Several companies sell fancy $5,000 bracket machines, that
are basically a $2,000 computer with a fancy case and custom
automotive paint on the case, kybd and mouse. The inside is
very well laid out and will have all the custom assembled
touches.
All the chain stores, whether Wal*Mart or CompUSA follow the
same patterns, to control costs. Volume equals profits and
profits are essential to stay in business. Margins are
tight. I was cleaning up some old PC World magazine stacks
and the headline article on the cover (Oct 1999) was
Gigantic Hard Drives. How big is gigantic? 27 GB at a
budget price for the best buy Maxtor of $350. Compare that
to the price of a small 80 GB drive today, you might be able
to buy enough 80 GB drives to setup two RAID array computers
with 4 drives each.
How much computing power you need depend on what you do with
the computer. If all you do is surf the web and do some
school work any computer sold today will do. But if you do
home movies and want to download every MP3 file on the
Internet, you need a lot of storage and for the video
editing the fastest CPU and RAM you can get. You also
probably will want more than one computer and will have a
higher budget.
All it takes to build your own computer is a few square feet
of work space, $10 worth of tools (although I prefer to use
better quality tools) consisting of a #1 and #2 Phillips and
maybe a 1/4 inch socket set or nutdrivers. You can order
parts from many reliable sources and get technical advice
on-line and from the print magazines. The home builder is
the beneficiary of the billions of dollars spent on design
and research over the past 25 years. Parts are standard and
generally any part will work from any maker with any other
makers part. But you can't build your own and save money
because you aren't building 1,000 units a day and buying
parts by the truck load.
People knock on-board graphics because it isn't as fast as
the dedicated AGP or now PCIe cards. But unless you are in
need of screen resolutions at the top and very fast refresh
rate, there is nothing wrong with on-board graphics that may
use as much as 64 MB of system RAM. Since having 512 or
more of RAM doesn't cost $5,000-$10,000 anymore, buying a
very powerful machine is very easy.
Quality and warranty depend on testing at all levels of
production. Labor cost [time] to assemble a $300 machine
are the same for a $2,000 machine since the same number of
parts go in the box.
Software is very labor intensive but once it has been
released in the final version, the cost to reproduce is very
low. But the cost to revise and revise is very high. But
as Mr. Gates can attest, the profits are very good. [Mr.
gates took a $3,000,000,000 stock dividend recently on his
billion shares]
Your robot built car is cheap and runs for 250,000 miles,
those classic cars from the 50's, 60s and 70s might run
100,000 miles and when adjusted for inflation, were far more
expensive than today's cars. Do you want a site built home?
Hire a crew of cement workers, carpenters, plumbers and
electricians, to say nothing about the roofers and your
small home can cost well over $100,000, maybe $250,000. A
factory built modular home may cost half that but be just as
nice once assembled on site. Even cheaper are the trailer
homes that roll in on their own wheels and put together.
And a 15 foot camper trailer is real deluxe if you are
otherwise homeless [hurricane, tornado or flood].
Car mechanics, flight instructors and no doubt even porn
stars, burn out after doing the same thing day after day,
hour after hour. Even Hollywood's top stars suffer from
work pressure which may explain the drug addiction and sex
fetish we hear about in the tabloids. The boss and owner at
a small retail store probably [certainly] feels the same
pressure, he has to feed his own family and also meet the
salaries of his employees every day. Most employer have to
deal with workers educated by the public schools which means
they can't add, can't spell but expect "gold stars and happy
faces" just for showing up close to on time.
Now for something a little lighter...
While riding a bus, a blonde was reading the newspaper and
the headline
blared,
12 Brazilian Soldiers Killed in Combat.
She shook her head at the sad news, then turned to the
stranger sitting next to her and asked, "About how many is a
brazilian?"
--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
some support
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm
|A few points. Yes, a cheap new Dell would be a step up
| from a Win98 era machine. It wouldn't be able to handle
| heavy computations or graphics, but it would offer a user
| a vast improvement over his/her earlier PC models. The
| user would have to face and accept the fact that expansion
| capabilities would be retarded on the new cheap PC.
|
| Secondly, I haven't seen a $5000 gaming machine in years.
| If one acquires a $5K machine, one's typically going to
| build it himself/herself. And then he/she is likely to
have paid
| way too much for components.
|
| Thirdly, there a serious misconception about PC salesman's
| commissions. The average PC salesman gets 1 or 1.5% on
| commission on a PC, and then only if he sells a customer
| a TAP (Technology Assurance Program)--aka as an extended
| warranty. If one fails to sell the extended warranty, one
loses
| the commission. By selling the warranty program, one
collects
| the meager commission and a small cut of the warranty
program's
| price. Turnover in PC retail sales is extremely high
because
| once people get over the thrill of being in a high-tech
field,
| they must confront the fact that they're starving to
death. It's
| not worth it to put up with ultra-cheap urealistic
customers
| who want discounts to bring a $900 PC down to $300.
| It's not going to happen. There's no margin left in PC,
printer,
| and monitor sales anymore. Three years ago, one bought
| a solid, competent HP or Espson printer for $395-500.
| Now, one can buy a fast Espon printer with built-in
scanner
| for $100. Virtually no margin. The stores make their
profits
| off ink cartridge and paper sales.
|
| At my chain, we would have had to turn off the lights if
we
| depended on PC sales to produce profits. The markup is
| in accessories, books, and software. You absolutely
| wouldn't believe the markup in a simple USB cable.
| PC sales is a necessary evil in computer stores. One
| sells a PC to a customer and then sits back and
| watches that same customer coming in to buy cables,
| speakers, graphics cards, more RAM, and so forth.
| That's where the profits come from. They're small profits
| but they add up fast.
|
| Look our in the parking lot. You won't see computer
| salesmen driving new cars. They work in the stores
| because they truly love doing what they do.
|
| I despised selling extended warranties because (1) I think
| they're a big rip-off, and (2) I've seen used parts
cannibalized
| from other broken PCs being used to repair my customers'
| PCs. "How do you know that used hard drive works?" I'd
| be told to not worry about it.
|
| Since I found it difficult to sell a $600 three-year
extended
| warranty for a $600 PC, I literally starved. The stress
was
| enormous. We had one angry male customer come into the
| store raging like a bull. He pushed a female salesperson,
| and I decked him. He learned a few manners that day.
|
| One of the things we were forbidden to do was provide
| technical support after the sale. After all, we sold a
| telephone service support program. Of course, customers
| pestered us continuously to provide them with all sorts of
| technical support--from replacing their motherboards
| to how to create family genealogy charts. Nobody wanted
| to be rude, but we couldn't be selling if we were tied up
| by insistent customers who wanted to know how to
| create icons. I adored the customers who came with
| problems with the Dell PCs. We never sold Dell. And
| you want me to waste my time on you? NOT!
|
| And at my store, we processed an average of over 50
| applications for employment weekly. When a salesman
| such as myself got burned out, there were always eager
| beavers waiting to take one's place. I had a heart attack
| in the store. As the EMTs were rolling me out on a
| stretcher, the sales manager fired me for low sales that
| week ($40K) and for screwing up his schedule.
|
| Don't ever make the mistake of thinking PC salesmen make
| a good living. Many are below the poverty line. When you
| see a $700 PC in a chain computer store, the store's
markup
| is around $20-35 bucks. So the salesman may get a $1-3
| commission off of a new PC sale.
|
| There are many assumptions about PC sales that are simply
| not true. Such assumptions used to be true in the days of
| $2000-4000 PCs. That was then; this is now.
|
| > Salesmen get paid commissions or raises based on sales,
| > there is a bigger commission on a $5,000 gaming machine
than
| > a $299 starter machine.
| >
| > Today's starter is better than any computer from the
W95-98
| > era. It doesn't make any sense to update a machine that
is
| > older than say am 845 chips set, and then only if you
are
| > just upping the CPU by at least a Gig or adding $50 of
RAM
| > or a $40 hard drive. Just my opinion.
| >
| > --
| > The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
| > But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
| > some support
| >
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm
| >
| >
| >
| > message | > | In | > | Jim Macklin <p51mustang[threeX12]@xxxhotmail.calm>
typed:
| > |
| > | > Thanks
| > |
| > |
| > | You're welcome, Jim.
| > |
| > |
| > | --
| > | Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
| > | Please reply to the newsgroup
| > |
| > |
| > | >
in
| > | > message | > | >> In | > | >> DanS <
[email protected]>
typed:
| > | >>
| > | >>> "Ken Blake" <
[email protected]>
wrote
| > in
| > | >>> | > | >>>
[email protected]:
| > | >>>
| > | >>>> In | > | >>>> Jim Macklin
<p51mustang[threeX12]@xxxhotmail.calm>
| > typed:
| > | >>>>
| > | >>>>> And remember you can buy a new Dell for $300
with XP
| > and
| > | >>>>> some software and a new warranty. It will cost
you
| > at
| > | >>>>> least
| > | >>>>> $100 for an upgrade XP CD.
| > | >>>>
| > | >>>>
| > | >>>> Yes, an excellent point! It hardly pays to
upgrade.
| > | >>>>
| > | >>>
| > | >>> Yes, if you want a VERY low budget PC.
| > | >>
| > | >>
| > | >> I think you have this backward. Jim's point was
that
| > his
| > | >> 98-era
| > | >> computer is already a very minimal PC. Spending
$100
| > for an
| > | >> operating system upgrade will leave him with that
very
| > minimal
| > | >> PC. Spending only $200 more will get him a much
more
| > modern,
| > | >> much
| > | >> better equipped computer, and makes economic sense
in
| > most
| > | >> situations. Yes it's still an entry-level machine,
but
| > it's
| > | >> much
| > | >> better than what he would have if he just bought a
new
| > | >> operating
| > | >> system and kept his old computer.
| > | >>
| > | >> Spening more money than $300 and getting better
| > quality,
| > | >> specs,
| > | >> etc. may also make sense for some people, but
that's a
| > | >> completely
| > | >> different issue from Jim'ssuggestion.
| > | >>
| > | >> --
| > | >> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
| > | >> Please reply to the newsgroup
| > | >>
| > | >>
| > | >>>
| > | >>> The one I use at work started as one of those
deals.
| > P4/2.8G,
| > | >>> 256M
| > | >>> RAM, 17" CRT, CDrw for $299.
| > | >>>
| > | >>> Adding 256M of RAM, a floppy (since it didn't come
| > with
| > | >>> that),
| > | >>> and
| > | >>> upping the monitor to a 19" brought the total up
to
| > | >>> $600-something.
| > | >>> I'm still stuck with the built-in graphics though,
as
| > there
| > | >>> isn't
| > | >>> even an AGP socket on the MB. Oh yeah, and no
speakers
| > | >>> either.
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|
