PC clone prices continue to drop.

Prices continued to slide this month for personal computers that are compatible with (or so-called clones of) PCs made by International Business Machines Corp., a review of vendors at the monthly Glendale Computer Show disclosed.

Example: PC clones offered by ATC Computer & Software of Hollywood at the Feb. 2 show in Glendale Civic Auditorium were $50 to $100 less expensive than similar PCs it offered at the month-earlier show in Glendale. The $100 price cuts applied to comparably configured 486-33 and 386-33 desktop computers while the $50 reduction applied to a slower 386SX-25 clone.

Upon seeing what the competition was offering at the show, Quality Computers Inc. of Irwindale quickly knocked $100 off its price for the 486-33-megahertz PC offered at the February show compared with the month-earlier offering. However, Quality retained its month-earlier prices for PCs equipped with a slower 386 central processing unit chip (the computer's electronic brain).

That indicates computers equipped with the faster and more advanced 486 CPU chip manufactured by Intel Corp. are where industry competition currently is the hottest here as PC users seek to trade up, a show observer remarked.

Indeed, at least four vendors were offering 486 PCs at prices below last year's perceived floor of $2,000. Moreover, vendors had added more desirable and expensive options while still keeping prices below the old floor.

Computer buffs at the show were practically drooling over and buying for under $2,000 486-33-megahertz PCs configured with the following options: two floppy diskette drives, a 200-megabyte hard disk drive, four megabytes of random access memory (RAM), 256 kilobytes of cache memory, a super VGA noninterlaced color monitor and card with one MB of memory.

Using that configuration as a basis for comparison, Blue Chip Automation of Buena Park had the lowest 486-33 price at the show, $1,944. But it was followed closely by ATC's $1,979, Quality's $1,985, Temple City-based Compute-Data's $1,999 and Alhambra-based Bentec Computer Center's $2,059.

While allowing vendors' offerings were tempting, other attendees at the show said they were holding off buying a new PC until after Intel introduces its 586 CPU chip, expected in April and heralded to be even faster than the 486 CPU. That, they believe, will drive prices still lower for PCs equipped with a 486 CPU chip.

Also predicted to drive 486 PC prices lower is when Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shortly brings out its own 486 CPU to compete against Intel's current monopoly on that part of the computer market. After AMD introduced its own 386 CPU chip to break Intel's monopoly on that market, users have seen prices of 386 PCs driven to below $1,000 from almost $2,000 in just a year.