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?

"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.

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

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

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

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.

Or you can run your desktop PC on 12 volts. See link below for one
example. Search with "dc input" as one of your terms to find others. PC
Power & Cooling company offered a 12volt supply once, but I didn't see
it on there site when I glanced through it today.

http://www.orbitmicro.com/products/p...c-dc%20ps2.htm

This is not a sure fix, but it _might_ help a lot. You need to check
power consumption specs, what sort of power management controls the
supply includes (some supplies can be controlled by your software,
something like a laptop), how clean the input voltage has to be and what
RFI certification (if any) the product has - amoung other things.

By selecting your operating system and components (harddisks, CDs, DVDs,
displays, etc) carefully to find those with good power management
options, you can produce low consumption PC. Some mother boards and
power supplies provide fan controls to slow or stop the fans when the
machine hibernates. However, the process can be frustrating because: 1)
the real specs take time to locate; 2) the software and hardware
interactions can become complex - and sometimes they just don't work
like the book says they do.

But it's doable, and a little research should tell you whether you can
get 80% of the benefit by spending 20% of the effort (skip the tough
power management/software issues). Another idea would be to use laptop
harddisks. They run slower, but they use less power; AFAIK they use the
same hard disk interface protocol and I believe there are mounting kits
(with adapters for your ribbon cables) to install them in standard cases.

Dirt and cooling can be issues and they are related. This is just
standard PC stuff, but if you're not living 3 blocks from CompUSA, it
becomes more than just an annoyance when the machine takes a crap. A PC
generates heat and when things are right, cooling fans carry it away.
But the air the fans move around can contain dust and cat hair and the
like and this clogs up the fins of heat sinks, covers the fan blades,
and generally messes up the heat/cooling balance. It helps to take the
time to find all the air inlets on a PC case and cut pieces of furnace
filter material to cover them and keep (some of) the dust out of the PC.
Or mount the whole case inside a protective box with large carefully
located air holes which you cover with several layers of filter
material; seal all seams. Nothing complicated or difficult about this,
but it can save your PC. You can build machines with motherboards and
operating systems which monitor temperatures and will shut down before
the PC toasts itself, but this takes a fair amount of research and
careful software installation (but not more $$).

I use a wireless mouse and keyboard and find them a god-send. I just
throw the keybd and mouse in a slot by the display and have the table
clear - no muss with cables. Haven't got rid of the USB or printer
cables yet, but with the USB I just bring one cable up and velcro the
multiport connector to the bulkhead above the table. You could probably
install the DVD in a separate box on the table, as long as the PC is
located within about 36".

The point of all this is to keep the PC locked away safe, clean, and
cool, untouched.


Have fun. Rufus



wrote:
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?