Chromebook better than a PC?

gino76ph

New Member
Messages
40
Hi there.



I'm doing this thread to once & for all find the ultimate answers to my PC issues. Before i bought my Lenovo Yoga 8 laptop i was thinking of buying a Google Chromebook. Specs might not be as high-end as a Windows PC but it loads a lot faster (having no such apps or enough background process to load in the background), apps load a lot faster, updates come automatically (and no need to download/intall like a PC), straighforward OS and no complicated hundreds of settings to tinker with unlike a PC. And besides a Chromebook is virus and malware-free forever.



I also happen to come from a Macbook Air and i found my PC is that slow. Downloading & installing apps takes a lot longer, opening or closing an app or browser or tasks also takes longer. But in the course i have made some research to improve the speed & performance of my Windows 8.1 laptop mainly:

1. Turned off bluetooth
2. Set Windows Update to automatic
3. Updated Windows Defender
4. Defrafgging my hard drive monthly

5. Choose Selective Startup (under msconfig) and made sure no apps are enabled under Startup, selected apps are running under Services, choose a higher number under Processors and maximum memory set to at least half of what my Lenovo is capable of (under Boot)
6. Set performance to High Performance.



So, What else have i missed?



Also i noticed when i look at Task Manager there are background processes that i do not understand and i'm not sure whether to disable them or not although it shows 0% affecting the RAM, etc.



If i'm not happy with this "complicated" WIndows 8.1 OS i might as well sell it and get a Chromebook as i use most of Google services anyway on my Android phone.




Please advice. Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Pick your platform by what you need to run. Typical applications in order of computer power include:
1. Web browsing (tablet)
2. Document editing. (Keyboard)
3. Spreadsheets, databases.
4. Multi-tasking (8GB RAM)
5. Watching movies.
6. Low performance games.(Graphics Card)
7. Infrequent video editing. (i5)
8. High performance games. (Graphics Card, i7, desktop)
9. Frequent video editing or rendering. (Multiple graphics cards, and processors, 32GB)
10. Rendering the Hobbit. (Server Farm.)
11. Simulating climate change. (Petabytes)
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Microsoft Windows 8.1 64 Bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba C55Dt-A5106
    CPU
    Processor AMD A6-5200 APU with Radeon(TM) HD Graphics, 2 Ghz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
    Motherboard
    Toshiba PSCFWU-02C031
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 8400
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Laptop and DELL E193FP
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba MQ01ABD075
    DVD Writer TSSTcorp CDDVDW SU-208FB
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave 2.4 Cordless or Laptop Standard PS/2 Keyboard Enhanced
    Mouse
    Logitech M1100 Performance Laser Cordless Combo or Logitech G500
    Internet Speed
    Upload/Download 91/11Mbps
    Browser
    IE 11
    Antivirus
    Norton
    Other Info
    Toshiba System Settings V1.1.2.32001
    BIOS Version Inside Corp., 1.60, 11/15/2013
    EC (Embedded Controller) Version 1.20
    Hardware Abstraction Layer 6.3.9600.16500
Very interesting.

But that got me confused even more. Lol. You see the most "intensve" task i will be doing in my computer will be downloading torrents 10 at a time (it could be an .mp3 album or a standard .mp4 HD movie), printing hundreds of pages from an assignmnt or work project, transferring hi-quality files (Flac or .mkv) to my Android tablet or doing an "intermediate-level" photo editing of my photos for upload to Twitter, Facebook, etc. My computer stays at home 99.99% of the time and IS online 100% of te time.

The main advantages i can see with my current Lenovo laptop is the processor, the hard disk space, almost nil compatibility issues with USB drives, an above average battery life and the touchscreen.

But if a Chromebook can do what i what it to do similar with a Windows 8.1 PC with no sweat and extra RAM/processor effort then ill just switch.

What you guys think?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Chromebooks are different devices, it's hard to truly compare the two. I have a chromebook that I've used quite a bit. For what it is, it's been good. Great for kids to surf web with. If lost, don't have many private data concerns. Can reset in a matter of about 60 seconds. But not a gaming machine, doesn't run Windows software, etc...so maybe not perfect for everyone.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self-Built in July 2009
    CPU
    Intel Q9550 2.83Ghz OC'd to 3.40Ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R rev. 1.1, F12 BIOS
    Memory
    8GB G.Skill PI DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 timings
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 1280MB Nvidia GeForce GTX570
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC899A 8 channel onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" Acer x233H
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Intel X25-M 80GB Gen 2 SSD
    Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black, 32MB cache. WD1001FALS
    PSU
    Corsair 620HX modular
    Case
    Antec P182
    Cooling
    stock
    Keyboard
    ABS M1 Mechanical
    Mouse
    Logitech G9 Laser Mouse
    Internet Speed
    15/2 cable modem
    Other Info
    Windows and Linux enthusiast. Logitech G35 Headset.
Install Chrome on your PC and run it in Metro mode

This is almost the same as how a ChromeBook works, if you can work using this without needing any other part of windows then a ChromeBook could be for you
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 3521
    CPU
    i5
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon
    Browser
    IE
I'm getting a Chromebook because as I said I find my above mid-range Lenovo laptop to still be slow. And also for financial reasons.

Now, I think one crucial issue here is downloading torrents. I don't know if 2GB RAM is enough for me but will a lightweight OS, really fast 70MB broadband and lightweight torrent client offset that worry of mine?

Is 2GB enough for 3 movies and 3 music albums downloading at the same time?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Is 2GB enough for 3 movies and 3 music albums downloading at the same time?
128MB of RAM would be enough for that. Torrent clients are not resource intensive at all.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self-Built in July 2009
    CPU
    Intel Q9550 2.83Ghz OC'd to 3.40Ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R rev. 1.1, F12 BIOS
    Memory
    8GB G.Skill PI DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 timings
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 1280MB Nvidia GeForce GTX570
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC899A 8 channel onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" Acer x233H
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Intel X25-M 80GB Gen 2 SSD
    Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black, 32MB cache. WD1001FALS
    PSU
    Corsair 620HX modular
    Case
    Antec P182
    Cooling
    stock
    Keyboard
    ABS M1 Mechanical
    Mouse
    Logitech G9 Laser Mouse
    Internet Speed
    15/2 cable modem
    Other Info
    Windows and Linux enthusiast. Logitech G35 Headset.
Really? On a different forum website when I described..." downloading 3 movies & 3 music albums, watching Youtube videos, wireless printing 100 pages of Word or PDF files, reading the news all at the same time" you mean 2GB is just enough for those tasks?

Would that be the same with all computers...Chromebook, Windows PC or Mac? Would they not make the RAM or processor work harder than normal?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
On a windows computer, I would not go less than 2GB just in general. 4GB is usually the standard minimum these days.

You asked above if 2GB would be enough to torrent 3 movies and 3 music albums, which is not a hard task as all. All of the tasks you mention are very basic in general.

The architecture and the load on all those types of computers is different.

  • On a chromebook, you don't need as much RAM because the OS is very lightweight and doesn't do much local processing at all. Everything is cloud based.
  • On a Mac, it's like a PC and you have software loaded locally. I purchased a Mac earlier this year and went with 8GB, not really because I needed it, but because you cannot upgrade a MacBook Pro..so you have to get it with what you want on it. 8GB is more than enough, and should hold me for a few years.
  • On a Windows computer, 4GB is fine for basic computing. Even for gaming 4GB is fine, but most will step to 8GB because it's pretty cheap. More than 8GB is pretty much unnecessary unless you are going to be running virtual machines, and need them running concurrently.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self-Built in July 2009
    CPU
    Intel Q9550 2.83Ghz OC'd to 3.40Ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R rev. 1.1, F12 BIOS
    Memory
    8GB G.Skill PI DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 timings
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 1280MB Nvidia GeForce GTX570
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC899A 8 channel onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" Acer x233H
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Intel X25-M 80GB Gen 2 SSD
    Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black, 32MB cache. WD1001FALS
    PSU
    Corsair 620HX modular
    Case
    Antec P182
    Cooling
    stock
    Keyboard
    ABS M1 Mechanical
    Mouse
    Logitech G9 Laser Mouse
    Internet Speed
    15/2 cable modem
    Other Info
    Windows and Linux enthusiast. Logitech G35 Headset.
On a windows computer, I would not go less than 2GB just in general. 4GB is usually the standard minimum these days.

You asked above if 2GB would be enough to torrent 3 movies and 3 music albums, which is not a hard task as all. All of the tasks you mention are very basic in general.

The architecture and the load on all those types of computers is different.

  • On a chromebook, you don't need as much RAM because the OS is very lightweight and doesn't do much local processing at all. Everything is cloud based.
  • On a Mac, it's like a PC and you have software loaded locally. I purchased a Mac earlier this year and went with 8GB, not really because I needed it, but because you cannot upgrade a MacBook Pro..so you have to get it with what you want on it. 8GB is more than enough, and should hold me for a few years.
  • On a Windows computer, 4GB is fine for basic computing. Even for gaming 4GB is fine, but most will step to 8GB because it's pretty cheap. More than 8GB is pretty much unnecessary unless you are going to be running virtual machines, and need them running concurrently.

Very interesting.

So in short based on the multiple I will be doing (on occasions but not always) is the 2GB RAM on a Chromebook enough for me?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
3 movies and 3 albums at the same time, depends on the size of the movie. Is that a blu-ray (single layer 25GB, dual layer (industry standard) 50GB, triple layer 100GB, or quadruple layer 128GB) movie or a DVD (4.7GB) movie?

The movies will use up most or all of the chrome book memory.

Keep in mind the chrome book spec is 2 GB DDR3, and 16 GB of SDD, and 100GB on the cloud.
If the download speed is 92Mbps and the upload speed is 11Mbps, the bottle neck will be on the upload to the cloud unless you get an external drive for the chrome book.

USB 2.0 transfer speed is 480Mbps, and USB 3.0 transfer speed is 4.8Gbps. This speed is for comparison only, speed may vary by the speed of the system's bus. Investigate the speed of the chromebook USB ports for the specific brand you intend to buy.

On a windows machine the hard drive would be tortured by writing 6 fragmented files to the drive, unless the torrent software pre-allocates the full movie or album size in one block.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Microsoft Windows 8.1 64 Bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba C55Dt-A5106
    CPU
    Processor AMD A6-5200 APU with Radeon(TM) HD Graphics, 2 Ghz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
    Motherboard
    Toshiba PSCFWU-02C031
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 8400
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Laptop and DELL E193FP
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba MQ01ABD075
    DVD Writer TSSTcorp CDDVDW SU-208FB
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave 2.4 Cordless or Laptop Standard PS/2 Keyboard Enhanced
    Mouse
    Logitech M1100 Performance Laser Cordless Combo or Logitech G500
    Internet Speed
    Upload/Download 91/11Mbps
    Browser
    IE 11
    Antivirus
    Norton
    Other Info
    Toshiba System Settings V1.1.2.32001
    BIOS Version Inside Corp., 1.60, 11/15/2013
    EC (Embedded Controller) Version 1.20
    Hardware Abstraction Layer 6.3.9600.16500
The movies will use up most or all of the chrome book memory.
I think you mean storage, or hard drive space...not memory. Memory is RAM.

On a windows machine the hard drive would be tortured by writing 6 fragmented files to the drive, unless the torrent software pre-allocates the full movie or album size in one block.
Huh??? I have no idea what you are saying.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self-Built in July 2009
    CPU
    Intel Q9550 2.83Ghz OC'd to 3.40Ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R rev. 1.1, F12 BIOS
    Memory
    8GB G.Skill PI DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 timings
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 1280MB Nvidia GeForce GTX570
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC899A 8 channel onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" Acer x233H
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Intel X25-M 80GB Gen 2 SSD
    Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black, 32MB cache. WD1001FALS
    PSU
    Corsair 620HX modular
    Case
    Antec P182
    Cooling
    stock
    Keyboard
    ABS M1 Mechanical
    Mouse
    Logitech G9 Laser Mouse
    Internet Speed
    15/2 cable modem
    Other Info
    Windows and Linux enthusiast. Logitech G35 Headset.
A torrent movie for me means a "standard" 1-2.5GB of an 1080p MP4 film. A standard MP3 320k album would mean anything from 100-500MB I think. So, 3 movies & 3 albums plus some other non-intensive multitasking....2GB RAM is enough?

I'm not too worried about the memory as I have an SD card to put them. My SD card is a 32GB Class 10 with 40mb/sec speeds. I'm also in the process of getting a 1TB portable hard drive so the cloud is just another "secondary option". Upload i'm not worried as my provider offers really good DL/UL speeds anyway.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
File Fragmentation and Affects of Disk Size.

In response to:
The movies will use up most or all of the chrome book memory.
I think you mean storage, or hard drive space...not memory. Memory is RAM.

On a windows machine the hard drive would be tortured by writing 6 fragmented files to the drive, unless the torrent software pre-allocates the full movie or album size in one block.
Huh??? I have no idea what you are saying.

If the software preallocated disk space for all 6 files, the disk drive file allocation would look like, where the numbers 1-6 correspond to the 6 different files.
|11111111111|
|22222222222|
|33333333333|
|44444444444|
|55555555555|
|66666666666|

While writing the files to a hard disk drive, the heads move back and forth between each file. When reading the file, the heads would continuously read each file. If the drive is a Solid State Drive (SSD), there are no heads to move around.

If the files are written as the data arrives, the disk drive file allocation may look like.
|123456123456123456123456123456123456123456123456123456123456|
When reading the files from a hard disk drive the heads will move back and forth between each file.

If each file is 2GB, that's 12GB that the heads need to move back and forth on. On a drive with 689GB, that is traversing 1.7% of the disk, so the fragmentation is not a severe affect. However, if the drive is only 60GB, 20% of the disk the would need traversed.

Fragmentation was a bigger concern when the drives had less capacity. File:Hard drive capacity over time.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is a history of hard drive size. When the drive capacity was smaller, defragmentation would sometimes save 10%-20% time on a minute operation.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Microsoft Windows 8.1 64 Bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba C55Dt-A5106
    CPU
    Processor AMD A6-5200 APU with Radeon(TM) HD Graphics, 2 Ghz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
    Motherboard
    Toshiba PSCFWU-02C031
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 8400
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Laptop and DELL E193FP
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba MQ01ABD075
    DVD Writer TSSTcorp CDDVDW SU-208FB
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave 2.4 Cordless or Laptop Standard PS/2 Keyboard Enhanced
    Mouse
    Logitech M1100 Performance Laser Cordless Combo or Logitech G500
    Internet Speed
    Upload/Download 91/11Mbps
    Browser
    IE 11
    Antivirus
    Norton
    Other Info
    Toshiba System Settings V1.1.2.32001
    BIOS Version Inside Corp., 1.60, 11/15/2013
    EC (Embedded Controller) Version 1.20
    Hardware Abstraction Layer 6.3.9600.16500
Back
Top