"Doug Dotson" wrote in message ...
Laptops tend to be a bit more rugged, but using a small desktop and
a flat panel display will keep the power consumption down.

Doug
s/v Callista

wrote in message
...
Im not a sailor but I have a question out of curiosity.

Is it possible to use small form factor desktops on boats with DC
systems rather than use laptops?

Bottom line.... can one use and modify a desktop to run off 12 vdc
boat system..... or is one just stuck using and buying laptops that
are already setup to use battery DC power?

I would like to use a desk top for the following reasons:
1. Lower cost than Laptops
2. Can be readily adapted to fit my needs by adding cards etc
3. If a drive goes BO it can be changed.

So, how can I get a desktop that maintains the above advantages, but
uses 12 V power and low amps.
I don't want to buy a specialty desktop, then I might jsut as well buy
a laptop.
The suggestion to use a Flat panel screen is good. But what about the
PC itself. How should I confugure that.
Are 12 V power supplies available for a desk top?
One reply said that a 1 GHz Celeron processor uses the same amount of
power in as a laptop.
Wat about drives? I think I would need a hard drive and a CD reader.
Are they the culprit for high power consumption?

What about Cards I need the mother board plus a modem.

On 9 Aug 2004 21:24:25 -0700, something compelled
(Rolf), to say:

I would like to use a desk top for the following reasons:
1. Lower cost than Laptops
2. Can be readily adapted to fit my needs by adding cards etc
3. If a drive goes BO it can be changed.

What do you want to do with the computer? The answer to this
question should drive your decisions.

DiscountMaineSoftware.Com wrote:
Another consideration....with the laptop is the built in battery. If power
goes out, or hiccups, the laptop's power management automatically kicks over
the battery. That feature alone will keep your software happy, since you
could loose data and cause data corruption.

I've heard of boaters using fullsize PCs on inverter setups, but also having
a battery backup just in case the inverter fails. I've seen battery backups
as low as $59 at the local Staples/BestBuy, etc that will give you 9-10
minutes of power...long enough to sort out the inverter issues or shutdown
safely if its a more serious issue.

Think worse case...and redundancy!

-Paul



I think the problem with a desk top PC on a boat is that they are
power hogs. If a desk top PC uses 240 W, that is 20 Amps at 12 V. That
is a lot of power. If you use an inverter then you also have the
losses of the inverter. I think people use a Laptop because they use
much less power. I personally would love to use a desktop PC because
they are much cheaper and componenets are much easier to replace, but
the power consumptions is preventing me from going that route.
Does somebody have an solution to this problem, ie a desk top PC that
uses the power of a Laptop?




The PC power is sucked mainly by the CRT monitor. A modern
alternative would do wonders. Check the power consumption.

There are 12v adapters that will provide 16 or whatever your laptop
demands. Most will slurp up 13 or so happily. Won't really hurt to
try. IF it boots, hay, go for it. Make backups first. 50 watts means
5 amp hours per hour, about.

YMMV

Terry K

I would like to use a desk top for the following reasons:
1. Lower cost than Laptops
2. Can be readily adapted to fit my needs by adding cards etc
3. If a drive goes BO it can be changed.

These are the same reasons that I posted original
question abt using desktops!

I want the "flexibility" of a desktop as far as repairs
and upgrades..... but the low power consumption and
compactness of a laptop.

From what Ive learned just listening to everyones
opinions is.... that it n fact CAN be done using
smallish desktops. But maybe at a price

You are not going to be able to use a cheap, run-of-the-mill desktop
straight from 12v DC power. Inside there is a power supply that produces
several different voltages used by the PC. Your only alternative is to use
an inverter.
I don't think power consumption would be that great if you use a flat panel
monitor. If your activity caused your hard drive to run a lot this would be
increased. Additional RAM would reduce this need.
FWIW, John Neal comments in his cruising book that he has used common
desktop computers on his boat for years without trouble.

"Rolf" wrote in message
om...
"Doug Dotson" wrote in message
...
Laptops tend to be a bit more rugged, but using a small desktop and
a flat panel display will keep the power consumption down.

Doug
s/v Callista

wrote in message
...
Im not a sailor but I have a question out of curiosity.

Is it possible to use small form factor desktops on boats with DC
systems rather than use laptops?

Bottom line.... can one use and modify a desktop to run off 12 vdc
boat system..... or is one just stuck using and buying laptops that
are already setup to use battery DC power?

I would like to use a desk top for the following reasons:
1. Lower cost than Laptops
2. Can be readily adapted to fit my needs by adding cards etc
3. If a drive goes BO it can be changed.

So, how can I get a desktop that maintains the above advantages, but
uses 12 V power and low amps.
I don't want to buy a specialty desktop, then I might jsut as well buy
a laptop.
The suggestion to use a Flat panel screen is good. But what about the
PC itself. How should I confugure that.
Are 12 V power supplies available for a desk top?
One reply said that a 1 GHz Celeron processor uses the same amount of
power in as a laptop.
Wat about drives? I think I would need a hard drive and a CD reader.
Are they the culprit for high power consumption?

What about Cards I need the mother board plus a modem.

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 22:39:36 GMT, "Gordon Wedman"
wrote:

You are not going to be able to use a cheap, run-of-the-mill desktop
straight from 12v DC power. Inside there is a power supply that produces
several different voltages used by the PC. Your only alternative is to use
an inverter.

There are some 12 volt power supplies that can be used in place of the
standard AC supplies in most desktop machines - but they may cost more
than a suitable inverter.


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

FWIW, John Neal comments in his cruising book that he has used common
desktop computers on his boat for years without trouble.

OK

Well reason Im asking is cause a good friend and his
wife just sold EVERYTHING and drove down to Florida and
bought a 32' sail boat and taking a year to "cruise"

They started planning three years back for this by
taking all kinds of classes, etc

se link

http://www.sailkabuki.com/

Anyway..... I don't own a boat and don't know anything
abt sailing... but his adventure has me fascinated!

As a result Ive posted a few messages on the "nuts and
bolts" for doing such a thing

There are some 12 volt power supplies that can be used in place of the
standard AC supplies in most desktop machines - but they may cost more
than a suitable inverter.

OK

Well it sounds like that maybe rather than "swimming
upstream" one should go ahead and just buy/use laptop
PCs

Im not really a big fan of laptops cause they cant be
serviced easily, etc..... but sometimes I guess one
cant fight the economies of scale of some things such
as laptop production and prices.

So....sounds like it just best to use laptops on sail
boats and such cause they are cheaper, use low power
components, etc

wrote in message . ..
FWIW, John Neal comments in his cruising book that he has used common
desktop computers on his boat for years without trouble.

OK

Well reason Im asking is cause a good friend and his
wife just sold EVERYTHING and drove down to Florida and
bought a 32' sail boat and taking a year to "cruise"

They started planning three years back for this by
taking all kinds of classes, etc

se link

http://www.sailkabuki.com/

Anyway..... I don't own a boat and don't know anything
abt sailing... but his adventure has me fascinated!

As a result Ive posted a few messages on the "nuts and
bolts" for doing such a thing

From all of this discussion I have learned that I have two choices:
Use a cheap, fixable and adptable Desk top PC with an LCD monitor to
hold power usage down, and an inverter to supply the power, or
use a laptop.
The first choice uses more epower, the second choice loses on
varsatility and fixability.
For me Computers is a learn-as-you-go thing and therefore I am leaning
to the cheap PC route. Maybe I can use the LCD monitor also as TV for
watching movies and therfore would get a larger monitor thatn usually
comes with a laptop.

On 11 Aug 2004 18:33:16 -0700, (Rolf) wrote:

For me Computers is a learn-as-you-go thing and therefore I am leaning
to the cheap PC route. Maybe I can use the LCD monitor also as TV for
watching movies and therfore would get a larger monitor thatn usually
comes with a laptop.

Something else to consider is this: a 15 inch LCD display is well
under $500 these days and can also display chartplotter info, GPS,
radar and whatnot when hooked into the appropriate "black boxes"

To my mind, getting separate displays or "multi-function marine"
display at six or seven inches across is silly when you can have the
same info on an LCD screen in a waterproof bag on an armature in the
companionway. When needed, fire it up and pull the screen into
view...when finished, push it back into relative weather protection.

I have heard of people using infrared controls and wireless mice to
"click" between GPS, charts, radar and the evening news on LCDs hooked
into small PCs and the appropriate sensing units...the point is that
ANY relatively current PC is much more powerful and adaptable than a
single task-oriented "marine" display, like a chart plotter.

Of course, there's the "all eggs in one basket" argument, but that's
why you throw a handheld GPS with extra batteries into the "crash
box".

R.