Best Onboard Laptop

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Sheriff

There will be a lot of persons who will be stuck with equipment that cannot work for a long while if Microsoft eliminates XP. 1 customer come to me with his win7 laptop and his chartploter,sat fone and pactor modem.none was working again because win7 could not recognize any of them only to find out from the manufactures that drivers for these equipment for win 7 will be available in a years time! so best option was to downgrade to XP,all worked again and he was on his way!

That's interesting... my chartplotter and satphone and pactor modem don't need any drivers.

I thought that Win7 laptops don't have the drivers for XP anymore? How can you run XP when you don't have the drivers? Generic versions means no sound, Ethernet etc. and unacceptable slow video performance.

cheers,
Nick.

[barnakiel]

I had a look at one of the slates: Asus, 12 Inch.

Looks like a great toy for onboard use - just hang the screen anywhere and you have a wireless nav station (the keyboard is bluetoothed, the GPS is bluetoothed ...).

A bit pricey to me right now, but I think I would prefer it to my netbook for navigation. Esp that it is a touchscreen and I could keep it in the cockpit.

Given the size / power / usage and my limited budget it looks like one of those coming PC tablets will be my new nav station sooner or later.

b.

[Chipg]

Originally Posted by daddle

Nerd wars! Yay! So now that we've solved the 'Best Onboard Laptop' question, what is the best Internet Browser? I say Safari!

I really like safari, its what I use but googles chrome is really picking up steam, its the only browser to not be hacked, google even offers a $50k reward to anyone who can break into it.

Chrome is something to really consider for people who do a lot of internet banking.

[roger.waite]

Seems to me it is time to try and summarise ... and suffer the consequences. Ain't one solution for everyone ...

[1] Price & power consumption not an issue / want high end performance and/or big screen, then go big PC, go new. (And argue about merits of Mac vs. Toughbooks etc forever)

[2] Price an issue, power not, only want basic performance with big screen, or want redundancy on the cheap, then go big, go old. (And look condescendingly or enviously at the above group)

[3] Price and power consumption an issue, happy with smaller screen and modest performance, and want redundancy on the cheap, then go new, go netbook. (Go crazy if you always have to work on that 10" screen.)

Best piece of universal advice was to get backup sorted. We all need it.

Find a relatively dry space, a Toughbook, or make the PC area a raincoat.

If all you want is to run OpenCPN, etc, you may not need #1. (What you might want is a different question!) I generally use #1 in dock, and #3 for nav and travelling off the boat. Mix and match.

Horses for courses ...

[delmarrey]

This thread seems to be out dated now. I'm an Apple/Mac enthusiast but it seems firmware updates and programs require a PC/Windows OS. I have three pieces of electronics that is only supported by PC's (.exe files).

So, is there any newer PC laptops out there now that run Windows 7 or newer that hold up to the marine world? A Mac book pro would be nice but I just need something cheap that'll take care of marine software programs. I probably wouldn't even keep it on the boat.

[s/v Jedi]

A Mac is a PC and it runs Windows like any other brand. It was many years ago that the two were different.

Instead of buying an extra laptop, just get to run Windows on the Mac, using either bootcamp, Parallels, VMWare, or even one of the free equivalents which work good enough for the kind of software you want to run.

[RainDog]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

So, is there any newer PC laptops out there now that run Windows 7 or newer that hold up to the marine world?

With the exception of a few expensive ruggedized PCs, all hardware is pretty much the same these days. It is all built in a few facilities by the same people. I think durability is pretty much the same these days whether you buy a Dell, Mac, Asus, ......

I have been in the facility where they are building macs on the first floor, hp on the second floor, Dell on the third floor, etc.

Just make sure the hard-drive has a free-fall sensor and any cheap laptop should work for you.

[delmarrey]

I do like Mac's but I don't need the expense, or the complications of loading a second OS on a nice computer. I looked at the instructions for loading Windows on a Mac and it's a page long. No thanks! I'll just go cheap. Maybe somp'n off of Craigs list.

Thanks Raindog.

Just make sure the hard-drive has a free-fall sensor and any cheap laptop should work for you.

How is it labeled, or what's it called?

[gloriax]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

So, is there any newer PC laptops out there now that run Windows 7 or newer that hold up to the marine world?
.

General Dynamics Itronix GD6000


Getac X500

[RainDog]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

I do like Mac's but I don't need the expense, or the complications of loading a second OS on a nice computer. I looked at the instructions for loading Windows on a Mac and it's a page long. No thanks! I'll just go cheap. Maybe somp'n off of Craigs list.

Thanks Raindog.


How is it labeled, or what's it called?

Different manufacturers use different labels. For a list of examples see Active hard-drive protection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If it is not obvious from the specs listed on the laptop you can ask the manufacturer or retailer.

[Lake-Effect]

Q: How do you know when a computer is obsolete?
A: You paid for it and brought it home.

Computer hardware is still a moving target; tomorrow's cheap tablet will have the power of yesterday's top-line laptop. So it's still prudent to assume you will be replacing any computer in two or three years.

For most cruisers I would recommend buying a decent midrange laptop with the features you want, baby it (store in a good computer case, don't use it when it's really rough), and - most important - do regular backups. An external drive that connects via USB is a good solution.

I have a fondness for ASUS, but I believe that most of the "major" brands usually make a decent laptop. Read the reviews; every manufacturer has winners and losers.