We had a new Dell 4100 laptop on our one year trip to the Bahamas. The DC
power connector flaked out a couple of times and it took all my engineering
skill to disassemble it and fix it. And the fix didn't last. Someone of
lesser electronics abilities would be really stuck. Then I got home to
discover Dell wants $700 fixed fee to fix a laptop if the warantee ran out.
My suggestion if you really want a PC to work:

Don't buy a Dell. Their "Customer Service" policies are awful.

Buy two cheap older laptops, one as a spare. Back up pretty regularly. Maybe
network them together and move data back and forth to backup each machine.
Or use a CDR.

Keep the laptop in one place, strapped down really well. We saw several take
dives off the nav station.

I like the idea of a desktop with LCD monitor for the low cost and easy
spare availability.

My $0.02

Dave Erickson
Apache 37 "Second Sojourn"
www.djerickson.com for lots of nice ICW and Bahamas photos




"John Nagy" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for advice on laptop computers/configurations that seem to
work for folks. We will be doing some blue water cruising and want to
use it for weatherfax and charting as well as email. Any help
experiences would be appreciated! Also any web sites that deal with the
subject would be helpful. Thanks in advance. Best Regards, John

S/V Lionheart