I am not computer savvy in regards to programming or setting up servers etc. If one were to buy all the equipment and software, hardware etc? How much would something like this cost to set up a Bitcoin exchange better than Mt Gox?
Servers are the least expensive things as usual. A rough estimate for a serious exchange could look like this:
Software development or purchase of out-of-the box product + customization: 100k-200k USD
Servers: around 20k USD should be enough + Xk USD that you want to spend on DDOS protection, X can be as large as you want and still won't give you 100% DDOS resistance.
Initial legal costs: 10K USD-100K USD (heavily depends on jurisdiction)
Thanks for your input.
Could you elaborate on the software?
Basically you can do 3 things:
1. Develop form the scratch. Cons: very expensive, requires really good developers (thus again very expensive), time consuming, risky (the project can fail due to inadequate architecture, developers may quit, etc.). Pros: you can implement whatever features you like.
2. Take something opensource like
https://github.com/buttercoin/buttercoin and try to build on top of it. Cons: you are constrained by the design of the initial project, you still need good developers. Pros: less expensive, less risky.
3. Talk to Forex brokerage solution providers, explain them your requirements, get a quote for the licenses and the customization. It will be expensive again, but you can be sure (to some extent) that it is done right.
Note that you need in-house developer anyway. In 1 and 2 you need at least 3-4 developers to handle server side, backoffice, web client, desktop client, security, testing etc.