Chromebooks are a great choice for students and busy professionals who want a small, lightweight computer that can do most of the basics like email, browsing the web, and playing games. But before you can get started using your Chromebook, you need to know its hardware specifications and system information. To get started, open Chrome’s settings and select “Hardware.” Under “Hardware,” you’ll find the Chromebook’s name and type of device. For example, if your Chromebook is called “Chromebook C2-1,” then you’ll see “Chromebook C2-1” in the Hardware section. Next, under “System Information,” you’ll see all of the Chromebook’s system information. This includes its CPU type (Intel Atom), operating system (Linux 3.x or 4.0), graphics card type (NVIDIA Tegra 3 or AMD Radeon R9 270X), storage size (8GB or 16GB), and more. If you’re not sure which information to look for, it’s best to ask your Chromebook’s owner or an online support representative how to view these details on their device.
Google doesn’t provide an easy way to see the storage, RAM, CPU, and other specifications of your Chromebook. But it’s possible to dig all this information up, just as you can on a traditional computer operating system.
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The specifications matter if you’re considering upgrading your Chromebook and want to know how much hardware you have. The techniques we’re covering also tell you if you have an ARM or Intel CPU, which is important if you’re installing a full Linux system on your Chromebook.
Check Available Storage
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To view how much local storage your Chrome OS device has available, open the “Files” app and click the menu button. You’ll see a meter showing how much local storage space you have left. You can free up space by deleting files from your Downloads folder and clearing your cache.
View Memory, CPU, and Network Usage
Chrome has its own task manager on Chrome OS, too. To use it, open any Chrome window. Click the menu button, point to “More Tools”, and then select the “Task Manager” option. The task manager shows you how much memory, CPU, and network activity different web pages, browser extensions, and apps are using.
Use the System Page
Chrome OS offers a special page that shows system information. You don’t need to install anything extra to find it. Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t provide the most user-friendly interface.
To locate this interface, type “chrome://system” into Chrome’s address bar and press Enter. (You can open this page on Windows, Mac, or Linux, too — but Chrome won’t show anywhere near as much system information.)
Much of the information here is more technical than what most people need, but you can see detailed information about your release version of Chrome OS, the device’s CPU, disk usage, its hardware platform, and network connection information.
Examine Network Connection Details
If you need to know your Chromebook’s network connection information—for example, its current IP or MAC address, or your router’s IP address—first, open the Settings page. The easiest way to get there is to click the notification area, and then select the gear-shaped “Settings” icon.
Click the name of your network connection under the “Network” section at the top of the Settings window, and then click your connection name in the list. The IP address is shown on the main page.
Expand the “Advanced” section to see details like your MAC address, SSID, and signal strength.
Expand the “Network section to see details like your routing prefix (subnet mask), gateway (router address), and DNS server addresses.
Find Your Chromebook’s Name with the Recovery Utility
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Google offers a Chromebook Recovery Utility you can install on your Chromebook. Install this app and launch it. The utility is mainly designed for creating recovery media that you can use to restore your Chromebook’s operating system if it becomes damaged. However, the first page of the app (after you click the “Get Started” button also shows you the exact model name of your Chromebook and and lets you match it to a more user-friendly name. You can then Google this Chromebook name for more information, if you like.
Install a System Information App
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Google has added a variety of system APIs to Chrome OS, so simple apps can read system information and display it. Google hasn’t included such an interface with the operating system because it really doesn’t want you to have to care what hardware is in your Chromebook. These apps function like the system information utilities do on Windows.
For example, you could install Cog, a system information utility created by François Beaufort, a Google employee.
Cog shows you the name of your CPU and architecture, your current system CPU usage, the total amount of RAM in your system, the amount of memory left, network connection information, display specifications, and a few other details. Other apps work similarly, as there’s only so much information an app can get from Chrome OS and display to you.
If necessary, you can find more detailed hardware specifications with a simple Google search after you find the exact model name of your Chromebook.
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