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I still have an Acer C720, which cost $250 back in 2013. It's a lovely piece of equipment, once you remove ChromeOS. I've taken it apart more times than I can r

by jleahy 6y ago

I still have an Acer C720, which cost $250 back in 2013. It's a lovely piece of equipment, once you remove ChromeOS. I've taken it apart more times than I can recall, lots of empty space inside. The only downside is 2GB of RAM, 4GB would have been better, otherwise it's a perfect device even today (for development and browsing the web). I always meant to buy a couple more RAM chips and solder them down to the motherboard (there's a couple of unpopulated pads), but never got round to it. Sadly the wifi chip is soldered down, that's one of my only grips (RAM I get, but typically wifi would be an m.2 slot unless you're really cheap). So I imagine you could get a lot done with this, even with the terrible performance. If you're just programming and using a browser you really don't need much oomph.

omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
Soldering everything down and limiting max memory for mobile chipsets have been my biggest gripes with chromebooks and newer computers in general. I upped my C710 to 16GB for $50 a couple years ago (also swapped the 847 board for a 1007u, and dropped in an SSD), and it's been great. If and hopefully when 16GB DDR3 sodimms drop in price I'd like to bump it up to 32GB.
maxwellg 6y ago
I took my intro to databases course on a $160 (sale) Acer C670 in 2015. Fantastic battery life, Crouton was a breeze to get working, and was my first introduction to doing work in a unix environment. The only problem was that the larger tests would take more than 2GB of ram, and start swapping out to disk - so suites that took my classmates 5 minutes to run took me closer to an hour. I got very careful at thinking over the code in my head before hitting run. Wonderful little system for a broke CS student, and nothing but fond memories.
rcarmo 6y ago
Fellow C720 owner here. Love the thing, have had it running Elementary on a new SSD for ages now. Have recently switched to a E111 (despite only 32GB EMMC) because I got it to take 8GB RAM: https://taoofmac.com/space/com/Acer/Aspire%20ES1-111M https://taoofmac.com/space/com/Acer/Aspire%20ES1-111M, but otherwise the experience is still largely the same: extremely lightweight, quiet, "disposable" laptop tha I can use to code anything, browse anything, fiddle with the electronics (this one has pads for a SATA connector... haven't traced the electronics yet to see if they are there at all...)

by jleahy 6y ago

omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago

Soldering everything down and limiting max memory for mobile chipsets have been my biggest gripes with chromebooks and newer computers in general. I upped my C710 to 16GB for $50 a couple years ago (also swapped the 847 board for a 1007u, and dropped in an SSD), and it's been great. If and hopefully when 16GB DDR3 sodimms drop in price I'd like to bump it up to 32GB.

maxwellg 6y ago

I took my intro to databases course on a $160 (sale) Acer C670 in 2015. Fantastic battery life, Crouton was a breeze to get working, and was my first introduction to doing work in a unix environment. The only problem was that the larger tests would take more than 2GB of ram, and start swapping out to disk - so suites that took my classmates 5 minutes to run took me closer to an hour. I got very careful at thinking over the code in my head before hitting run. Wonderful little system for a broke CS student, and nothing but fond memories.

rcarmo 6y ago

Fellow C720 owner here. Love the thing, have had it running Elementary on a new SSD for ages now. Have recently switched to a E111 (despite only 32GB EMMC) because I got it to take 8GB RAM: https://taoofmac.com/space/com/Acer/Aspire%20ES1-111M https://taoofmac.com/space/com/Acer/Aspire%20ES1-111M, but otherwise the experience is still largely the same: extremely lightweight, quiet, "disposable" laptop tha I can use to code anything, browse anything, fiddle with the electronics (this one has pads for a SATA connector... haven't traced the electronics yet to see if they are there at all...)