It seems that when I find something I like, I never get just one.  Especially when it comes to shoes and clothes.  You just never know if the same offering is going to be available when your current shoes are worn out and you want to replace them.  Hence the reason I have so many pairs of shoes, backpacks, kilts, etc.

Usually, this philosophy does not hold up in the computer technology realm due to the rapid rate of obsolescence.  You wait until your current hardware can’t keep up anymore, and get a new one.  However, in the case of the Acer Chromebook C2720, it is somewhat applicable.  Why?  The newer Chromebooks are all slimming down and that means no upgrades of any components.  And since they are generally skimpy on local storage, that’s unfortunate.  Enter the Acer C720, which has an upgrade-able SSD card.  Sure it voids the warranty to upgrade it, but who cares with something this cheap?  Also, you can get a C720 with the more powerful quad-core Core i3 CPU and 4GB of RAM.  Couple that with an upgraded 256GB SSD and you have a hell of a Chromebook.

And yes, I should have bought an Acer C720 first instead of getting the Samsung.  But the Samsung was on sale locally and I could play around with it, and fell in love with it!!  I still love it.  But I also like to tinker and tweak.  So I ordered a slightly used gray Core i3 C720 on eBay.  Well, I say I ordered one, but I did not receive it.  Rather, I got a white C720P with a Celeron and 2GB of RAM.  Apparently the seller is completely computer illiterate and had no idea what they were selling.  But for the price I paid at $240 or so, a like-new C720P is still a good machine.  It’s faster than the Samsung Chromebook 2, and has a nice touch screen.  So I went easy on them and just decided to keep it, giving them neutral feedback instead of negative.  Worked out well in the end for everyone.  And I think I finally learned my lesson to not buy computer equipment on eBay.

I upgraded the white C720P with a 128GB MyDigitalSSD SuperCache 2 42mm M.2 SSD.  It’s great now!

But still, I really wanted that Core i3 C720.  And I finally found a really good deal on a new one at Tiger Direct.  I even got a $20 off coupon when shopping for it, so out the door including 2nd Day Air shipping – $319 I think?  Much better price new than anywhere else.  I also upgrade its SSD with a MyDigitalSSD Super Boot Drive 42mm M.2 unit, and it rocks.  Fast, good battery life, and lots of local storage.

So yes, now I have three little Chromebooks.  But I don’t have to worry about synchronizing settings, etc. across the three — Google does it for me.  Even newly downloaded apps and my wallpaper follow me around from Chromebook to Chromebook.  Guess that’s one of the reasons why so many schools have switched to this platform.  I really hope Google keeps it around, even if that means folding it into some kind of laptop version of Android with ChromeOS features sometime down the line.