What Kind of PC Are You Using on Board ?

[mattpayne]

Ive just finished my 2010 refresh on my boat PC, it used to run a Via C7 667 which was a bit sluggish, the new spec is an Atom 510 dual core, 2gb ram, 40gb HDD, Win7Pro, all fanless and running 12v, the display is a 15" and we have a waterproof keyboard and mouse, instuments are connected using an USB miniplex

the whole lot is encased in a sealed box with IP68 LEDs, powerbutton and USB+Lan sockets. the whole lot is strapped away under a chair..

I have no idea on the current draw, but the atom shouldnt be too much more juicy than the old C7 and we have used that happily for over 24hours at a time - the boat is a Sigma38.
The 12v psu has thump control so cranking wont hurt the machine (one of our powerbook PSU's died this way) and will gracefully shut down the machine after the main breaker is turned off, it monitors battery state and will shut the PC down if the battery drops below a certain voltage(which i cant rember!)

here are some photos of the setup...







I know this is the rong place to put it, but Rik-lu...
and my spare 1.2ghz touchscreen CF29 is redundant and is up for sale at a lot less than 400euro!

[bluearcus]

This looks to be one of the best pieces of kit so far for a fixed nav-station install:

Genesi - EFIKA MX Open Client

$250, but no moving parts and only 5W power consumption. Shipped with an install of Ubuntu.

[gjorgensen]

Hey mattpayne, where'd you get the IP68 box for the computer itself?

[mattpayne]

Originally Posted by gjorgensen

Hey mattpayne, where'd you get the IP68 box for the computer itself?

that came from my local electrical factors its a general purpose outdoor wiring box they had lots of various sizes and was about £15

[mattpayne]

oh... the box itself isnt ip68 - its ipx4. all the hardware is ip68 - buttons, connectors, etc.

The case will take a hose from all angles, (the two halves have a rubber seal )but if submerged will leak from the cable entry - the cable entry has a baffle (the cables enter a chamber at the top of the case then exit at the middle) and a drain so it reqires a lot of directed water to breach the case, but will take on water if submerged

[gjorgensen]

Makes perfect sense - you can get a NEMA 4X box in a decent size, built for outdoor electrical wiring and made of polycarbonate or ABS, that should do the job. A standard mini-ITX board is 6.7x6.7 inches, so you'd need to leave room for a hard drive and PSU, and enough volume to create a sufficient thermal mass to cool the thing. That should be do-able with some stand-offs and creative mounting using a 9x12 Home Depot special.

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

The ACER has worked fine and the battery settings have certainly allowed for constant (or near constant) use whilst the other computer can never hardly been used due to power SUCK.

Some member on this forum slagged me off deeply for buying this brand of computer... I still fail to see why when we bought a computer that has done well and uses a miniscule amount of power comparitavly... and cost far less.

This article may explain the disdain in which Acer laptops are held

Acer makes the shoddiest laptops, say IT professionals | ZDNet

[dacust]

Originally Posted by mintyspilot

This article may explain the disdain in which Acer laptops are held

Acer makes the shoddiest laptops, say IT professionals | ZDNet

Interesting. The stats on Acer look like IT professionals rate it poorly. The stats on Lenovo and Apple look like they like them. But the stats on all the rest don't show much at all.

Basically I'm not sure I have much faith in their poll.

I've rearranged the stats here:

              Worst          Best       Notes

Responses     7370           4609         1

Acer           24%             6%         
HP             21             18          2
Dell           20             21          2
Toshiba        12             15          2
Asus            8              8          2
Lenovo          8             17          
Apple           7             15

Notes:
1. Why the wide difference between respondents for worst and best?
2. Why do 4 of the 7 have almost the same number that says worst as says best?

They also don't post the actual questions they asked and don't explain how it was conducted.

So, what does it actually mean?

Not sure.

Conclusion: I wouldn't use this poll to make my decision.

On the other hand, FWIW: Based on what I've heard that I do think is reliable information, I wouldn't buy an Acer.

So I'm not arguing that Acer is good. I am just saying that if I was trying to convince someone to not buy one, I wouldn't bother using this poll as evidence. Who knows, they might be a statistician and be as unimpressed with it as I was.

-dan

[dpons]

Originally Posted by mattpayne

but will take on water if submerged

so will the rest of the boat

[jpiebrig]

Here for realiability of laptops :

http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/lap...iability-1109/

http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/S...ility_1109.pdf

I think they know about what they are speaking of.

Jean-Pierre

[dacust]

Originally Posted by jpiebrig

Here for realiability of laptops :

laptop-reliability-1109 | SquareTrade Warranties

http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/S...ility_1109.pdf

I think they know about what they are speaking of.

Jean-Pierre

That looks a bit more believable. Strange, HP shows up as the worst, there. But Acer isn't much better.

Thanks for posting this.

-dan

[Pegase]

rebuild old desktop P3 400Mhtz
700 mb ram
40gb HDD
special DC-DC power
14' display
no floppy, no cd or dvd reader (to reduce needed power)
but 2 USB and 2 serials ports

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by dacust

That looks a bit more believable. Strange, HP shows up as the worst, there. But Acer isn't much better.

Thanks for posting this.

-dan

The one I posted was just a web survey whereas this other one is a statistical analysis of faulty kit. Of course the latter is better.

The two things I notice are:

1) The analysis agrees with the anecdotal survey that HP and Acer are bad (Gateway is missing in the ZDNet survey)

2) It seems to make little difference whether you buy a cheap laptop or an expensive one. The failure rates are nearly identical (only 2.5% apart).