How much would you charge for labor on this system...

[FirestormX]

This is the current system I'm looking to build for a friend. The only thing I might want to change is the memory, it's a no name pricewatch brand. If anyone knows better for a similiar price it would be helpful too.

ABIT nForce2 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "NF7-S" -RETAIL $100.99
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ "Barton", 333MHz FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail - $90
512MB DDR PC3200 400MHz Lifetime warranty - $65.88
ATI Radeon 9800 128MB DDR 8x AGP DVI/TV-Out - Retail - $189.89
IBM Hitachi 120GB ATA-6 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer -$85.75
826BKW-350W: Black w/ Silver Front! ,X Window w/ Clear Fan Case 450W - $78.99
Liteon / MSI 48x24x24x16 - CD-RW & DVD Combo Drive - $38.99
Enermax Whispersys System Exhaust Blower (Slot fan), Model "WS-8SLFS" - $6.99
Teflon Mouse Tape - $1.40
Total - $658.88

What would be reasonable to ask for in labor/etc?

 

[Atlantean]

how long did it take you to build it? Is this for a business or for a friend? I would say maybe like $50-100 or so, it depends on what they are willing to pay

 

[JBT]

I would say 75-100 dending on how much work you really put into. Like making it cables organized inside etc. As for the ram I would get some PC3200 Buffalo Ram with winbond chips from newegg.com instead of generic crap. link costs 85 bucks for 512MB lifetime warrenty it should OC good too.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I would go with a different hard drive ... I have had too many bad expieriences with IBM drives in the last 2 or 3 years to recommend them. I can't speak for the current lineup, however I've had quite a few IBM drives die on me... including 2 x 75gb gxps, a 10gb notebook drive, a 20gb drive, and a 40gb drive. I have lost WD and Maxtor drives too, but not nearly as many. I have never had a problem with a seagate, though I've only owned 5 or 6 IDEs ithroughout the course of my days, and about 1/2 a dozen scsi's.

Here are a few alternate drive suggestions and links, I'm sure you could trim a few bucks off the price by finding a hot deal ... Circuit city seems to have good seagate deals every few months ... dell used to have good WD deals ... sometimes siaples or office max will have good deals on drives ... etc

Seagate 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model ST3120026A, OEM $95
Western Digital Special Edition 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD1200JB, OEM Drive Only $96

I can't speak about the generic Ram but I would recommend going with a wenn known brand name .. just in case ... These are a bit less expensive than the Buffalo JBT recommended, and they are both decent brands (though I would seriously consider the buffalo as well)
Kingmax 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - OEM $79
Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail $80

You may also want to consider a barton 2500 as it is more than 96% as fast as a barton 2600 and it costs just under 89% what a 2600 does.
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail $80

The 9800 is an excellent choice of vidcard, Abit makes good mobos, and the NF7-S has a great reputation

But I just want to run this by you as a possible option to trim some of the cost.
Shuttle nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "AN35N-Ultra" -RETAIL $63.99


If it is just assembly ... I would charge around $50
It it is assembly + installing an Operating System ... I would charge around $75
If you are going to be installing additional software ... I'd charge the $75 for assembly+OS and then an additional $20 to $40 an hour for the time spent setting it up

The amount you should charge depends a LOT on your level of expierience, as well as the cost of living in the part of the country where you are, and how close of a friend this is.

If you live in a somewhat depressed small town where the cost of living is cheap, then you may want to charge 2/3 of my suggestion.
If you llive in a town where all the houses cost over a million dollars, than doubling my suggested rate is not out of the question.
Also, if you have built 100s of PCs over the years and have tons of expierience, and maybe as a bonus have some certs, than you may want to bump up the rate a bit.
If you are new to building pcs, and you have only built a few systems, than charge a bit less


If he or she expects support as well ... you need to work out some kind of a deal where you are not going to be fixing spyware, malware, virus, trojan problems for free all the time and that they need to maintain their system properly, otherwise you may get lots and lots of calls for help about stupid things.

 

[0roo0roo]

if its a friend, u don't charge silly.

 

[Budmantom]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
if its a friend, u don't charge silly.

 

[zbalat]

Whenever I build a system for a friend I always charge them.

Their cost: 1 six pack of Heiniken.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: zbalat
Whenever I build a system for a friend I always charge them.

Their cost: 1 six pack of Heiniken.

I didn't see that it was a friend before I wouldn't charge them much more than a 6 pack, but defiantly not Heineken.

 

[FirestormX]

Thanks for the input burnitdwn. And for all you saying not to charge for a friend, I already said I wouldn't but he insists. And this is for assembly, installation of OS, and dumping all my appz/gamez/mp3s/movies...legally of course...yeah...

 

[Davegod]

beer and pizza while your over there building it.

If you start charging, he'll start thinking as if he's buying from a business, with problems being your responsibilty. Probably actually would be your responsibility, legally, and should be since you're making $.

Suggest what you think he would be best with, but make sure he orders it and does so on his card, with you helping him stick it together as a favour - not you buy & build and he pays you back like a make-to-order business. I'm not saying this for "legal reasons" but to encourage him to think of it as his build, his accomplishment, and a side bonus you wont have a fall out if something goes fubar He'll learn more from it this way too, so he knows how to sort problems himself and will have more confidence to do it himself next time round.

As for RAM, I'd go with some sort of reliable brand, memory problems tend to be frequent and troublesome. Twinmos, Kingston valueram or Crucial should do, tho I alsways hesitate to reccomend any specific ram unless I know about compatibility with the motherboard it's to be used on.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Definately make him be a big part of it, like Davegod said. I used to call my buddy all the time for support on the system he built me. Finally he had to just stop returning my calls until I learned to fix things myself.

Now it's me avoiding ppl

 

[SgtZulu]

Send them to CompUSA where an A+ certified technician will install your new video card for only $45

 

[V00DOO]

If you are going to charge him or her, you better let me them know in advance what kind of support you are going to provide.

 

[lansens]

Originally posted by: V00DOO
If you are going to charge him or her, you better let me them know in advance what kind of support you are going to provide.

A 12 of Mountain Dew would be just great! Other than that I would only charge an additional 6 pack per call.

 

[bob4432]

you don't charge friends, just charge a business. have him get you some movie tickets or get the pizza like others have said.

 

[XRdirtHead]

I have built lots of computers of Family, Friends and Relatives but be careful who you builD for. I builT some for a not so close of a friend who doesn't know anything about computers and he calls all the time asking questions and screwing up his computers all the time.
WHAT A PAIN IN THE A$$.

 

[AIWGuru]

Tell him to give you a big bottle of vodka in exchange for the build. Make sure he brings it to you at the same time as the components as it will be used in the construction of the PC. No liability assumed.

 

[imported_Phil]

I would seriously consider charging nothing, going with the beer & pizza option, and having him there while you build it, showing him exactly what you're doing.
While this may be a pain if he knows squat, it will at least teach him some fundamentals about repairing/upgrading that you won't have to teach him in the future if he needs said skillz.

Two birds, one stone

 

[Corporate Thug]

15% of total cost

 

[Cheetah8799]

As others said, charging a friend money is kinda going against what it means to be a friend...

I build plenty of systems for friends and family and don't charge extra. If they want to pay more, they can add it to the bill as they see fit.

If the system is for someone else, like a friend of a friend, or something like that, then I charge based on the time I put into it. For a full system build with software install I might charge $100 on top for myself. You have to look at the time you put into ordering parts, testing them, assembly, installation of software, time spend updating, etc. It adds up quick. In the end, just make sure the final price isn't going to piss off the customer, otherwise they may not come back to you in the future with more work. Or worse yet, they won't tell their friends about the good work you do.

 

[0roo0roo]

yup, its called doing a friend a favor. and hopefully if u have a real friend, u get favors in return when you need something. course if u have a worthless friend, why do you keep em.