I switched to an ARM Chromebook instead
I went the other way, and finally decided to switch to an ARM. I'm glad I did. I got an Acer Chromebook 13, popped in an SDCard and put Ubuntu on it. It has a Tegra K1, so a 2.2ghz* quad-core ARM (+ 1 low power core that the kernel automatically switches to when it's running 1 CPU at lower speed.), and the 192-core CUDA video card appears to be roughly comparable to a GT720 in terms of CUDA units and speed. Supposed 13 hour battery life -- I measured about 15 hours battery life in ChromeOS (I think it would have gotten over 20 under lighter usage), and in Ubuntu about 12-13 hours under lighter usage down to maybe 8 hours under heavy use (maxing out all 4 cores compiling or H.264 encoding some videos or the like.) It kills my previous Dell speed-wise (admittedly elderly, a Core Duo), is much lighter, nice keyboard, no fan and no noticeable heat production (under full load one spot on the bottom seems to warm up like 5 degrees), seems well put-together and surprisingly has pretty good speakers.
*I think it's supposed to be able to do 2.4ghz, but probably has the speed disabled for thermal reasons. Maybe? The CPU temp never seems to get particuarly high, so it may be for battery life or some other reason.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
