The time has finally come that buying a computer won't cost you an arm or a leg. ( that is of course, assuming you value your extremities much more than 20K!, if not well, it'll still cost you an arm or a leg ! ). If you haven't noticed, whole computers systems are becoming cheaper day to day. If you are old enough to remember, 3-5 years ago computer systems ranged from 30,000 pesos to 50,000 pesos! The funny thing is, those systems were much, much slower compared to today's computers. ( Try playing mp3's on a 40,000 peso, 486 based "powerhouse" system...and you'll now what i mean ).
With the rapid advancement in technology computers are getting faster and faster by the day. Today's cutting-edge computer may be obsolete in less than a year. And with the continuing nose dive in their prices, we can now finally make a high performance computer at a cost of around 20,000 pesos!
We have broken the $1,000 mark for a whole system, next was the $800 mark, now we finally come to the sub-$500 computers. You may ask, Why 20,000 pesos ? . Although, it would be possible to build a computer system for as low as, say..., 14,000 pesos, the 20K mark is arguably the best compromise between performance ( & reliability ) and price for a value oriented system. You wouldn't want a 10,000 peso machine that can barely run Windows 98, right?
Of course, you also can't expect this 20,000 peso personal computer to be cutting edge! Expecting a 1 Ghz ( 1,000,000 Hz! ) Pentium 3 processor with this system would be too much! ( these P3's currently sell at around $1000 each ). Maybe a couple of years from now, a 1 GHz Cpu can be bought with a "budget system".
Frankly, the newer 3D games, such as Quake3 and Unreal Tournament, may not perform superbly with this system, because they need the newer,more powerful and outrageously expensive 3D accelerators. We should remember that this is a guide for an entry level system, not a gamer's rig.
If you are getting a little discouraged with all the things this 20,000 peso computer can't do, don't be worried: Don't be worried at all. Its performance will not only be good but will surpass most of the budget systems that you can find at those mom & pop computer shops. You can play mp3's, open a handful of internet browsers, chat, page through ICQ, use Word™ and much more, thanks to the RAM that it will be provided with ( more on this later ).
You can call this system a High Performance, Value Oriented, Full Featured, Cost Effective Entry Level Computer System. Hopefully, this article can help you get the most bang for you hard earned buck!
