What's the catch?

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LancelotSA

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Hey guys,

Please someone tell me what the catch is or how PCZone manages to sell PCs for the price they do?

I just checked out a couple of the websites listed in the "best of thread" and they come nowhere near the price of the entry level PC (the first one) on this page...

http://www.zones.co.za/

The only ones that come near to the R2,199 price are celerons and much smaller drives etc.

I am looking at this for my mom to check emails, maybe some Skype when she learns how, and the odd bit of browsing and playing solitaire :)
 
Raizon.I.T. said:
It's a good price - but it doesn't come with a monitor, just in case you didn't notice that :)
Click to expand...

Thanks but I did notice that and the comparisons I did were also ones without monitors. I also noted no mention of an OS so assumed it might not come loaded with one which is also fine as I have XP :) What difference does no OS make to a retail machine anyway? I know it is not the full cost of the OS retail version.
 
Garyvdh said:
seems about the same as Matrix....

http://www.matrixwarehouse.co.za/html/pricelist.htm



I like those little rocket computers... slap Ubuntu Linux on there and you have an up and running PC for people at less than 2 grand (using their old screen, keyboard and mouse).
Click to expand...

Not the same really as you confirmed what I had already said... the PCZone one is a Pentium Dual Core 2Ghz with 1Gb RAM compared to the Matrix Celeron 1.8Ghz with 512Mb RAM. Also Matrix seems to be the box only with no mention of keyboard, mouse, speakers.... so again I ask how?
 
The catch is crappy and I mean REALLY k@k hardware i.e. obtuse named motherboards (no brand names) and potentially the "usual tricks" of barely enough RAM, small hard disk, small PSU, etc....
 
LancelotSA said:
Not the same really as you confirmed what I had already said... the PCZone one is a Pentium Dual Core 2Ghz with 1Gb RAM compared to the Matrix Celeron 1.8Ghz with 512Mb RAM. Also Matrix seems to be the box only with no mention of keyboard, mouse, speakers.... so again I ask how?
Click to expand...

Ja, but the Matrix one is R250.00 cheaper, and has six months optional internet. The keyboard, mouse and speakers are really worth nothing. cheap crap plastic. so the only real difference is the processor and the RAM which probably makes up the R250.

PCZone may be subsidising the sale at 1 or R200. but they are probably still making R300 to R500 profit on each system.

Those are entry level specs pretty much across the board with all PC shops.
 
Turiko said:
The catch is crappy and I mean REALLY k@k hardware i.e. obtuse named motherboards (no brand names) and potentially the "usual tricks" of barely enough RAM, small hard disk, small PSU, etc....
Click to expand...

They are not adequate for Multimedia or Gaming computers, but they are just fine with office use. I have been buying them and setting them up for offices for more than ten years.
 
Turiko said:
The catch is crappy and I mean REALLY k@k hardware i.e. obtuse named motherboards (no brand names) and potentially the "usual tricks" of barely enough RAM, small hard disk, small PSU, etc....
Click to expand...

Please be constructive and compare like for like and not the one I am pointing out with a high spec gaming machine. Bear in mind what I said the use would be.

- PCZone does mention the motherboard as an Asus LGA775 (which yes it is not a big name one but if it does the job I do not care) http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0&model=1705&modelmenu=1

- It has 1Gb of RAM and as stated I will load XP so this should be more than enough.

- With the PSU, again it will be used for things like browsing, emailing and some skype so no need to be running extra fans, high end graphics cards and what ever else may need more power.

Can you please tell me what makes the specs listed really *** for the intended use?
 
LancelotSA said:
Hey guys,

Please someone tell me what the catch is or how PCZone manages to sell PCs for the price they do?

I just checked out a couple of the websites listed in the "best of thread" and they come nowhere near the price of the entry level PC (the first one) on this page...

http://www.zones.co.za/

The only ones that come near to the R2,199 price are celerons and much smaller drives etc.

I am looking at this for my mom to check emails, maybe some Skype when she learns how, and the odd bit of browsing and playing solitaire :)
Click to expand...



PCZone has a ceiling mark-up rate which it why they're cheaper than most stores
 
Garyvdh said:
Ja, but the Matrix one is R250.00 cheaper, and has six months optional internet. The keyboard, mouse and speakers are really worth nothing. cheap crap plastic. so the only real difference is the processor and the RAM which probably makes up the R250.

PCZone may be subsidising the sale at 1 or R200. but they are probably still making R300 to R500 profit on each system.

Those are entry level specs pretty much across the board with all PC shops.
Click to expand...

You are right about the bolded text but if you needed them then they would cost you about R200 in all from what I have seen recently.
 
@Lance - on my 6th from PCZone ....... only thing I've come across is that the mobo's are most time not popular brands (which you already know and I agree, it makes no diff unless really) and the XP (if installed by them) is sometimes a bit wonky ....... normally once I've done a reformat, it's sorted. You won't beat that price here in Durbs, so just do it :D


(p.s - and I am on my way to changing to Linux, so no more XP probs)
(p.p.s - the keyboards, mouse and PSU are Gigabyte most of the time)
 
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LancelotSA said:
You are right about the bolded text but if you needed them then they would cost you about R200 in all from what I have seen recently.
Click to expand...

Yes, for nice ones, at least that much. But the ones that Matrix used to give away were crap... R30 each... I kid you not. maybe that's why they gave them away for next to nothing, and also why they stopped giving them away.

I suspect that PCZone is giving away the same, not sure. But I think so.

Some of the cheap junk that you can get from Matrix is even branded in Asia specifically for Matrix.

I dunno. I agree with you that PCZone is def. a good deal. But it is still within the range of most average PC shops.
 
Mephisto_Helix said:
@Lance - on my 6th from PCZone ....... only thing I've come across is that the mobo's are most time not popular brands (which you already know and I agree, it makes no diff unless really) and the XP (if installed by them) is sometimes a bit wonky ....... normally once I've done a reformat, it's sorted. You won't beat that price here in Durbs, so just do it :D


(p.s - and I am on my way to changing to Linux, so no more XP probs)
Click to expand...

+1 I agree

And you can always specify if you want another mobo or hdd or whatever. They'll just charge you the difference.

If you're not gaming or designing etc, there's nothing wrong with the machine.

I bought an AMD Sempron from them for very basic usage. I setup XP and it runs like a dream. Cost R1600! (you'll see it on the site in a little while, I'm gonn aupload the ad just now)
 
They are not adequate for Multimedia or Gaming computers, but they are just fine with office use. I have been buying them and setting them up for offices for more than ten years.
Click to expand...

Good for you mate, but I do not personally like being at sites all day fixing problems with unstable PC's when I could be doing development/selling new business because I did the job correctly the first time.

Generally sell a customer a crap PC and he will go somewhere else. Put in a cheap (read: no frills) Gigabyte board and decent RAM (NOT 256Mbytes or some ridiculous small amount) and a small but decent (i.e. no Korean brands) and your customer won't bug you all day with BSOD's/random resets/random crashes/program won't install and other weird errors that not even M$ can explain.

Nor will you have to replace computers within a year of supplying them. Some customers will also not deal with you again if that happens.

I spend money testing boards, at least 3-4 brands every 6 months. I don't punt a particular brand out of the small selection that passes my specs and that I have at my disposal but I refuse to supply/or work on PC's with the other rubbish motherboards out there.

Trust me mate, the industry I serve, downtime is not in their vocabularly. They will kill you, literally, if a system is down for too long as it costs them ZAR 1.5 million for each hour of downtime. I cannot take risks with cheap rubbish and besides, like they say in Afrikaans "goedkoop is duurkoop"
 
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Turiko said:
Good for you mate, but I do not personally like being at sites all day fixing problems with unstable PC's when I could be doing development/selling new business because I did the job correctly the first time.

Generally sell a customer a crap PC and he will go somewhere else. Put in a cheap (read: no frills) Gigabyte board and decent RAM (NOT 256Mbytes or some ridiculous small amount) and a small but decent (i.e. no Korean brands) and your customer won't bug you all day with BSOD's/random resets/random crashes/program won't install and other weird errors that not even M$ can explain.

Nor will you have to replace computers within a year of supplying them. Some customers will also not deal with you again if that happens.

I spend money testing boards, at least 3-4 brands every 6 months. I don't punt a particular brand out of the small selection that passes my specs and that I have at my disposal but I refuse to supply/or work on PC's with the other rubbish motherboards out there.

Trust me mate, the industry I serve, downtime is not in their vocabularly. They will kill you, literally, if a system is down for too long as it costs them ZAR 1.5 million for each hour of downtime. I cannot take risks with cheap rubbish and besides, like they say in Afrikaans "goedkoop is duurkoop"
Click to expand...

I generally do the software set-up myself as well. Takes a little bit longer, but I like to configure all PCs I work on in the same way. As you say, it saves you time later. I have been in the game long enough that I have already gone back to a client five years later and the PC is sitting in exactly the same place I put it, never been opened, dust falling out of the fan, and it is still chugging away at some menial task... usually an invoicing system in Excel of something like that. Office people rarely bother with much else. I only have problems with these types of machines when there is a definite fault or hardware error. Then I just get it swapped out. Matrix knows me well enough to not ask questions. If it is an intermittent fault, I will usually pick that up myself during set-up. I only get call-backs for def. hardware failure. If it is a software configuration issue I Just fix it remotely.
 
I don't buy from either PC Zone or Matrix...

I buy directly from the big boys, Rectron, Mecer, etc... that's the difference I guess.
 
Turiko said:
Good for you mate, but I do not personally like being at sites all day fixing problems with unstable PC's when I could be doing development/selling new business because I did the job correctly the first time.

Generally sell a customer a crap PC and he will go somewhere else. Put in a cheap (read: no frills) Gigabyte board and decent RAM (NOT 256Mbytes or some ridiculous small amount) and a small but decent (i.e. no Korean brands) and your customer won't bug you all day with BSOD's/random resets/random crashes/program won't install and other weird errors that not even M$ can explain.

Nor will you have to replace computers within a year of supplying them. Some customers will also not deal with you again if that happens.

I spend money testing boards, at least 3-4 brands every 6 months. I don't punt a particular brand out of the small selection that passes my specs and that I have at my disposal but I refuse to supply/or work on PC's with the other rubbish motherboards out there.

Trust me mate, the industry I serve, downtime is not in their vocabularly. They will kill you, literally, if a system is down for too long as it costs them ZAR 1.5 million for each hour of downtime. I cannot take risks with cheap rubbish and besides, like they say in Afrikaans "goedkoop is duurkoop"
Click to expand...

I am not sure Turiko bothers reading what the thread is originally about before going off on a tangent. I am not a RESELLER! I do not work on PCs! I am not needing a high spec GAMING PC! It is for my MOM! I did not mention buying a PC with only 256MB RAM! In fact your entire post is pretty irrelevant to me!!

You also have still not mentioned what the problem is with the specific specs I posted about....
 
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