How come it is cheaper???

[ricbea]

I have worked out the detailed configuration for a desktop i7 930 system I intend to buy in one to two months time, and it comes to £1903 including VAT and delivery.

That seemed rather a lot so I just went to a component selling website (Overclockers UK, which I have used before for some components and have had good service).

I looked up the price of all the individual identical components to your quote, thinking that it would be worth building it myself if I could save some money. The result was £1958 including VAT, plus delivery.

So it appears I am actually saving £55 by having you build it for me. Please can someone explain how that can be right?

 

[Xavien]

I dont think its really down to how come it is cheaper, i spent £3700 ish on the setup in my sig from pcspecialist and i couldnt get near that price with anyone else. Alienware actually wanted another £2000 for an identical setup, i dont really think a saving of £55 is likely to put pcspecialist out of business, i believe them to be very competitive, so a few pounds here and there up and down could just mean price fluctuation or maybe they can get some of the items cheaper. The service i received from pcs has been excellent and the after sales has been very good as well.

 

[steveuk87]

PCS prices change constantly, but they can have items bought in bulk so can get it cheaper.. Websites may sell for cheap but they still have to make a profit, PCS get the parts and do it for you with warrenty.. much better

Steve

 

[ricbea]

You both misread my message. PCSpecialist was CHEAPER than buying the components myself. I expected it would be cheaper to buy componenets and build myself.

 

[PCS]

In addition to what our forums members have said, we're one of the largest UK based system integrators so we do have some pretty good economies of scale, and with no retail overheads we can pass on these savings to our customers. We also operate very efficiently, with many standard practices automated through our systems, so that helps keep our costs down too. If you need any further help, please feel free to give us a shout

 

[steveuk87]

You both misread my message. PCSpecialist was CHEAPER than buying the components myself. I expected it would be cheaper to buy componenets and build myself.

ricbea i know what you was sayin and i stand by what i said they buy in bulk so can get cheaper prices, you cant buy in bulk so have to pay inflated prices

Steve

 

[Sweeney47]

dont forget the difference between Wholesale (the price PCS get components from manufacturers) and Retail (the price you pay for components at DABS etc) which I think is what Steve is getting at also

for example, Manufacturer builds something for £5, they sell it to retailers for £8, retailers sell products on the shelves at £15

Over the cost of a PC the difference between Wholesale (£8 in the example) and Retail (£15) adds up...

 

[ricbea]

It still doesn't make much sense. Both component sellers and pcspecialist buy wholesale in bulk and sell retail. But pcspecialist also have extra work building the machines. The only thing I can think is that they have efficiencies because they never have small orders, every order is hundreds of pounds. Component sellers have many small orders as well, which must be relatively expensive to process.

Anyway if I was pcspecialist I would do some more comparisons like I did and point out very clearly that it costs nothing to have them do it all for you, or can even be cheaper.

 

[Sweeney47]

yes but it depends on what contract the other sellers got. They are probably tied into a specific manufacturer/ dealer at a certain price whereas PCS have some fluidity and can get the cheapest deals available. I did the same thing as you did and checked the price of components by themselves and it came out about the same price. I can only assume that they put a smaller margin on the 'retail' cost than other sellers.

 

[Sleinous]

It still doesn't make much sense. Both component sellers and pcspecialist buy wholesale in bulk and sell retail. But pcspecialist also have extra work building the machines. The only thing I can think is that they have efficiencies because they never have small orders, every order is hundreds of pounds. Component sellers have many small orders as well, which must be relatively expensive to process.

Anyway if I was pcspecialist I would do some more comparisons like I did and point out very clearly that it costs nothing to have them do it all for you, or can even be cheaper.

PCS buys OEM, retail has to buy retail copy.

 

[PCS]

For a retailer, they will stock thousands of products and sell tens/hundreds of each. We stock hundreds of products and sell thousands of each, and import most stock from the Far East rather than buy from distributors, so it a lot of cases there are no middle men to satisfy

 

[Sleinous]

^Cunning

 

[Matt]

Whats the difference between OEM and retail PCS?

Apart from retail coming in a box, never really understood the difference.

 

[Sleinous]

Yeah, also most of my parts came in retail style boxes Mobo, gfx and PSU did, RAM too, only one I didnt have a box for was CPU Think probably just something to do with support?

 

[Matt]

Yeah, also most of my parts came in retail style boxes Mobo, gfx and PSU did, RAM too, only one I didnt have a box for was CPU Think probably just something to do with support?

Maybe PCS have changed the way they do things, when i bought my pc i didn't get any boxes from what i can remember except the motherboard box (possibly memory is fading )

 

[Gorman]

Whats the difference between OEM and retail PCS?

Apart from retail coming in a box, never really understood the difference.

Windows is a great example. Windows retail, You get a DVD, support from Microsoft and you can transfer the copy from one machine to another. OEM - Basic DVD and a sticker for your case, Key is tied to that machine and cannot be transferred and MS will not support windows its down to us.

 

[PCS]

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer (the company that makes the goods, often Taiwanese/Chinese then re-branded to the household name you know).

Example: Palit are one of the worlds largest manufacturer of graphics cards and they manufacture for many of the brands that you're familiar with (such as as Gainward and XpertVision amongst others). Rather than buying retail boxed products we often buy in bulk packaging to save on waste (as we integrate everything we sell) and space. We can then in turn pass these savings on to our customers.

Another example is Intel motherboards and Apple iPhones/ipads. These are all made by Foxconn. Foxconn emply 800,000 people and turnover $61.8 billion per year. They make many of the products you currently own. You've probably got something in your house made by Foxconn, you just didn't realise it because it's been re-branded to a household name. Examples include the iPod, iPhone, HP computers, Nintendo, Sony & Microsoft games consoles.