Ask HN: Review my webapp PCPartPicker: pick parts, build a pc, compare prices

I'd love to get some feedback from the HN community on a webapp side project I've been working on recently. In the spirit of November launch month, I'd like to offer up PCPartPicker:

http://pcpartpicker.com

PCPartPicker provides computer part selection, compatibility guidance, and multi-part pricing comparisons for DIY PC builders.

I originally created it to solve a problem I had at my day job: quickly pricing out cheap systems for a small cluster I was building. After talking with friends and colleagues it appeared there might be utility for the PC building community. I was encouraged by feedback to a HN comment regarding hard drive prices (here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1546145 ), so I decided to continue on with the concept.

My target audience is DIY PC builders who are building systems of moderate complexity. I think with some work I can target both novice builders as well as more serious builders/gamers. However, I'd like to validate the concept further before investing considerably more time.

Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! Philip

It could also provide more info on individual parts. I do a LOT of spec-reading when I buy hardware. Customer reviews usually factor in as well.

I would like to be able to pick which retailers I want it to use prices from. I only shop a few places, so some of them wouldn't really be the best price for me.

I didn't have any confidence that it matches my CPU and RAM and Motherboard properly because of the warning on the page. I thought that was the main draw, but having to match those things manually defeats the purpose for me.

The site is simple, clean and easy to use. I noticed that a lot of the small touches of UI which add to the experience were there as well - eg a little tick next to each component when you've selected it and then it does go away again when you click remove. (Sounds straight forward I know, but great attention to detail)

Here is my feedback - I've thought of a fair few things - please don't take that as a negative, it just has lots of potential!

1. Lots of the items you have lots and lots of components, which makes it quite difficult at first to look at. I have a few ideas but don't know if they will help

- RAM - perhaps tabify the interface (eg have tabs of 12GB, 8GB, 6GB, 4GB). You are even listing 256MB ram sticks on there. No-one should be buying 256mb of ram. Educate your users and don't allow anything less than 4GB.

- Hard Disks - you could tabify that by SSD, and then speed perhaps?

- CPU - tabify by number of cores or clock speed?

2. the tag line "Pick your parts. Build your system. Compare and Share" is pretty good - how about "Pick your parts. Build your own PC. Compare and Share" - system is ambigous, PC clarifies what it is, and ties in with your domain better

3. Bring in ratings / reviews from other sites, link to them etc...

4. Have a "E-mail me when this system price drops below $xxx" form

5. I might want to buy all the items from one store - give me a comparison between 'source parts from anywhere' v one store. I don't know if you can get stock status as well, but that would be good.

6. You don't have monitors or software. You could have a "I also need Windows" button or something like that

7. With so many components on the graphs, some of them are grouped together so tightly, that's it almost impossible to distinguish them without a lot of tedious hovering. Not sure how you can improve that

8. Add a Reset / remove all button to the system build page

9. Once I've made my component choice - when looking at the component page, put that clearly at the top of the list - rather than a little box in the right hand side?

10. Fill out with content - suggest enthuiast websites, "Why build a custom PC?" etc etc

11. White label it and sell it to pc component e-stores.

From a feature perspective I'd like to see more reviews on parts, price to performance indications, and part hierarchies.

For example, I know what an i7 is - but I don't know what the difference is between an i7 870 and an i7 875k. Once I select an i7 I'd like to see descriptions, a breakdown of reviews, and prices to benchmark performance.

From a business perspective you should start to come up with a business model. This is a really cool site but it's also a lot of work to do right. Do any of these sites have affiliates? If not, you may be able to get merchants or hardware manufacturers to pay for paid messages, but that seems doubtful. So failing that it's possible someone like newegg would want to buy this tool from you, but they'd probably just copy you instead.

Other ways to make money: Show people how much money you saved them via comparing merchants and ask for a donation. Sell premium features to people who buy in batches for companies or local shops. Offer to assemble PCs for people. Maybe you can make some money selling MS software licenses to people.