ch can even further dilute the decision making process. “Marketers are very aware of a consumers interest in a brand name and they attempt to educate them about a brand, and influence them to buy that brand.” (Peter, 65)The least abstract but most important sub-category of consumer product knowledge are model or features of the product. “Some consumers have more knowledge about models, a more concrete level of product knowledge than brands.” (Peter, 65) With computers many are not as familiar with brand names compared to other product classes and some don’t even care about the brand name, but focus more on the features and benefits of a system and focus on the price of it. Since the scope of a computers brand and its components reaches far beyond the scope of this project, we will focus on pricing and performance of the processing and memory components of a computer this time. Pricing: If you need cutting-edge power for demanding multimedia programs or games, and want to delay obsolescence for as long as possible, opt for a 600MHz or faster Pentium III or the 600MHz or faster Athlon from AMD—an attractive alternative at a lower price. For example, identically configured Athlon and Pentium III power-user systems start around $1,500 and $1,700 respectively. Of course, you can pay significantly more or less depending on your configuration choices. Best Values: “Those on a particularly tight budget (under $1,000) should opt for systems based on AMD's K6-2, available at speeds as high as 450MHz. Like the newer K6-III, the K6-2 fits in the traditional Super 7 motherboard design. Most K6-2 systems include 100MHz motherboards for fast access to cache—512K of off-chip cache is the norm—as well as AGP sockets.” (MSN) For everyday applications running Windows 98, the K6-2 should approach Pentium II/Pentium III/Celeron performance for a given clock speed. Unlike the Celeron, the K6-2...
