What are the minimum requirements to have versatile computer onboard
..
Thank You.

Are you running a sailboat or motorboat?.

For a sailboat, power efficiency is important. Typical laptop brick is
60 Watt, which is more than 5 Amps.
Current (no pun) laptops are too power hungry for most sailboats and
overspecified for charting. Avoid charting or any software that uses
too much processing power (MaxSea charting software that consumes
80-100%CPU), as more CPU is more watts from power supply).
A three to five year old laptop, Pentium iii, of 500-1000Mhz, running
Windows 2000 is ideal in minimal configuration. Minimal is no media
player, no email, no internet, no virus scanners, no office software,
no external network connections, completely stand-alone--dedicated to
onboard tasks only.
At this price point you can afford a spare PC, similarly configured for
the inevitable
failure. Salt water and damp are not electronic friendly and hard disks
do not like the motion on board.
If not an old laptop, you could do a Google search for "Car computer".
In summary the boat PC should be dedidated to on board activities only.
For email,web DVD etc etc a seperate modern unit could be carried, but
internet cafes are preferable and cheaper.
Finally a DC-DC converter (car adapter) should be used rather than the
laptop's power brick, which will be a source of electrical noise and of
power loss in conversion.

Thank You very much for your advice.I have been considering Dell's
Inspiron 6000 to do the job ,but having two laptops would be much
better choise for different tasks.I would look for a car computer.
What do you think about marinized computers? Are they'll do the job
of car comp. or better?Or worse?
Thanx
Apfy

To nollaigoc.I have a Sailboat!
Thanx
Afpy

afpy wrote:
Thank You very much for your advice.I have been considering Dell's
Inspiron 6000 to do the job ,but having two laptops would be much
better choise for different tasks.I would look for a car computer.
What do you think about marinized computers? Are they'll do the job
of car comp. or better?Or worse?
Thanx
Apfy

I think one of the factors you have to be aware of is how well the
screen shows up in daylight.. a while back I talked to Dell about there
lap tops... basically their message was that any would do that had a
TFT screen and that the 6000 series did not have that required
screen... good luck.. Greg

afpy wrote:
Thank You very much for your advice.I have been considering Dell's
Inspiron 6000 to do the job ,but having two laptops would be much
better choise for different tasks.I would look for a car computer.
What do you think about marinized computers? Are they'll do the job
of car comp. or better?Or worse?
Thanx
Apfy

I think one of the factors you have to be aware of is how well the
screen shows up in daylight.. a while back I talked to Dell about there
lap tops... basically their message was that any would do that had a
TFT screen and that the 6000 series did not have that required
screen... good luck.. Greg

wrote:
afpy wrote:
Thank You very much for your advice.I have been considering Dell's
Inspiron 6000 to do the job ,but having two laptops would be much
better choise for different tasks.I would look for a car computer.
What do you think about marinized computers? Are they'll do the job
of car comp. or better?Or worse?
Thanx
Apfy

I think one of the factors you have to be aware of is how well the
screen shows up in daylight.. a while back I talked to Dell about
there lap tops... basically their message was that any would do that
had a TFT screen and that the 6000 series did not have that required
screen... good luck.. Greg

Use an inverter, it's the easiest and cheapest option. The DC-DC converters
are very poor at handling voltage spikes from an alternator. A customer of
mine blew a Thinkpad system board last year by starting his engine from cold
with the laptop connected.

Dennis.

An often over looked specification when buying a laptop for on board
use is how much power it draws. I met one fellow sailor last summer
that showed me his shiny new 17" wide screen multi - media laptop. The
shine had worn off as soon as he realized it was drawing more juice
from his battery than his fridge (ouch).

I bought a new laptop last spring. It is a high-end small display
Toshiba that is built for use on the road. Gel mounted HD, spill
membrane under the keyboard, magnesium case yada yada....

A month or so ago someone in the NG I subscribe to bought a "Sea PC".

Have a look he

http://www.seapc.se/index.html

If this had been available at the time I would not have bought a
laptop. A boat is not a nice place for any non-marinized electronic
device. This includes palm pilots, camcorders etc. The copper traces
on today's PCB are very very tiny. A small amount of (shudder)
corrosion and the device is dead and unlikely to be repairable. This
happens. Unless your laptop has been specifically made for the marine
environment you will eventually have problems due to air borne salt
laden moisture.

Personally I think the 8.5 in. version looks real tasty....


Hope you find this useful, and nope I have nothing to do with this
firm (sure would like to though), however I have contacted them by
e-mail. All of the main players in the company are sailors. Cool
product, prices with high-end laptops but much lower than "tough book"
type of gear.

regards,


Capt. Ricky Spamson

(to reply leave spam IN my e-addy, the spam bots drop the word spam)
Works for everyone except about 7400 deposed Nigerian Generals (:-)

Another location for low power hig spec. boat PC's is

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/

They are geared to the car PC but you can use on-board equally.
I have no connection with the owners of the link, but am a satisfied
customer.

On 3 Jan 2006 15:23:11 -0800, "nollaigoc" wrote:

A three to five year old laptop, Pentium iii, of 500-1000Mhz, running
Windows 2000 is ideal in minimal configuration.

========================================

That's what I use. You can pick them up in very good shape as
reconditioned units for $250 to $300. At that price they are cheap
enough not to worry about them too much. I usually get a couple of
years out of them, sometimes more.