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Am I the only one who thinks there's a market for sub £200 PCs that haven't got very good specs?

If some company can go out, take that plunge and manufacture sub-£200 PCs, I think it would take off with a certain market.

Students who use their PC for typing up work, internet and e-mail.
Old People.
People getting into PCs but don't want to pay £600+ for one.

Am I going insane, or does this seam like a feasible idea?

HHAT

AMD_MAN wrote:
> I have built a few pc's for family on small budgets and they are
> pretty good, so basically what i am trying to say is, why don't you
> just buy the componants and throw a system together yourselves for
> £200 - £300 you still have manafacturers warrenty on
> everything?
>
> Colin

Well thats virtually what i did, just motherboard and things were slightly more expensive, but still less that £350 quid in total. And all the stuff had the warranty on aswell... lets see what Miserableman has to say...

You have to bare in mind a full pc system for £200 (not including monitor or software) may only last you just over a year and then you have to purchase another one but if you spend money on good high quality machines with high quality componants and it should also be of high spec then it will last you a lot longer, I have built £200 - £300 pc's and i have had to use mostly budget parts (none of which are retail) and the amount of comeback they had during the 3 year warrenty we gave them was well above what we would have got if we had used more expensive higher quality brands, i can't remeber the exact percentages that were worked out but the amount of dead motherboard we changed out as warrenty repairs within those 3 years was %54 and the amount of memory that died was %60 so we decided not to use any of those makes and have gone for better makes of motherboards and memory and now the amount of faulty componants we have has dropped below %10 for motherboard and memory replacments, Also One of the most important componants in a computer is the power supply if you get a cheap power supply then it is likely to blow and take out most of your major componants, Although i will do a quick spec up of a computer with o.k. componants that would be o.k. for £200 - £300 and would last a while.

Motherboard (MSI) £30 (onboard video, sound and LAN)
AMD athlon 2000+ £45 (Retail Boxed with HSF)
256mb DDR £22 (Most motherboard use DDR memory)
Floppy Disk Drive £3
CDROM £10
Case £20
Monitor 17" £75
Keyboard and mouse £10
Windows XP Home £55

£270 inc VAT - del

I have built a few pc's for family on small budgets and they are pretty good, so basically what i am trying to say is, why don't you just buy the componants and throw a system together yourselves for £200 - £300 you still have manafacturers warrenty on everything?

Colin

kittworld wrote:
> I think it's an interesting idea. Computers that are 500 pounds now
> are still fairly decent.
>
> Although I think they should do laptop versions instead. Then people
> like me who have expensive computers can still afford a nice laptop
> just to mess with, email, web etc. Now that's agolden idea. What's
> the cheapest laptop anyway? 700 pounds?

Mine cost me £300, tis a bit crap really, but for word-processing, games like red-alert etc and internet its pretty good...

I think it's an interesting idea. Computers that are 500 pounds now are still fairly decent.

Although I think they should do laptop versions instead. Then people like me who have expensive computers can still afford a nice laptop just to mess with, email, web etc. Now that's agolden idea. What's the cheapest laptop anyway? 700 pounds?

]-[ØM€® B€Á®D §ØL!D wrote:
> In no way are the components bargain basement, they are good quality
> components, just without the rediculous overheads that make them so
> expensive at other stores. So OK the monitor we have is from the old
> system we used to have, but why buy another 17" monitor when we
> already have one.... The RAM is top of the range SD-RAM which can be
> found on SR but for almost 3 times the price. And in terms of the
> case it is not "made of metal so thin that the whole case will
> resonate with the CD drive." Do you not understand that this
> place buys in bulk, so naturally everything is a hell of a lot
> cheaper, but that doesnt mean it lacks quality. And i dont know how
> you can comment on the quality of components when you dont even know
> the specs of them. The case fans are decent, and why do you query me
> having 3 fans in a £300 machine, you make it out to be that
> just because the components are cheaper than normal that the whole
> machine is crap and doesnt deserve or need 3 fans. Well infact the
> case already came with the fans on it. 2 for the power supply and one
> extra. Then one on the CPU itself, which i bought extra as a safety
> precaution. IMO you can't be too careful about heat etc in
> components. So dont you dare start calling the stuff in this machine
> crap, as you dont even know a single thing about it... or is it just
> because you paid a grand for a similar spec machine, you tell me?

So what sort of brands are in this system?

]-[ØM€® B€Á®D §ØL!D wrote:
> Then one on the CPU itself, which i bought extra as a safety
> precaution.

I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means.

Miserableman wrote:
> It still won't be decent though. Those components you're putting in
> are bargain basement, I can guarantee it, and you still haven't built
> a full computer. A decent monitor on it's own will set you back
> around £250. That RAM is probably generic, and generic RAM is
> only cheap because it failed manufacturer tolerances. The case will
> be made of metal so thin that the whole case will resonate with the
> CD drive. The PSU you're putting in will be so pitifully cheap it'll
> shorten the lifespan of every electrical component in the machine.
> Even stuff like your case fans which you parade so triumphantly will
> likely start to lose their balance and make a racket within a year,
> because they aren't high quality units (and 3 case fans in a
> £300 machine?!).

In no way are the components bargain basement, they are good quality components, just without the rediculous overheads that make them so expensive at other stores. So OK the monitor we have is from the old system we used to have, but why buy another 17" monitor when we already have one.... The RAM is top of the range SD-RAM which can be found on SR but for almost 3 times the price. And in terms of the case it is not "made of metal so thin that the whole case will resonate with the CD drive." Do you not understand that this place buys in bulk, so naturally everything is a hell of a lot cheaper, but that doesnt mean it lacks quality. And i dont know how you can comment on the quality of components when you dont even know the specs of them. The case fans are decent, and why do you query me having 3 fans in a £300 machine, you make it out to be that just because the components are cheaper than normal that the whole machine is crap and doesnt deserve or need 3 fans. Well infact the case already came with the fans on it. 2 for the power supply and one extra. Then one on the CPU itself, which i bought extra as a safety precaution. IMO you can't be too careful about heat etc in components. So dont you dare start calling the stuff in this machine crap, as you dont even know a single thing about it... or is it just because you paid a grand for a similar spec machine, you tell me?

]-[ØM€® B€Á®D §ØL!D wrote:
> Yeah, we have a bulk buying computer hardware retailer/warehouse
> thingy near where we live... We managed to make up a 2Ghz system with
> 256Mb RAM, a good motherboard with onboard sound, 128Mb Radeon GFX
> card, case, 60Gb Hard-disk, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo, and a 56k modem. We
> already had a Monitor but they are really cheap, and the decent
> keyboards with hotkeys etc are like £5... it came to a bit over
> £300, and the case already had 3 fans in it and came with a
> Processor heatsink aswell... and i've just realised there are like 8
> USB ports on it aswell... email me [email protected] if you
> want more info... else these posts will probably get removed...


It still won't be decent though. Those components you're putting in are bargain basement, I can guarantee it, and you still haven't built a full computer. A decent monitor on it's own will set you back around £250. That RAM is probably generic, and generic RAM is only cheap because it failed manufacturer tolerances. The case will be made of metal so thin that the whole case will resonate with the CD drive. The PSU you're putting in will be so pitifully cheap it'll shorten the lifespan of every electrical component in the machine. Even stuff like your case fans which you parade so triumphantly will likely start to lose their balance and make a racket within a year, because they aren't high quality units (and 3 case fans in a £300 machine?!).

It's just not possible to build a decent high-quality machine for that sort of money. Sure, those computers may sell, and they may sell well, but don't kid yourself they're any good. Some components, like those mentioned above, you just cannot scrimp on in a quality machine.

HálloHowArtThou wrote:
> Surely the main bulk of the costs of the PC are in the componenets,
> and not putting them together?

Indeed, but it costs little more to manufacture a high capacity hard disk compared to a low capacity hard disk, for example. Assuming you have the equipment to make both high speed devices and low speed devices, the actual price of manufacture rarely belies the difference in performance between the two.

Miserableman wrote:
> Manufacturing slow components costs no less than manufacturing fast
> components in most cases.

Surely the main bulk of the costs of the PC are in the componenets, and not putting them together?