DEAD DEAL Toshiba 15.6" laptop - $229 at Best Buy

[RossMAN]

Good deal, and GREAT information from the OP.

Agreed and OP is Elite Member material.

 

[rci2990]

and i also forgot that i was running off the battery and off my wireless router.don't know if that matters much.

 

[Kaido]

Agreed and OP is OCD material.

ftfy :awe:

 

[Kaido]

and i also forgot that i was running off the battery and off my wireless router.don't know if that matters much.

Hmm that's strange. I've tried a couple of these so far and HD Youtube is somewhat stuttery for me under the stock Windows 8 with the latest version of Chrome (tested both wired & wireless). I'll test some more tomorrow with the next batch I get in.

 

[Kaido]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0IRBwBizHY

1080P relaxation video

I played that full-screen, and right-clicked on the video, and selected "stats for nerds".

It showed "stage FPS: 10", "video FPS: 27-28". It was dropping 1-2 frames per second, and wasn't totally smooth.

That's on my Asus X551M laptop with a Bay Trail N2830 dual-core CPU, in Win 8.1 w/Bing 64-bit. Waterfox 32.0.3, newest Flash Player.

My CPU usage graph looks like a mouth full of shark's teeth. 15%, then 95%, then 15% again for a while. Not sure what's causing the spikes. The video also jitters every few seconds.

I do think it's strange because iirc the Intel HD GPU is supposed to be able to handle HD video playback even on low-end processors, so I don't know what the deal is. I haven't tried any standalone files like 1080p MKV's or anything yet, but I'll give it a shot to see.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I do think it's strange because iirc the Intel HD GPU is supposed to be able to handle HD video playback even on low-end processors, so I don't know what the deal is. I haven't tried any standalone files like 1080p MKV's or anything yet, but I'll give it a shot to see.

Yes, but remember, Bay Trail "Intel HD" is lower than Core Celeron "Intel HD". Haswell Celerons have like 10 EUs, Bay Trail only has 4.

 

[SunnyD]

Yes, but remember, Bay Trail "Intel HD" is lower than Core Celeron "Intel HD". Haswell Celerons have like 10 EUs, Bay Trail only has 4.

Bay Trail shouldn't have any problems with 1080p encoded content. Pretty much ANY modern SoC, especially one designed for tablets, should handle this sort of content without any issues.

More than likely it's a system-wide issue due to a clean, full OS install.

 

[Kaido]

Bay Trail shouldn't have any problems with 1080p encoded content. Pretty much ANY modern SoC, especially one designed for tablets, should handle this sort of content without any issues.

More than likely it's a system-wide issue due to a clean, full OS install.

Happened OOTB (Win8) on 2 so far. I have a third I'll try tomorrow.

 

[sm625]

On a device like that you really want to be watching videos on the youtube app. I'm not sure if its the case now, but when win 8 launched, the metro video player apps were the only things that could handle youtube 1080p without dropping frames on a clover trail atom.

 

[rci2990]

Hmm that's strange. I've tried a couple of these so far and HD Youtube is somewhat stuttery for me under the stock Windows 8 with the latest version of Chrome (tested both wired & wireless). I'll test some more tomorrow with the next batch I get in.

you say stock w8.i updated to 8.1 and all the updates that come when you do the windows updates.so i don't know if that matters much.

 

[sinucus]

Price is now listed at $199 for me.

 

[Kaido]

you say stock w8.i updated to 8.1 and all the updates that come when you do the windows updates.so i don't know if that matters much.

Mine came with Windows 8.1 OOTB. I tested video stock & then after doing all Toshiba & Windows updates available. I have another one I'll try today. Strange.

 

[Kaido]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0IRBwBizHY

1080P relaxation video

I played that full-screen, and right-clicked on the video, and selected "stats for nerds".

It showed "stage FPS: 10", "video FPS: 27-28". It was dropping 1-2 frames per second, and wasn't totally smooth.

That's on my Asus X551M laptop with a Bay Trail N2830 dual-core CPU, in Win 8.1 w/Bing 64-bit. Waterfox 32.0.3, newest Flash Player.

My CPU usage graph looks like a mouth full of shark's teeth. 15%, then 95%, then 15% again for a while. Not sure what's causing the spikes. The video also jitters every few seconds.

Snagged another one (Toshiba C55-B3500). Did all the updates, installed Chrome, tested out the video you linked - CPU is pegged at 100%. Dropping frames like crazy at both 1080p & 720p. I'm up to 912 dropped frames. This year's cheapo model definitely isn't as good as last year's 1.8GHz 1037U Ivy Bridge celeron unit:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2351976

Still for a momputer or something basic like that, it's fine. I've been throwing them out for use primarily as Microsoft Office machines at work, which is funny because it's like $120 for a license of that software (which is about half the price of the entire computer!). They work fine for basic browsing & whatnot too.

 

[sm625]

So a year later we get a passmark single thread regression of over 50%, and something like a 25% regression in multithreaded. In for one.

 

[Kaido]

So a year later we get a passmark single thread regression of over 50%, and something like a 25% regression in multithreaded. In for one.

Yeah, from what I understand, they switched the Celeron units from a pared-down Ivy Bridge Core chip (non-hyperthreaded, non-turbo) to just a Bay Trail Atom chip, so you're really getting an Atom, the difference of which has a very noticeable effect in some areas like watching videos. Even installing programs maxes this thing out at 100%, which is honestly kind of disgusting for a computer in 2014. Then again, it's cheap & does the job if you don't require HD video, and there are plenty of applications for a cheap computer like this where it doesn't really matter how bad the specs are. I've rolled out a whole bunch at work as cheapo RDP machines & basic Office travel machines and everyone is pretty happy with them so far :thumbsup:

 

[Kaido]

Has anyone tried the new one yet?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/toshiba-...lack/1296072.p

I think it has the J1800 chip:

http://ark.intel.com/products/78866/Intel-Celeron-Processor-J1800-1M-Cache-up-to-2_58-GHz

I'm curious if the extra speed boost would help with the stuttery HD video playback.

 

[jonno]

Thanks Kaido. I am still loving the Asus X501A (Ivy Bridge) u recommended almost two years ago at Best Buy for $260 shipped. Even if it is only Windows 8. It does pretty much everything I want and quickly. Awesome deal at the time and still holds its value.

 

[Kaido]

Thanks Kaido. I am still loving the Asus X501A (Ivy Bridge) u recommended almost two years ago at Best Buy for $260 shipped. Even if it is only Windows 8. It does pretty much everything I want and quickly. Awesome deal at the time and still holds its value.

Wow, awesome, hadn't realized it's been that long :thumbsup:

iirc that's the one I got my mom to replace her desktop. Still working great!

 

[CuriousMike]

Has anyone tried the new one yet?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/toshiba-...lack/1296072.p

I think it has the J1800 chip:

http://ark.intel.com/products/78866/Intel-Celeron-Processor-J1800-1M-Cache-up-to-2_58-GHz

I'm curious if the extra speed boost would help with the stuttery HD video playback.

I think it's Intel® Celeron® Processor N2840