Yeah, they gave me a 10% discount. So now I'm getting a 10% profit on the parts I'm using in the builds. Customer still pays the exact same amount. I tend to provide all the retail receipts in the event of a parts failure, they can go in and get the RMA done through the shop; or if they want IPR, they pay extra for it up front. I price out all my builds through the local PC shop so that there's no BS, no hassle and no fuss when something goes wrong; and my customers know they're getting the parts from a reputable source. The shop is happy because they're still making bank, I'm happy because I'm getting a bigger cut, and my customer is happy because they're seeing the actual numbers and not getting ripped off. My build and setup fee is a flat rate. I charge less for AM4 builds since they're so boneheadedly simple to do, whereas the Intel and AM5 builds require a bit more finesse when socketing. At least, that's my explanation why I charge the extra $20 for Intel and AM5. To be honest, I never did like LGA sockets. And I still don't. Probably never will.
Once I get Project Spectre done, I'll probably start offering soft-tube custom watercooling. I want to buy a few lengths of the various hard tubes before offering that up.
I'm really not in it to make money. It's a hobby. I have FUN doing it, so I charge just enough to work out to a day off work at my current wage before taxes and stuff are taken off by payroll. One of my drivers at work asked me if I could troubleshoot his granddaughter's PC, turned out to be a dead GPU. I asked what she did with the PC, how often it was used and made a recommendation based on that. Driver and I went to the shop, got the fresh card, I mounted it, DDU and fresh drivers, a couple of YOLO bench runs later and she was back in business. Cost to him was a new GPU for the kid, and two giant bags of beef jerky for me to munch on at work.
Performance over Pretty.
