Upgrading the SSD in Chromebook & MyDigitalSSD Super Boot Drive M.2 2242 SSD Review
by Kristian Vättö on October 21, 2014 8:00 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench 2011
Back in 2011 (which seems like so long ago now!), we introduced our AnandTech Storage Bench, a suite of benchmarks that took traces of real OS/application usage and played them back in a repeatable manner. The MOASB, officially called AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 – Heavy Workload, mainly focuses on peak IO performance and basic garbage collection routines. There is a lot of downloading and application installing that happens during the course of this test. Our thinking was that it's during application installs, file copies, downloading and multitasking with all of this that you can really notice performance differences between drives. The full description of the Heavy test can be found here, while the Light workload details are here.
In our 2011 Storage Benches the performance is not as good, though. It seems that the limited channel count is not that much of a bottleneck in worst-case scenario, but it certainly limits the peak performance as we can see here. However, I also included the 16GB Kingston M.2 that came in the Chromebook for comparison and the performance difference is tremendous.
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sligett - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
But one might instead say --I have zero clue why Windows laptops are so popular. I tried one and it was laughably complex compared to Chromebooks that are now pretty much priced the same. This might be ok, but for its complexity, Windows doesn't really run any faster than its Chrome OS counterparts, nor does it get much better battery life at all. I just see no reason unless you just absolutely detest ChromeOS.
BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
I think one of the root causes for Chrome OS drawing ire is Google's invasive data mining activities associated with the device, storage of information on their servers, and the linking of that data with web browsing habits (including sites that use Google Ad Services -- of which there are many), GPS and cellular triangulation information (if you also happen to be using Android), mail, app use, time spent in each app, and so forth. Google being behind Chrome is one of the biggest problems with uptake of the platform. Since most of Google's services are offered free of charge, you can be assured that they're generating profit by "farming" their users in the same way social networking does, by monitoring and analysing everything at all times on as many platforms as possible.patel21 - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
If we can create a recovery media, then can we install it on normal PC's ?Bob Todd - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
If you just want to play around and test it, you can just grab a Chromium OS build from various places.daddacool - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
"While the whole netbook boom kind of died with the introduction of tablets"I remember the actual reason for the demise of netbooks being feature creep, obviously coupled with the associated price creep. Netbooks we're orginally known as SCCs; Small Cheap Computers. Once the price began edging up into budget laptop price, the case for them became much less compelling.
waldojim42 - Thursday, October 23, 2014 - link
Yep, I thought this too. I remember netbooks reaching into the $400~$500 range while still running crap Atom processors. I don't know who they expected would be in the market for them, but it sure wasn't me.a1exh - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
How well does the "chrome://imageburner" upgrade method work? If your internal 16/32GB drive is almost full (of non-compressible data) presumably you need a 16/32GB SDHC or USB stick?extide - Friday, October 24, 2014 - link
It doesnt back up your daownloaded data, just the OS.abianand - Thursday, October 23, 2014 - link
Does this SSD upgrade keep the cost of this Chromebook at $200 or increase it?Suo.Eno - Thursday, October 23, 2014 - link
Here you go brohttp://www.anandtech.com/show/8543/upgrading-the-s...