Acer C710 Chromebook Getting a CPU Upgrade

[Cristian_25H]

At IFA 2013 in Berlin Acer showcased an updated C710 Chromebook, a model that swaps the old, 32 nm-manufactured 1.1 GHz Celeron 847 processor for the fresher, 22 nm 1.5 GHz Celeron 1007U. Other specs remain unchanged so you still get a 11.6-inch (1366 x 768) display 2 or 4 GB of RAM, either a 16 GB SSD or a 320 GB HDD, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and a 4- or 6-cell battery.

Acer's upgraded Chrome OS-running machine has a price tag of 249 Euro and is expected to hit stores soon.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Mussels]

i quite like this, just because people like us can replace the OS very easily.

 

[Frick]

i quite like this, just because people like us can replace the OS very easily.

Indeed. I want one to replace my Atom netbook.

 

[Mindweaver]

Great idea, but I want 14" to 15"... Of course the higher res monitor is really going to help this laptop out. So, I could probably see myself getting one of these CB's. My old ASUS dual core atom netbook's screen was horrible, and I spent around $400 on it about 4 years ago.

 

[shovenose]

I've always wanted an "10/100 Etherner," and now I can have it!! In a wonderful QUALITY Acer - You have made me rejoice in happiness...

 

[Cristian_25H]

I've always wanted an "10/100 Etherner," and now I can have it!! In a wonderful QUALITY Acer - You have made me rejoice in happiness...

Typo... terminated .

 

[Frick]

I've always wanted an "10/100 Etherner," and now I can have it!! In a wonderful QUALITY Acer - You have made me rejoice in happiness...

Good point actually. How much extra would a gigabit controller be?

 

[newtekie1]

Good point actually. How much extra would a gigabit controller be?

Do you think it would really make a difference on a machine with such low specs? Besides, if you are using one of these with a wire you're doing it wrong.

 

[Frick]

Do you think it would really make a difference on a machine with such low specs?

You mean on the price or the speed?

Besides, if you are using one of these with a wire you're doing it wrong.

Naah, there are probably times when it can be nice to have. Not many times, but still.

 

[shovenose]

I had a Lenovo Windows 8 Core i7 laptop less than a year ago brand new latest model - it only had 10/100 and not Gigabit. I didn't even notice until a friend noticed it when looking up the model of my computer up online. I was like "WTF!!" they saved what, two cents?

 

[newtekie1]

You mean on the price or the speed?



Naah, there are probably times when it can be nice to have. Not many times, but still.

The speed. Gigabit wouldn't really improve anything, the SSD and HDD are both to slow to really notice a difference in transfer speeds when switching from 100Mbps to 1000Mbps.

The only time I'd use the wired is when I'm first configuring a router before I get wifi up and running.

 

[Mussels]

The speed. Gigabit wouldn't really improve anything, the SSD and HDD are both to slow to really notice a difference in transfer speeds when switching from 100Mbps to 1000Mbps.

The only time I'd use the wired is when I'm first configuring a router before I get wifi up and running.

i've got an intel atom with 10/100 and it manages 20MB/s over wifi N 5GHz. these certainly could do faster than the 12.5MB/s over 100Mb ethernet.


doesnt mean gigabit was justified however, they're meant to be entry level laptops.

 

[Frick]

doesnt mean gigabit was justified however, they're meant to be entry level laptops.

Which is my point. Why isn't gigabit standard?

The speed. Gigabit wouldn't really improve anything, the SSD and HDD are both to slow to really notice a difference in transfer speeds when switching from 100Mbps to 1000Mbps.

The only time I'd use the wired is when I'm first configuring a router before I get wifi up and running.

As mussels said, sure it would improve things.

 

[rcodi]

i quite like this, just because people like us can replace the OS very easily.

Former chromebook owner here!

You actually can't, there is no Intel bios at the moment for the current C710, which means no Windows 7. So you're stuck with workarounds to install Linux which definitely aren't as easy as plugging in a flash drive and installing the os. And even after that, you have to look at the lovely "OS Verification is off" warning every time you boot. The problem is solely at a bios level so this applies to all chromebooks minus CR-48 (which had an intel bios leaked) until a dev comes along and releases one for that specific machine.

They're really trying to keep these machines locked down with ChromeOS, which is a shame but the purpose of these machines is ease of use and to keep people within the Google ecosystem and possibly subscribing to Google Drive.

 

[Mussels]

Former chromebook owner here!

You actually can't, there is no Intel bios at the moment for the current C710, which means no Windows 7. So you're stuck with workarounds to install Linux which definitely aren't as easy as plugging in a flash drive and installing the os. And even after that, you have to look at the lovely "OS Verification is off" warning every time you boot. The problem is solely at a bios level so this applies to all chromebooks minus CR-48 (which had an intel bios leaked) until a dev comes along and releases one for that specific machine.

They're really trying to keep these machines locked down with ChromeOS, which is a shame but the purpose of these machines is ease of use and to keep people within the Google ecosystem and possibly subscribing to Google Drive.

oh bugger. that sucks.

 

[newtekie1]

As mussels said, sure it would improve things.

No it really wouldn't. The SSD is too small to do any serious file transfers with anyway, and the HDD is too slow to really notice the difference. Yes, there would be a small difference, but you wouldn't really notice it. Especially considering the purpose of these laptops, they aren't meant to store large files, the OS isn't really set up for it. So yeah, I guess the 1 or 2 times you might do a large file transfer gigabit might go slightly faster, but 99.999% of the time you're using the laptop a gigabit port would not make any difference.

 

[Mussels]

No it really wouldn't. The SSD is too small to do any serious file transfers with anyway, and the HDD is too slow to really notice the difference. Yes, there would be a small difference, but you wouldn't really notice it. Especially considering the purpose of these laptops, they aren't meant to store large files, the OS isn't really set up for it. So yeah, I guess the 1 or 2 times you might do a large file transfer gigabit might go slightly faster, but 99.999% of the time you're using the laptop a gigabit port would not make any difference.

neither of us are saying you'll use it as a file server - we're saying the hardware IS capable of faster speeds than 100Mb.


look at it this way - its 1/3 the speed of a USB 2.0 hard drive, and you know people will connect those to the computer.

 

[newtekie1]

neither of us are saying you'll use it as a file server - we're saying the hardware IS capable of faster speeds than 100Mb.


look at it this way - its 1/3 the speed of a USB 2.0 hard drive, and you know people will connect those to the computer.

I doubt they'll be connectiong USB2.0 hard drives, USB 2.0 flash drives maybe but not likely hard drives. Again, these laptops just aren't set up for large file storage. You might watch videos on them, that is about the largest files they will be dealing with, and even then you'll likely be streaming the content, which 100Mb/s can handle no problem.

 

[Mussels]

I doubt they'll be connectiong USB2.0 hard drives, USB 2.0 flash drives maybe but not likely hard drives. Again, these laptops just aren't set up for large file storage. You might watch videos on them, that is about the largest files they will be dealing with, and even then you'll likely be streaming the content, which 100Mb/s can handle no problem.

i'm not saying 100Mb wont do what its designed for. i said that myself in the first post.


what i AM saying is that the hardware IS capable of speeds faster than 10/100 can supply. you're arguing over a different thing to what im saying.