We’ve been hearing it for years now! As long as you offer custom built PCs, you’re going to run into the loud minority who abrasively yell about how the parts in the PC cost so much less than companies charge. There’s some markup from big companies that offer custom PCs like Corsair, Alienware, and Omen (formerly VoodooPC). Sometimes there is even more markup from the truly boutique builders like AVA Direct, Falcon Northwest, and Arsenal PC.
For some people it’s easy to justify, simply from the idea of having someone else take care of everything for them. Others may look at the price of a fully built custom PC, then plug everything into PC Part Picker and wonder why there is such a hefty upcharge. Some of the larger YouTube channels like Gamers Nexus will do this to systems from all manufacturers, and simply state what the charge is… without any reason behind it. Here are the top 5 invisible expenses that go into a custom built PC from a boutique builder, that you may not have thought about!
-
Labor - We know first-hand that labor is a giant expense these days. With recent inflation, living expenses are at an all-time high, so paying your employees a fair wage for their efforts is highly important. As a company, if you want your employees to have the company’s best interest in mind, you’ve got to have their backs for living expenses. If you assign one employee to build a PC, manage all the cables perfectly, load Windows, run Windows update, update all the drivers, install RGB control software, run some benchmarks to ensure stability, all while doing some paperwork to keep components’ serial numbers on record… the final product will take 6 to 8 hours of labor all-in. At $25/hr, this is between $150-200 in labor, and represents the single largest hidden expense. Building the PC physically is the smallest chunk of that time - it’s the software loading and running stress tests that takes the longest. PC builders are humans, and they deserve to be compensated fairly for their efforts.
-
Warranty claims - If you build your own PC and it has a problem later on… let’s say your home experiences a power surge, and suddenly your PC doesn’t turn on. How long would it take for you to get an RMA on your power supply? If other components were damaged, how long would that take to figure out? Would you wind up having to just buy components outright in order to fix it? These are all taken care of when you go out and buy a custom built PC. Bear in mind, not everyone has the technical knowledge to swap out components inside a PC that cost several thousand dollars, and even if they do, they might not be that comfortable handling a $1000+ GPU. Arsenal PC offers a warranty, for instance, that covers two-way shipping for the life of the PC as long as you retain all the original packaging. In warranty, we cover the entire PC down to every component including labor, parts, reloading Windows if needed, and two-way shipping. You have to ask yourself - if your PSU failed and you had to RMA it with Corsair for instance, shipping it to them on your dime, and that took 4-6 weeks, wouldn’t it have been nice to be able to ship your PC off for 1-2 weeks and have it back fully working and tested?
-
Technical support - Having a real human who can answer questions you may have about things like, “Should I update my BIOS” or “What do I do when Windows 10 stops getting updates” holds a lot of value over asking generative AI. Considering the AI bots pull information from literally every website on the internet, including ones with incorrect information like Reddit, that can quickly lead you down a rabbit hole that just makes things worse. Not to mention, technical support from your custom PC builder will absolutely have your best interest in mind - they aren’t trying to catch a bad review, and want to resolve issues without having to have your PC sent back for service. Knowing you have somebody who truly wants to help is possibly the biggest peace-of-mind benefit.
-
Commercial rent, utilities, and insurance on the physical work building - Everybody has been feeling the effects of increasing rent, but none more than commercial real estate! With increases on property taxes over the last several years, business owners are feeling the pressure when it comes time to pay rent on their buildings, as those property taxes trickle down into rent payments. Commercial-level utility bills and insurance add up as well. These expenses don’t apply to your neighbor’s kid Kyle who’s building PCs out of the basement, but having a physical store where operations take place is a big expense, and one that most critics don’t like to address.
-
Research & Development - Another heavy-hitter in the expenses of any custom PC build is the research that went into knowing it all works together, without overheating, without clearance issues, and without any pending disasters that would cause it to fail during the warranty period. There are some tools online to help somewhat with this (We’re looking at you, PC Part Picker) but even PC Part Picker is heavily flawed, particularly when it comes to physical clearance. If you’ve ever tried to install an AIO cooler in the top of a case with tall RAM installed, you’ll know the exact struggle we’re referring to here. Or what about installing unsupported RAM into a motherboard, and then pulling your hair out for days or weeks trying to figure out why you’re getting occasional blue-screen errors after turning on XMP? Knowing your PC is built out of hand-selected components from high-quality brand names that are going to work together with no problems… that takes a lot of time investment, which is difficult to quantify, but plays a part in the pricing of a custom-built PC.
If you didn’t have time to build your own PC, or wanted someone else to handle everything for you, would you hire a boutique builder to custom-build a high-end PC for you? What are your thoughts about buying from a small builder vs a big brand? Let us know in the comments below!
Are you interested in a custom-built high end gaming PC from the professionals? Browse our extensive collection of available configurations at the ArsenalPC store on Newegg!