The 20,000 Peso PC Parts Guide
by Mark Rubrico

Processor : K6-2 500
Estimated Cost : PhP 2550

 
Many may have expected a Celeron 400/433 in place of this K6-2 500. The price of a decent system based on an Intel Celeron Processor is significantly more expensive than that of the already mature platform of the K6-2. Also the K6-2's Windows/Business performance is very good maybe better than that of the Celeron. ( You may notice that we've been comparing it to the Celeron, that's because they both compete in the same value-oriented market ). However, the opposite would happen if we would make a cheap gamers system.

  What about the k6-2 450? It is cheaper yes, but adding 250 pesos for < 10% raw processor performance is kind off hard to resist right? Besides, the 450 had some issues with heat, although the heat issues have been resolved on the later revisions of the chip, it's still good to play safe and go for the K6-2 500. And what about the K6-2 475? Overall, it should perform slightly slower than the K6-2 450 because of its 95Mhz bus speed( the 450 and 500 both use a bus speed of 100Mhz ). That's why you'll see the 450 and 475 equally priced.

  Note: Although raw processor performance ,that's the Megahertz , generally determines a computer's speed, there are a whole lot of other factors that contribute to its speed, one of them is the bus speed your computer is running at.

  The K6-2 500's performance will no doubt be excellent for a system at this price level. Most stuff can be handled by this processor rather easily, be it mp3's, 3D games, Windows/Business software, Starcraft ( who can live without it? ) or surfing the net.

 
 If you were on the market for a K6-2 motherboard, you would generally have to choose the ff: an ALi Aladdin V based motherboard or one based on the VIA MVP3. Both of them are aging but are still relatively good. Another fair choice, would be a SiS 530 based motherboard. The SiS 530-based motherboards are extremely cheap and highly Integrated , thus ideal for our value-PC. Although, the SiS 530 based motherboards offer extreme value, its performance is not that much to get excited about.

 Enter the VIA MVP4. It is also highly integrated, ( audio onboard & video inside the chipset ). Because it is exactly like the MVP3 in almost every way, you can expect it perform very well. Built within the chipset itself, is a Trident Blade 3D Accelerator, which also happens to support DVD hardware acceleration ( Note : DVD-Drives are getting cheaper everday ). One last feature that would be quite significant is the support for UDMA 66 Drives, with this your harddrive's transfer rates will improve.