You might look into Mini-ITX. Its the size and power consumption of a laptop,
but with pci slots and replaceable disk drives, etc. Of course, not that much
bang for the buck, compared to off the shelf stuff.



wrote in message
...
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"

Exactly. And that was the impetus for my question....
i.e. whether a single "box" or PC can be used for
multiple functions on a sail boat or any boat

Again.... I know NOTHING abt boats.... but just curios

And i really "prefer" desktop PCs cause they are more
flexible than laptop PCs in that one can open the
desktop up and work on them, adding things, etc.


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".

Good point!

Or maybe just have a backup box on hand at all times