This summer's drop in PC prices has been less than expected, possibly because sales of high-end Pentium III machines with 800 or 733 MHz processors have been disappointing, but the rule-of-thumb that the best price/ performance is at the third-tier continues to work. The Pentium III with a 700 MHz processor is the best deal for most libraries. Dell and Compaq are selling Pentium 111/700 systems at under $1,200, at least $800 less than the III/800 systems, and at least $500 less than the 111/733 systems. The typical Pentium rn/700 is configured with 64 MB of memory (up to at least 768), 10 GB hard drive, 48x CD-ROM drive, 17-inch monitor, sound card and speakers, 10/100 network interface card, MS Office 2000 Small Business, and a three-year warranty.
https://librarytechnology.org/document/8113/