Computer hardware suppliers/wholesalers/importing

[refresh-it]

I have just started an IT company in Bristol UK and am looking for suppliers/wholesalers or importers of hardware components. Having some probs finding this information and i hope someone can help me. Any advice would be great.

Thanks in advance.

[confused]

Hi,

I have also recently setup on my own in the IT industry, although my main field is network design / implementation I also do pc repairs. I have trade accounts with a few uk suppliers, mainly ones local to me but you may well know of them, drop me a pm if you like and I'll give you details of the few I use at the moment.

[cjd]

I'm interested in this from an amateur angle. I build PCs and maintain my neighbours stuff for fun.

But even building it myself and buying off the net I can't get anywhere near Dell's retail price (I'm several hundreds of £s adrift here.)

How can anyone make money on hardware? can importing direct make a big diference?

[confused]

a few years ago it used to be the opposite way, you could build a pc for much less than any retail outlet, today its the other way, BUT
what are you actually getting? you may see a system thats listed as:
blah blah512 ram, 200 gb hard disk, 3000 mhz cpu
ok, you can get 512 meg of ram retail for under £30, you can also get 512 ram for just under £100 retail. The difference being mainly the speed, people dont realise this, they just assume because they dont know. Almost likewise with the hard disk.
Users dont know or care what a motherboard is, but in fact it makes a LARGE difference to the overall stability and performance of your computer, prices vary from £30 to over £100 - and like a lot of things in life, you get what you pay for (generally)
I do custom builds, but not often because of the above reasons, people say "I can get a Dell for much less", I tell them to go ahead, if a customer requires a high performance machine, I'll tell them to buy a £399 dell then bring it in and compare it to my "ancient" 2600 machine that would still cost about twice that of a off the shelf pc from Dell or anyone elsef.
So as far as making money from hardware, unless you are either selling performance machines, cheapo machines, or components then I'd say no.
Sorry my reply is somewhat rushed but I just realised the time and I'm up early!
Refreshit, I'll pm you tomorrow

[cjd]

I'll walk part of the way with you on that - if you want a great (top end gaming or professional media) machine there's no substitute for a self build and I could build one for less that retail.

But if you want a standard business/family machine it impossible to even get near to Dell. They are reliable and stable - they have to be because they have to support them.

Look at this offer.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/homepage_Q4_W5_dimen_1100_D12115A?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

How much do you think you could build that for? :-)

(Yes I know it only 256 RAM, integrated graphics etc etc but hell, £299 is cheap!)

[confused]

yep, definately cheap, windows XP home OEM is about the £70 mark (off the top of my head), a standard tower case about £25, 15" tft, about £100 or so ? bit less maybe leaves £100 for the rest, then you need a profit on top !

[Shaggy]

You have to appreciate, that these guy's buy in serious BULK, the retailers who sell you components buy's from a wharehouse that buys in BULK. Someone has to make money somewhere, and I'm afraid to say the end user, thats you and me pays their profits!!

With regards to DELL, beware, one of the reasons they can sell so cheap, especially in Europe is that the company took large amounts of Europen funding to establish it's market place for 'investment' in the company. They actually utilised it to subsidise their products, hence cheap prices.

They are now being investigated............!!!