Take the White Box Challenge

All of our research was done directly from the various vendors' Web sites. We picked vendors at random from several different lists, advertisements and Web searches, and we used various Web-based configuration tools to specify similar machines and calculate what the final price would be. Remember, too, that prices can change daily, and many vendors (including Dell) will offer quantity discounts that can cut prices further.

For each vendor, we also specified the same exact PC configuration typical of a standard small-business computer being specified this summer: a 2-GHz Pentium 4 PC running Windows XP Professional with 256 MB of RAM and 40 GB of hard disk space, complete with network card, modem, internal Zip drive if possible, and a decent-quality 17-inch monitor. The configuration also included the cost for the Microsoft Office XP Pro suite of software and any support contracts offered by the vendor.

The usual expectations are that Dell sells PCs for higher prices, and that you can do better, at least pricewise, by going with a white-box vendor. But that isn't always true: We found some vendors that offered PCs for less than the price stated on Dell's Web site,and some that offered PCs for more.

So, what made the difference when it came to pricing out these systems? Part of the reason for the price spread has to do with slight configuration changes among vendors: We couldn't always get exactly the same components, and some white-box Web sites made it difficult to figure out exactly what was going into each machine, or offered limited configuration options.

But part of the reason has to do with how vendors price various components, software and support. And Microsoft can be the biggest culprit for these pricing differences, both for how it sells its Windows OS and Office applications suites. Take the difference between Office suite versions. Microsoft sells several different versions of Office that include different applications bundling.

The Standard suite ($479 retail) includes four applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook). Professional suite ($579 retail), offered for about $350 by several of our white-box vendors, adds Access and the Small Business suite includes Word, Excel, Outlook and Publisher. The latter version is only bundled by systems makers.

The difference between Windows XP Home and Professional versions can also tip the balance in price. Dell charges $99 extra for the Pro version, while the other vendors charge half that. If the Pro version is important to your customers because of the added features, such as built-in Web services, file encryption, remote desktop sharing, and better manageability and support for multiprocessor machines, look for vendors that offer as small a differential for Pro vs. Home versions as possible.

A final pricing difference can be attributed to monitor, sound-card and speaker options. Some of the vendors offered better sound systems with their equipment, and that upped the price as well. Some vendors offered no monitors at all on their configurations, or had limited choices.

Support is another issue, and this is where white-box vendors can burnish their bad-boy images. Take Tim Klan, the owner of Expert Computers, a white-box reseller in Erie, Pa. Klan has won several bids with local school districts selling his white boxes, mainly on the basis of consistency and support.

"When a school district buys dozens of PCs from Dell's or IBM's Web site, it doesn't always get the same exact configuration. This makes it hard to use disk-imaging software and maintain their configurations," he says. "I can guarantee that every PC is configured exactly the same way, no matter when [customers place their orders. They are far easier to support."

What makes many customers come back to Dell is its wide selection of service contracts. We didn't find information about three of the vendors' support contracts on their Web sites: Obviously, any serious shopper needs this information.

Now take the white-box challenge yourself: Click hereand see where you can save some money configuring your own system.

VARBusiness editorial intern Bridget Platten contributed to this article.