Chromebook vs. Windows 10
 

I'm in the market for a new computer. I've always had Windows until now, currently a
HP with an Intel I3 processor, 4GB Ram and a 14" display. I browse a lot, run a tax program and I have a calibre ebook library. Sometimes I feel like Win-10 bogs it all down and I'm thinking seriously about getting a chromebook.

From what I gather, I can get a calibre app that works on chromebook and I'm familiar with the google cloud storage, docs, spreads, etc. for my fairly lightweight use. There is also a tax app but I will likely just run taxes off of my wife's win-10 computer and keep that info private.

Here is my hangup - the processor. Using a cheap AMD or a Celeron/Pentium scares me, thinking it'll be slow on a chromebook. Should I be concerned? It seems the I3 and AMD Ryzen and better processors run a couple hundred dollars more on a chromebook - which I don't really understand why, personally.

I'm a basic user and mostly looking for basic functionality but with decent speed.
Budget is an issue but I'd go up to $400. I don't need a touchscreen nor 2-in-1.
I do like Lenovo keyboards but I'm not stuck on that.

Any thoughts out there, smart people? Most appreciated, be safe.

With a budget of $400, I think your only choice is a Chromebook. A Windows 10 computer in that price range would be extremely slow. If you want a Windows 10 computer, I would suggest at least an I5 or I7 processor and 8GB or 16GB of RAM. The I5, 8GB laptops start at about $600. The I7, 16GB laptops start at about $900. I just purchased an HP laptop with an I7 processor and 16GB of RAM, and it is super fast. Another thing to consider with the Windows computers is the hard drive size and if it is an SSD (solid state drive) hard drive. The SSD will run faster than a regular drive.

Try this
 

(Retired IT programmer/manager. Many certifications. From CPM, DOS, Win 3.1 .........)

What I have done:

Bought used a couple of Dell 3120's from this site. Think I paid about $70 each.

Chromebooks – iTechDeals

These are CB's coming off school leases. They are beat up a little, and are usually rated as B or C or D stock, mostly blemishes on the outside, completely refurbished. (Whatever that means.) Both completely usable and powerful enough in today's internet environment, web access, online streaming, watching MLB.TV games, playing movies off USB stick with VLC. Here you can try it out, for cheap, and when chrome OS updates expire, 9/2022, for this model you can put a real OS, Linux Mint on it., where you can run real programs.

Chrome OS expire list for other models.
Auto Update policy - Google Chrome Enterprise Help

Sounds like your needs are very modest. IMO CPU doesn't really seem to matter at all. Only saw an issue with playing movies downloaded with H.265 encoding. Celeron N280 @ 2.166GHz. 7 hour battery original, seems to get only about 6 hrs.

Good Luck.

I have only ever had one Celeron-powered computer - never again!

Non-Intel processors, though, tend to be as fast as Intel but a lot cheaper. That will be my next purchase - probably a Ryzen 3 or 5.

You get what you pay for.

That isn't accurate at all. If you buy components at New Egg, you can make a high-end computer for less than the cost of a cheap model at the local Best Buy.

I have an Acer ChromeBook the model I have resembles a MacBook Air. 64 gig SSD, 16 gigs ram. I love it boot up time is quick i.e. 30 seconds. I paid $229 for it. It’s great for web browsing and light applications. It won’t do any heavy lifting with things like Photoshop or Lightroom. Great thing I like about it too is you can do a “powerwash” that takes all of 5 minutes and restores the Chrome Book back to out of the box condition.

I've been using a Chromebook for about 10 years (when they first came out). I used Windows 7 for many years because I need TurboTax and Quicken. After 2018 I didn't need either of those, so I convert my PC to Linux Mint. I still use the Chromebook 99.9% of the time, but from time to time I use the Linux machine for some oddball stuff. I will never go back to Windows.

Linux is free and most of the available programs (which there are thousands) are free also. With a little bit of work, you can find a Linux substitute for just about any Windows program you need.

Personally, I don’t believe that makes Kahuna’s statement inaccurate at all.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll ponder it all. This is interesting to me.

I have both
 

stick with Windows. Chromebook is slow

New Laptop
 

Try calling, emailing Joe at Computer Central for advice. He is very knowledgeable and usually will come to your house to transfer all your data from one computer to your new device. Due to spike in virus, Joe will have to advice you on his current procedures.

It must be just your Chromebook. My Chromebook is up and running in 30 seconds, I watch Youtubes on it. I watch movies on it, without a problem.

I have many spreadsheets with complicated formulas that work great.

My Chromebook is an Acer CB5-571 and is about 5 years old. Even after it stops getting updates, it will still be far safer than Windows. After all, it can't get a virus, if it breaks all you do is buy a new one and sign in, everything you had on the old one comes to the new.

Now there are reason to use Windows, such as Quicken, and other programs that force you to download the program to the PC. But for those products I use Linux Mint and find programs that work just as well.

Computer tech here
 

I would recommend you stay with Windows. But, that's simply because of compatibility with ... well ... everything. It is not Windows or Chromebook that is slow. It is the hardware. Sure, any machine can be overwhelmed by rogue / junk software. But that stuff can be avoided or removed. But, no amount of "clean up" will make a slow machine go fast. Think of this as building upon a rock instead of sand. Three(3) main items to consider:

1) CPU: Absolutely stay away from the cheap AMD and Celeron stuff. Don't buy anything with less than 4 cores. I personally have a bias toward Intel chips. The end-user community seems to pick up the buzz words if "i5" or "i7". Uninformed people go out and buy any "fast" i7 laptop and pay little attention to other components. Yes, even an i7 machine can go slow. That being said, I find that just about all i3/5/i7 CPU's to be acceptably "fast enough". This is simply because these CPU's will not typically be the bottleneck holding up your machine. Spend your money where it will matter the most.

2) RAM: Get at least 4GB. But in today's market, I like to suggest 8GB. And 8GB is enough RAM for just about anything (excluding gaming machines). 4GB is enough but if buying a new, get 8GB. More than that won't hurt but there are diminishing returns. At 8GB, RAM will not be the bottleneck holding up performance. Again, spend your dollars where they will count.

3) Drive: This is where you spend your money. Absolutely do NOT buy any machine with a standard (spinning) hard drive. Except for a fan, a spinning hard drive is the only moving part in a laptop. As a moving part, it is the s-l-o-w-e-s-t component and the main reason that most machines are so sluggish. Get a good quality Solid State Drive (SSD). An SSD is at least 20x faster than a standard drive. This is not an exaggeration. All of the speed will be felt in everything you do. Get an SSD and you will not be disappointed.

Final thought: your current HP with an i3 and 4GB of RAM is almost certainly very capable. What is slowing you down is your hard drive. You may not need to purchase a new machine at all. Have you considered replacing the drive in that machine with an SSD? I have upgraded hundreds of computers from standard hard drives to SSD's. The expected result is phenomenal speed. Most machines with an SSD will boot up from completely off to the desktop in 30 seconds or less. If done properly (someone who knows what they are doing), everything stays in place. All of your programs / files / settings, etc remain intact. The only thing you notice is a lot more speed. This makes an SSD upgrade superior to a new machine both in cost and side-stepping the hassle of moving all your files and re-configuring everything.

I have a couple of youtube videos I created: one video showing an old machine booting up with it's original standard hard drive. The second video shows the same machine booting up after an SSD upgrade. The difference is dramatic ... 7 minutes 10 seconds vs. just 27 seconds. (can't post them here as I have not yet been blessed with the privilege).

Upgrading is not difficult. But it is also not a typical do-it-yourself task. I'm not in the villages now. But there is certainly someone down there with the equipment and knowledge to do this if you want to go that route.

Happy to field questions (free)
410-Computer (410-266-7883)
Bill

Buy a Mac...you’ll never go back.