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My inner nerd has taken over..
pbj:
Don't do it. They're expensive to make and nobody will want you to pay you enough to make it worthwhile. Direct them to one of the vendors on Ebay and move on with your life.
yotsuya:
Good post Dave. Jim also has a good point - everyone wants one, but at the friends and family discount.. >:D
spoot:
Just don't get sucked into non-stop tech support first of all.
dkersten:
--- Quote from: yotsuya on July 02, 2014, 11:20:30 am ---Good post Dave. Jim also has a good point - everyone wants one, but at the friends and family discount.. >:D
--- End quote ---
lol, When people ask about mine, which I have about $2300 into if you counted the computer (I didn't pay anything for it because I had it already, and it is easily a $700 computer), I quote $3000-3500, and I have 2 people who are OK with that price and want to know when I could have it done. I have a 2 player setup already sold at around $2k, and I will have less than $1k out of pocket into it.. The "expensive" part for me is labor, I can't justify even half of what my time is worth to me, but if I can cut the labor part down, it is worth it. I enjoy building things, but I don't want to be in my shop for 6 hours a night for weeks on end even if I can make a few thousand dollars.. I already have a job that pays better and I make enough that I don't need to burn up all my free time on stuff like this. So I just have to balance things carefully.
I am prepping for my annual 4th of July party right now, and trying to finish up some projects that I should have been finishing when I started the whole arcade thing, which derailed me pretty badly, lol. So last night I came home from work and got busy in the shop, and after 2 hours I had completed my primary task for the night. And while I had a lot of daylight left, I REALLY just wanted to take the night off and chill in front of the tv or even play a video game. I sat down at my gaming computer and played one game of League of Legends, and when it was done I was feeling guilty for not working on projects, so I went out and got my irrigation system running, fixed a couple broken sprinkler heads, and ended up digging out one of them in the dark with the aid of my phone as a flashlight.
Thing is, what I really want is to not HAVE to get anything done each night, and be able to come home and sit in front of the TV and not feel guilty because there is a huge list of things to do that I know I need to work on. Granted, I don't HAVE to do anything, but I hate the idea of having people over when projects are half finished, and working on projects means I have been neglecting other things, like firing up my sprinklers for the summer..
A part of me is looking at an opportunity to have another source of cashflow, which is awesome when you get into a hobby that can be a huge money pit, lol. But another part of me wants to keep my lifestyle simple and open so that when something comes up that I want to do, I can just do it and not have to juggle 20 other things to make it happen. Finding that balance is the trick..
And Spoot, I agree, I am already "tech support" for my entire family and most of my friends.. and sometimes I really hate it, lol. The funny thing is my family is pretty cool about it.. they know I don't like doing it so if I have to come over to work on something they will always offer money for my time. And for friends it all comes around, most of my friends will do things for me when I need help, so it is all good. Another reason to keep the arcade building down to just a select few who I know won't be calling me 4 times a week for support.
Xiaou2:
Agree with whats been said. A few extra's to consider...
Put in a backup HDD as a requirement. It can sit in there unplugged, so when the original drive dies.. you, or they... just have to swap the cables over.
Or... buy the extra HDD, make an image.. and keep it stored safe in your place. Bill it as an Insurance policy :P
- Lock down the Bios, but put the password in a safe place in the Cabinet
- Use a heavy duty surge protector, to keep the Power supply and motherboard caps from going bad as fast... as well possible lightning surges. Some of them have some serious Warranty Guarantee's. Typical cheapies will cease even basic surge protection in a few years of taking hits (although, they will still work fine for powering devices) A battery UPS might be going overboard.. but then again.. if power snaps off suddenly.. it will help keep the Hard Drive from crashing, corrupting data, corrupting windows, and or premature death.
- Or use a Solid State drive.. and or at least for the OS, which on a Dedicated machine, shouldnt really change much.
- Get a minimum of 75% up front. That way.. any unexpected losses.. will be minimized. Even better if you get the full bill up front.
- Get a really good mockup before committing. Probably best to do a scrapwood throw-away control panel in there for physical testing.
Once the machine is built.. and they change their minds.. they may not be willing to pay until the said issues are resolved, even if it wasnt your decision.
- Add some markup to the parts for your orders. You will have to factor in delivery costs, eating some bad hardware / RMA returns, as well as additional unplanned labor to do some repairs.
- A possible 'per month / year' service plan (upfront) might be a good idea? Clean dust out of the Fans, Change lights / parts, Emulator updates? Possible add-on installs / changes. Possible card swaps, pc changes..etc.
- Make sure they can play their Fav. games. Discuss specialty controllers and the additional costs required.
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