One of the frustrating parts of being in the IT business is quoting computers. I can’t tell you how many clients, prospects and colleagues I run across that complain about how much higher our prices are for computers relative to just going down to Best Buy or Office Depot and buying them off the shelf. It occurred to me to write an article to explain why this is the case as I suspect other computer resellers out there run into the same dilema. It’s not that our cost more, (in most cases we can be cheaper than a retailer), It’s that many people fail to remember all of the other factors that go into making a computer usable for production.

So, here goes:

When you buy that sub-$300 computer from your favorite store it generally comes with a Home Edition of whatever the current operating system is. The problem with this is that Home Edition Windows operating systems cannot connect to Windows domain servers (this is by design). You must have a business edition operating system to accomplish this, in the case of Vista those editions are Business, Enterprise or Ultimate (Enterprise is for larger companies under a Open Value license plan). So if you buy a PC with Home edition, you have to spend $100-$200 on purchasing the upgrade edition to take it from Home to a Business class edition operating system. You can probably do this yourself, but you might have an IT technician do it, which means an additional $100-$300 in labor.

Next: Almost everyone use Microsoft Office. These sub-$300 never come with Office (perhaps a 60 day trial, but that’s it). Office Basic (Word, Excel, & Outlook) will tack on an additional $100+ and the Small Business Edition (what most people use because it also has PowerPoint & Publisher) will tack on another $300. (Sadly, many businesses skirt this by installing the same Office licenses on every PC, which is obviously illegal).

Finally: A new monitor. this component is obviously optional if you are replacing an existing PC and simply want to use the existing monitor, but if you want a new system, the starting price is $150+.

Let’s summarize least and worst case scenarios:

Least Case: For example, replacing an old computer at your business

• Upgrade to Vista Home Premium to Vista Business +$100 (do installation yourself)
• Buy Office Basic $100
• No monitor, (you have a spare)
• Total: +$200

Worst Case: For example, adding a brand new computer that needs a full Office suite

• Upgrade to Vista Business +100
• Buy and install Office Small Business Ed. +$300
• Monitor +$150 (17′ LCD)
• Labor to install Vista Upgrade and Office software: +300
• TOTAL: +$550 w/o labor; +$850 w/labor

So a new PC, if purchased correctly, really costs more like $500 – $1000.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself. This is a Dell Inspiron that I created this morning. The Inspiron is their consumer class, absolute cheapest model (both in cost and quality).