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Use desktop PCs on sail boat?
On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 09:53:32 -0500, wrote:
Using desktop with batteries is a stupid thing on a small boat - it
consumes 100Watt easily, plus the LCD another 30-40Watt, since it's
bright and not designed to save power. And you cannot suspend it. Laptop
consumes 60-80W and has several levels of power saving.
Good point
And like I said earlier maybe it best to use a laptop
anyway for above reasons.
Also the economies of scale give us good deals on
laptops
I will say one thing for laptops: used ones a couple of years old are
plenty smart enough for ALL boat nav/radar/sensor jobs, and are
considerably cheaper due to the "cool" factor of the latest rigs.
A reasonably solid PIII IBM Thinkpad securely mounted to a nav
station, with a slaved display on a swiveling arm would serve in most
situations.
Handy for Floridians, for instance, when connected to wireless
Internet, to download hurricane tracks and other nerve-wracking
info...man, I don't envy you guys tonight...it's like getting squared
in the nuts, first the left one, then the right...ow!
R.
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