention is to market them as "simple to pick up as a console - with the power of the PC". It seems to me that there is somewhat of a paradigm shift away from PC gaming to consoles as of late; however PC gaming is still alive and well and still constitutes a massive share of the global gaming market. As a result of this shift to consoles I was thinking that there might be a potential market for custom gaming PCs if we look at them in a new, more simplistic light which could appeal to console users but also to hardcore PC gamers who would like the power of a PC but in a much smaller package.

I don't expect to make much profit on the PC components which I would resell, rather make a small profit on the construction, configuration and overclocking of the system.

I really appreciate any and all your thoughts on this idea.

Regards,

SH

bigneacy

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi All,

I have had a simple idea for setting up a small business building custom PC gaming rigs and would like to hear your thoughts on the viability of this idea. All comments are welcome :pac:!

A little bit of background on what I am intending to do:

I am planning on starting out small literally and figuratively. I intend to do this by initially building gaming PCs using LAN Party sized PC cases. The intention is to market them as "simple to pick up as a console - with the power of the PC". It seems to me that there is somewhat of a paradigm shift away from PC gaming to consoles as of late; however PC gaming is still alive and well and still constitutes a massive share of the global gaming market. As a result of this shift to consoles I was thinking that there might be a potential market for custom gaming PCs if we look at them in a new, more simplistic light which could appeal to console users but also to hardcore PC gamers who would like the power of a PC but in a much smaller package.

I don't expect to make much profit on the PC components which I would resell, rather make a small profit on the construction, configuration and overclocking of the system.

I really appreciate any and all your thoughts on this idea.

Regards,

SH

Money's fairly tight these days - does your target market still have the cash to part with for expensive gaming machines?

I know the alienware type rigs were popular enough, but they cost a fortune and even back in the good days most people couldn't afford them!

Perhaps, if you are able to market them similarly priced to consoles? But how could you make a profit on this? I can't see you winning customers away from a console costing ~€300 for a machine costing over €1000 at minimum? Even double the cost isn't exactly a viable alternative for most people...

bigneacy

bigneacy wrote: »

Money's fairly tight these days - does your target market still have the cash to part with for expensive gaming machines?

I know the alienware type rigs were popular enough, but they cost a fortune and even back in the good days most people couldn't afford them!

You make a good point bigneacy. Money is tight but I do believe people are willing to spend money if there is value in what they buy. Looking for value again in the things we buy is one thing which I think the recession has made us do again - perhaps for the better. If this business was off the ground I believe there is more value in a gaming PC than a console for a number of reasons, it does more than just play games, its a full PC. I think parents would like the idea that while it might be bought for playing games it can also be used for other things e.g, school work etc. Don't get me wrong I'm not counting on that analogy to be my driving force by any means but I do believe if marketed correctly, people would see the value they would be getting over a console.

Specifically about costs though I would not intend to make a profit on reselling the parts that would constitute the system (as system builders like Alienware etc. do). My profit model would be mainly focused on charging for the building and customisation of the system which I believe would drive down costs significantly and add more value........ hopefully . Also, the reason why I would focus on building PCs into LAN Party cases is that you would be buying micro ATX boards which can run the current LGA1155 socket Intel CPUs. They are fanstastic chips, especially for overclocking which I would then be hoping would drive down costs. Don't forget I am not just focusing on drawing console gamers away from consoles, I am also aiming at the PC gamer who are more used (and potentially prepared) to spend more money on their gaming platform than the average console gamer.

srsly78

www.hardwareversand.de build pcs for an extra charge of e10, from any choice of components. Can you compete with that? You could just resell their pre-built pcs for a profit, assuming your customers don't actually know about hwvs.

The micro cases have great problems taking proper graphics card btw (ie the massive ones), which is important for gamers.

srsly78

srsly78 wrote: »

www.hardwareversand.de build pcs for an extra charge of e10, from any choice of components. Can you compete with that? You could just resell their pre-built pcs for a profit, assuming your customers don't actually know about hwvs.

The micro cases have great problems taking proper graphics card btw (ie the massive ones), which is important for gamers.

Hi srsly78, thanks for the heads up about the HWVS site. I just flew through a quick look at their site and while they seem to only charge €20 euro for a full PC build but aren't a drastic amount cheaper than buying the parts from decent online retailers like dabs.ie etc. I do take your point that assembly is cheap. My driving force would be overclocking and the hassle free nature of the new PC. I'm asking myself a question as I type this, if there are so many good, cheap websites like the one you have presented me, why aren't more people building they're own PCs?. Take a look at overclockers.co.uk. Under their gaming section you could buy the parts for one of their pre built PCs separately for a significant amount cheaper than the completed rig. However, overclockers are marketing the value and simplicity of buying a pre-built machine over building one yourself (hassle free). Plus overclocking (for some) can be a bit of a dark art and are unwilling to do it themselves for risk of damaging new expensive parts. This is where I feel the value for the consumer lies and what would be selling point for this proposed idea.

You have given me a valuable course of thought. In order for this business to be viable you'd really have to move away from thinking your going to make any money on selling hardware, rather that you would need to focus on the pre-configuration and overclocking the system as to where the value is coming from, as overclockers.co.uk attempt to do.

I just believe that you could do what these OC firms do only without charging a big markup on what is effectively an easy job to do (construction, configuration and overclocking).

Thanks also for the heads up on the GPU card length by the way. I haven't decided on what specific LAN Cases I would be buying if I ever did go ahead with this idea but I'd make sure it would be compatible with the new cards .

Atlas_IRL

It could be hard to be honest. Building the machines wont be but why would people trust that the machine will be well made?

I've made about 6/7 pc gaming rigs and one i done for my cousin was too much hassle than it was worth. Their was problems with the parts and it was a nightmare as i spent about 6 hrs one day going through everything.

One way you could start it very cheaply would be as follows.

Create a wordpress blog about custom gaming rigs and have different rigs you think are good in each blog post. You could have all the parts from komplett and just have an affiliate link if anyone buys those parts. X% of anything up to a 1000e is decent.

You could then have a buy now button with details of how you build it.

Do you pay for the parts or do they? Can you afford up to 1k up front if you do? Do they want to wait 1/2 weeks for their machine?

Its quite hard to do these if you dont own the parts.

DublinWriter

Deleted User wrote: »

I really appreciate any and all your thoughts on this idea.

Feck all money in small-scale retail electronics and tech support would be a nightmare (for you).

Bigus

google came up with this irish crowd

http://www.custompc.ie/

How are you different ?

Bigus

Bigus wrote: »

google came up with this irish crowd

http://www.custompc.ie/

How are you different ?

Good point, that's a question I need to answer.

- Just looking at this site now, they seem very expensive

Atlas_IRL

They stock the parts but charge about 10% extra than dabs/komplett etc to build it.

If you dont have the parts its not going to pay a wage at all, only pocket money on the side.

Bigus

Pick out out a spec that represents good value or one that has extreme performance and a dearer price, build it test, it and than put up a website offering this one and this one only for sale and see what happens.

Think of a trading name and product name too. No need to worry about Tax man yet as it might all come to nothing unless you start selling a few , tax is always retrospective anyway

Buy a few google ads to promote it, as well as pushing it on gaming sites

Keep your product selection simple, are you offering warranty ? if so what type?

And remember cheapest isn't always best way to sell stuff,

partyatmygaff

It's not a very feasible idea.

There are two main groups of people who'll buy a custom-built PC (I.e. not built by Dell/Alienware e.t.c.). Those who know a bit about computers and want to buy a gaming rig without having to worry about assembly and setup and those who know a lot about computers who enjoy the whole assembly/setup process.

The latter group will obviously never need to avail of your services. That leaves you with just the first group. When there are people like Hardwareversand with extremely low component prices and very competitively priced assembly fees you're going to struggle to compete tbh.

Realistically speaking, the only way you could make money out of an idea like this is if you sold the components yourself and just had assembly as an optional service like Hardwareversand.

unnameduser

Its gonna be a hard sell. I'm in PC game and there is no markup on parts.
You are right to make your money from service rather than parts but I fear that the type of person (ie gamers) will have a good bit of knowledge on the topic themselves and will probably know how to do a lot of what you are offering.

On another note if you do go ahead why just limit yourself to gaming machines. Why not build custom PCs for home and business users. These are the type of people who need assistance - not tech savvy gamers.

Finally unless you do something that it different than the rest then I can't see it being hugely successful. best of luck.