AMD Inside-1997-07-01-Who needs a Pentium Pro when a K6 system is faster and cheaper-Matt Lake

Here's a snapshot of the universe as Intel's marketing department sees it: It's mid-1997, and price-wise customers with eyes cocked toward the future of computing are buying Pentium Pro systems with MMX technology.

Cutting-edge customers with deeper pockets are splurging on Pentium IIs. This Intel-centric universe sounds pretty rosy if you have stock in Intel.

But there's more to this story, and it's good news for anyone who wants a PC capable of handling heavy-duty business software into the next millennium. Advanced Micro Designs (AMD), Intel's main competition on the CPU front, is marketing a line of processors that performs business-strength computing at a level between the Pentium Pro and Pentium II--and costs less than either of them.

Granted, it's a leap of faith to buy a system that's built around AMD's K6 MMX Enhanced processor. All the big PC manufacturers and mail order houses are pretty much locked into Intel as their sole supplier. But if you're prepared to deal with vendors like MicroExpress, CyberMax, and Polywell instead of Micron, Dell, and Gateway2000, you could be making a better deal all around.

PRICE POINTS

No fewer than three nationally recognized labs have tested AMD-K6-based systems against Pentium Pros and found the Pentiums Pros a little slower. That in itself is enough to raise a few eyebrows. But when you compare prices, K6 systems look even better.

I called six vendors to price my next PC purchase, a system I consider to be powerful enough to last me through the next couple of generations of business software. I may have skimped a little on RAM and modem--I asked for 32MB of EDO RAM and a 33.6Kbps modem--but otherwise, I aimed high, from the 17-inch monitor and 12x CD-ROM drive to the 4MB WRAM video board and 4GB+ hard drive.

The results of my price poll show that the Pentium Pro systems from the major league players were $200 and $800 more expensive than their K6 counterparts from smaller-league vendors. (Check out the "K6 KOs the Pentium Pro" table for the details.) Naturally, there are all sorts of variables in this price comparison, from the monitor brands to the fine print on the warranty to the exact nature of the software bundle. But in terms of raw figures (and exact brands, wherever I could get them), these systems are comparable.

Even when you eliminate some of the more obvious factors that could skew the price of a system (such as the brand of the CD-ROM drive and, especially, the monitor), K6 systems still come out cheaper. When I priced identical systems from the three K6 vendors I polled (Polywell in northern California, MicroExpress in southern California, and CyberMax in Pennsylvania), the margin over similar Intel-based computers was narrower--about $100--but still there.

FLEXING THE MICRO

The cheapest system was Micro-Express' MicroFlex, so I chose that one to evaluate. The rationale for aiming low was that the lowest bid gets the sales, especially for corporations buying scads of desktop systems. (Though if I lived in California, I probably would have chosen CyberMax to avoid paying sales tax. I'd have come out ahead in price there, too.)

I wasn't disappointed with the system or its peripherals. The machine made my formerly sluggish and demanding business apps run darn fast. Bench-marks I ran using Ziff-Davis' Winbench 97 and PC World's PC WorldBench confirmed my impression. Even the ultra-demanding Microsoft Outlook 97 was pleasantly responsive, which is more than I'd expected from any system with a single CPU.

The 4.2GB SCSI hard drive was zippy, and the video subsystem was a winner. The 17-inch Princeton Graphics EO75 monitor was sharp, bright-white, and crisp, with an up-front control panel that handles it all--brightness, contrast, sizing and positioning along both axes, keystoning, pincushioning, degaussing, and color temperature--in four buttons. (One button degausses, another calls up a nifty onscreen menu, and plus and minus keys let you make menu selections.) The 4MB WRAM Matrox Millennium video card was a fine complement to the excellent monitor, though I'll hold off on running them at the maximum resolution (1600 by 1200 pixels at a 75Hz refresh rate) until I've had some radial keratotomy. The next highest resolution (1280 by 1024 pixels at a nicely stable 85Hz refresh rate) was legible enough, but I eventually settled for 1024 by 768 pixels, which provided a nice big desktop and extremely sharp text.

BUYER BEWARE?

All told, the MicroFlex K6 system allayed my fears about dealing with a system vendor and a CPU manufacturer I'd had no experience with. Certainly, it would be nice if more and bigger system makers adopted AMD's K6 chip, but that's not likely to happen. Big PC vendors err on the side of caution when it comes to leaving the Intel Inside stable. One of the few exceptions is Compaq, whose budget Presario 2100 uses a Cyrix MediaGX CPU. (See my column "The $999 PC".)

The MicroExpress MicroFlex is a speedy, inexpensive, and sturdy system. (There are no faceplates falling off this box.) It may not be the first or the fastest K6 system around. Cyber-Max has been cranking out K6-based PCs since April, and some independent test labs give Polywell's K6 systems the speed crown. But that's a small qualm when your techno-speed lust is tempered with an eye for a bargain. This low-priced system is loaded with almost enough to handle the kind of code bloat I'm expecting from Microsoft's products a few years down the line, like Office and NT 2000. Then again, maybe I should spring for that 64MB of RAM.

K6 KOs the Pentium Pro

The following systems include 200MHz processor with MMX capabilities; 32MB of EDO RAM: 512K of L2 cache 4-to-5GB hard drive (as available); 33.6Kbps modem; 12-to-16x CD-ROM drive; video accelerator with 4MB of WRAM; 16-bit wavetable sound card; speakers, ergonomic keyboard and mouse; 17-inch .28 dot pitch monitor. All systems priced with Windows 95; some systems include Office 97 Small Business Edition. 200 MHz Pentium Pro PC systems Price Dell Dimension XPS $2,413 Micron Millenia Pro2 200 $2,649 Gateway G5-2000 w/MMX Technology $3,063 Average price: $2,708 200 MHz MMX-compatible K6 PC systems Price MicroExpress MicroFlex $2,224 CyberMax PowerMax A53 $2,249 Polywell Poly K6 series $2,269 Average price: $2,247

Where to Buy

AMD-K6 MMX Enhanced Processor
American Micro Devices
www.amd.com

PowerMax series
CyberMax
800/345-8939
www.cybmax.com

MicroFlex K6 200
MicroExpress
800/989-9900
www.microexpress.net
List price: $1699, $2,224
(including 17-inch monitor)

Poly K6 series
Polywell
800/999-1278
www.polywell.com

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