How do they sell PCs so cheap now?

[Red Squirrel]

The other day I went to walmart and checked out the PCs for kicks. I was actually quite impressed. One machine had an AMD dual core processor (forget what it was), 3GB of ram, 750GB of disk space, and it was like 300 bucks for the machine with monitor and speakers! It had vista on it (isin't that like 300 bucks on it's own?) but I'd replace with XP or win7.

Think it was a gateway. Sure it's not the most high end machine, and it's a clone - doubt Linux would work on it due to all the propiatory hardware (or maybe it would?) but wow, for that price you can't go wrong. If I was to build the same machine it would cost about 1k. How do they do this?

 

[Modelworks]

Volume + cheap labor
If you look on ebay for things like development kit circuit boards you can find boards that are $20 from china that is $125 in the usa. Just because they have cheap labor and ready access to parts.

I gave up building pc for people long ago. No way can I touch prices from the wholesalers. I can build high end and come out okay, but most people want just a home pc and the walmart ones fit .



Good example:
This development board sold from china :
http://cgi.ebay.com/AVR-ATMEGA16-De...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518e3bb25c $30 shipped

Same board in USA is $125 + shipping.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

In addition to the volume discounts and deals DELL, Gateway, HP, Acer (and the like) get for buying so much of things, part of the reason you are impressed is that you seem to have expected them to cost more.

 

[bruceb]

The mains things I would concern myself with about a cheap store unit:

Power supply capacity / quality
Motherboard expansion slots
Type of video or add in card capability
Ability to expand to 4GB or more in RAM

All other items can easily be changed if there
is enough room in the box.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I upgraded a friend's P4 2.8Ghz CPU with a dual-core AMD X2 AM2/AM2+ chip and mobo for around, let's see:
CPU $40
Asrock 780G w/sideport $70
4GB DDR2-800 $40 (at the time, at least)
750GB HD $35 (off of someone on AT)

total: $185.

Add case w/PSU ($50), optical ($25-30), and keyboard/mouse, and you can come out around $300 or so for a system, but without an OS.

 

[Blain]

How do they sell PCs so cheap now?

* Labor cost
* Component cost (questionable quality)
* Both labor and component costs are driven lower due to production volume

 

[rudder]

Linux would probably work on it. Probably just standard chipsets. The only thing typically proprietary would be the motherboard layout or power supply.

 

[piasabird]

I think Dell was going to sell some low-end $300.00 laptops again this year at Wal-mart. They also sell some nice Dell Studio Laptops at Wal-mart that are fully loaded. (Almost)