[IDEA][Website][Computers][DIGG]

M

Meatwad

Veteran XV
Given:
-There are more computer users now than ever
-The number of computer users will only increase
-The number of computers in each home will only increase
-The number of users interested in learning more about computers will only increase
-Building your own computer can be cost effective
-The number of users interested in building their own computer will only increase

Problem:
-Hardware changes regularly
-Research must be done with each new build
-There is no single resource to design, build and rate your own computer

Solution:
-A user driven website to design and rate computer setups
-Each setup submitted by users can be “dugg” based on BOTH cost and specifications

Problems fixed:
-As hardware changes, so do the setups
-Let someone else do the research and submit the best setup
-No longer have to check 5+ sites to find the best deals on the same component
-No more “Rate my computer” threads across ALL forums

Audience:
-Computer enthusiast who wants to be recognized for having the best setup
-Computer noob who wants to build a computer
-When it’s time to upgrade

Website Design:
-Easily search for type of computer based on use (HTPC, Gaming, Email, etc.)
-Easily search based on price of setup
-Comment system for each setup
-Easily add components and pictures from newegg, tigerdirect, etc. to design setup
-Howto’s including building your computer from scratch (tons online already)

I would use a website like this, would you?

Cliffs:
There needs to be a user driven website to design and rate computer setups.
 
even if they do not build their own computer. on sites like dell you can customize your computer just like you are building it.
 
It could make money from adds or possibly referrals.

Nail Bomb said:
even if they do not build their own computer. on sites like dell you can customize your computer just like you are building it.
Click to expand...

There could be a "best match on Dell" to show the savings between building your own and customizing on Dell.
 
It's actually not a bad idea. The issues come into play of building the database of parts and showing compatibility between them all. It'd be a pretty herculean effort, but I could definitely see it used.

And it definitely has the money behind it threw referral, commissions, ads, etc.
 
I'm guessing maintaining up-to-date info on price and products at different places would be a huge pain as they probably don't have feeds or APIs to access all items.

You could use probably find feeds or APIs to get pricing on specific products or possibly crowd-source that to the users.
 
the tough part would be keeping an up-to-date parts catalog that's aware of compatibility in some way. You could just let incompatible builds get 'dugg down' but *shrug*. Also that database schema could get real complicated real fast

It wouldn't be hard to keep pricing up-to-date with Amazon/Yahoo APIs. Newegg even has an affiliate program although I'm not sure how full-featured it is.

The newegg solutions you list are good for what's out there but there's no quality control there. WHen I've wanted stuff like this in the past I've used Toms and Anandtech's builds, they usually have recommendations at varying price points.
 
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Yeah, if you could design a system that would be able to accoutn for all of that data, you'd have yourself something awesome. You would almost even want to consider the amount of room available in a selected case and such.
 
Colosus said:
It's actually not a bad idea. The issues come into play of building the database of parts and showing compatibility between them all. It'd be a pretty herculean effort, but I could definitely see it used.

And it definitely has the money behind it threw referral, commissions, ads, etc.
Click to expand...
 
There's no way you could keep it updated.

And if it's not on the bleeding edge of available hardware it's COMPLETELY useless.

Maybe you could partnership with NewEgg and tap into their parts database, but I don't see that happening unless you've got some serious connections.
 
meh, if you can tap into an API that has a lot of the information you need you could keep the catalog updated. Find something that's not on Amazon for me (genuinely curious).

Then when people want to add a part that they don't see in your list, there's some process they can follow to add it by searching the API and adding it. There's still Col's compatibility problem though.

Otherwise before RSS feeds I did semi-intelligent parsing of the site itself (you pass a search term to newegg's search then parse the resulting page) but that is a HUGE pain in the ass to maintain.
 
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I guess you could "wikify" it so that it was somewhat user maintained with the updating of parts and specs.
 
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