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Jeff

* wrote, On 3/20/2007 5:38 AM:
On Mar 20, 3:17 pm, wrote:
For $500 you can get a new laptop with twice the disk space and twice
the procesor speed, and a 15" screen. (frys.com, or your prefered
discounter)
I would not in-dash-mount a computer, as you arel likely to replace it
from time to time. Plus, you might like it to be portable sometimes.

Hi Chris;
I see two advantages of a VIA solution for onboard PC over a laptop;
power consumption and fanless, so the motherboard can be isolated from
the marine environment.

I'll repeat my comments, having built one, being more explicit: The
power consumption is low, but not that much lower than a laptop.
Plus, the box doesn't include a screen, so you have to factor that in.
As for running fanless, my M6000 motherboard was billed as fanless,
but when I was able to run with a temperature monitor, it was over the
upper limit whenever the cpu ran 100%. Using either a case fan
(noisy) or a CPU fan was enough to keep it cool. I have no idea if it
would survive running fanless, but I'd be careful about the ambient
temp. Remember that most cars have A/C and don't get that hot.
Further, the fanless units are all low speed, mine runs at about 800
MHz; If I bought a new one I'd want at least 1.2 or 1.3 GHz but that
makes the cooling more important. Frankly, I've given up on the
concept of fanless. And finally, almost any laptop will run with
external screen, mouse and keyboard.

Don't get me wrong, I like my mini-itx machine: I use it every day,
and I keep looking for ways to upgrade it. But bang-for-the-buck, a
cheap laptop beats it easily.

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