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From...
The first cheap 450-MHz home PC
August 27, 1998
Web posted at: 4:00 PM EDT
by Rex Farrance
(IDG) -- Ouch! Intel has just released a newer, faster, CPU (see "New Intel CPUs" link below). That kind of news comes with a sharp pang, as I look at the formerly state-of-the-art Pentium II-300 I bought for my home -- what was it, only a year ago? Oh well. Just wait a couple of years until I'm ready to buy again: I'm sure I'll beat the latest Pentium II-450 by hundreds of megahertz.
Everybody wants speed
The good news is that current buyers can now choose systems that are even faster than Pentium II-400s. When compared with 400-MHz models (see "Intel Raises the Bar," link at right) the 450-MHz models outperformed the 400-MHz PCs by about 8 percent on typical business and home applications. While that's a significant boost, the $140 to $300 premium over a system 400-MHz CPU may tend to turn off all but high-end power desktop buyers.
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Obviously, power users aren't the only ones who appreciate fast performance. But the latest and greatest have always been reserved first for power desktop buyers. As competition builds and even faster processors become available, CPUs slowly migrate into budget models and home PCs. An example: Although the first Pentium II-400s appeared on our Top 20 Power Desktops in June, it was August before we saw them on our Top 10 Home PCs. And even in our current September issue, a Pentium II-300 is the fastest system on the budget section of our Home PCs chart.
450-MHz super-bargain
Micron doesn't seem to think that budget-class buyers should be excluded from the new-CPU sweepstakes. So the company is offering its new, sleekly designed Millennia 450, a 450-MHz Windows 98 model with 64MB of RAM, a 10GB hard drive, a CD-ROM drive that reads at speeds up to 32X, a good-quality 17-inch monitor, and a 56-kbps 3Com/U.S. Robotics V.90/X2 fax-modem. The price? An impressively low $1899.
I was knocked out by the Millennia 450's performance. Its PC WorldBench 98 score of 210 is within 1 percentage point of the average of the four power desktops in our "Intel Raises The Bar" roundup, and a point higher than the fastest Pentium II-400 power system in our September Top 10 Home PCs. For added perspective, it's also 15 percent faster than the average power home PC, despite its budget price.
Micron even throws in a nice bundle of home applications: the Microsoft Home Essentials/Power Pak, which includes Microsoft's Word 97 and integrated Works package (word processor, spreadsheet, and database). You also get Microsoft's Puzzle Collection, Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, Money 99, and Greeting Cards.
To keep costs low, the company integrated as many functions as possible on the motherboard, including 64-voice sound and the excellent nVidia Riva 128 video chip. The one feature you might want to upgrade is the speakers. You can add a subwoofer to the tiny Advent 009s for another $59. But if high-quality sound really counts to you, the $129 Advent AV390PL package is a better choice.
The Millennia 450's Microtower case and Micro ATX motherboard don't allow for a lot of expandability, although you do get two PCI slots and one full-size half-height externally accessible drive bay. If you think you may want to push memory beyond the standard 64MB (256MB is the maximum), pay $20 extra to have the 64MB installed in just one DIMM, rather than the two that I received my system. That way you'll have one free memory socket for a future upgrade.
Bottom line: A great deal
All in all, this system is a terrific buy. Comparably priced models typically use 333-MHz processors these days. So the Millennia 450 gives you an awful lot of horsepower for your budget dollar. In fact, now that I think about it, maybe I won't have to wait another couple of years to improve on that old Pentium II-300.