Electronics

[Toppers3]

Thanks for your response and explanation, @gardenman.

That's interesting to know, regarding the Intel processors in the Chromebook. Hmm...

I'll have to check that out and read more about it, now that my curiosity is piqued. 

You're right about a Chromebook already running fast with the processors that they already have, especially if you're using one of the smaller ones, like we are.

They also already put the dual-core processors in them, too. This little Chromebook that I have loads pages and moves with lightening fast speed. 

I tend to keep enough windows open at a time when I'm online, and it still moves fast enough, too, and the battery life has been good for a small laptop. 

[gardenman]

I'm not sure how necessary it is to use the better processors in a Chromebook, but it does take away one of the arguments some have against them. A lot of people are overly focused on statistics when buying a device, so putting a better processor in them makes them look better to that class of buyer. I doubt you'd really see much of a difference in performance however.

Chromebooks are evolving quite nicely these days. They're getting better keyboards, better displays, better trackpads, and there are more and more of them on the market all of the time.

[JerryFerreira]

Pentiums are not old.  They are still making them.

[hckynut]

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@JerryFerreira wrote:

Pentiums are not old.  They are still making them.

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@JerryFerreira

You cannot compare a person being "chronologically old" with the same aged person that is "physiologically young". Many of my friends are approaching 80 years old, some seem more like 110 years old, while a much bigger majority seem and function like a 45-50 year old.

Because they still make pentium processors means they are older technology. Hey, if you choose to buy a "standard DVD player" as opposed to a Bluray player? They still make them and non-bluray DVD's, go ahead and buy them.

I however choose Bluray discs and players. When the price of descrete 4k DVD players come down, and available 4k discs become available, I will choose to buy the best resolution on the market. I like viewing detailed video and also the best in sound reproduction. Just reminded me, mono-audio is still made, but I will go with a digital HD/DTS or Dolby Surround, thank you.

If you think an Intel Celeron(yes they still make them) or a Pentium. Again, have at it! I will go with the Intel "i" series processors. Because a product is made does not make it good or bad, I however prefer newer formats and technologies, as I believe most tech savvy individuals do also.

Hello!

hckynut(john)

[gardenman]

One of the odd quirks of modern CPU's is that often a lower end CPU like a Pentium, will be based on the same architecture as a higher end chip, but they'll simply disable some of the features in the lower end CPU. There's often little to no difference in the chips, other than that some features of the lower end chips are disabled so they can't be used.

On Newegg.com right now there are 443 new Intel CPU's listed as being available. Intel isn't churning out 443 unique CPU's. They might be making ten to twenty unique CPU's and then enabling and disabling features in those CPU's to make them look like hundreds of different options. You can spend $100 on a CPU that's physically identical to a $400 CPU, but they won't let you use the same features on both CPU's, even though they're there.They'll lock away certain features on the $100 CPU and unlock them on the $400 CPU. 

Many consumers focus on the speed and power of a CPU but companies like Amazon and Google look more at performance per watt. For them the long term cost of powering the CPU is higher than the cost of buying the CPU so they look for the most efficient CPU's to incorporate into their systems and often opt for ones that many/most computer users would scoff at, but used in the volume they use, makes the most sense to them. If they can get more performance for less power, it saves them money over the long haul.

[Toppers3]

Hi @gardenman,

What you're saying makes sense to me.

I remember when I was looking at Chromebooks, and thinking about the size that I wanted and was also considering our budget for one, and I was looking at the features too, and I remember being surprised that they were using the Celeron processors in them, at first. 

I remember thinking that the Celeron processors were older in terms of technology, but then I was thinking about the actual size of the Chromebook, and the other features of it too, and then everything made more sense to me and started to "fall into place" for me regarding "why" they would do that.

Now I see why, after having and using my Chromebook for over a year. I think that it's fine the way that it is with the type of processor that it has for the size of the small Chromebook that it is, in my opinion.

As I have mentioned before, it zips around so quickly and so fast, and loads pages quickly, too, and it does this quite well even with the amount of windows that I normally have open on it at any given time, too.