Laptop reccomendations

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bromleybysea

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I want to buy a s/h laptop for use on the boat including use as a chart/AIS plotter, and for wifi access for forecasts etc. I don't want to spend a lot of money, but I don't know much about the subject and get very overwhelmed when I look on Ebay etc. Could you techies out there give me some advice about minimum spec I need, the sort of price I should pay and reccomendations for dealers etc. thanks.
 
Any new laptop on the market will easily meet the fairly simple requirements of navigation software. In fact any laptop made in the last 4 years would be up to the job without breaking sweat. IMO the important things to look for are a good display that you can read in sunlight, the right ports for what you want to do i.e. some software requires a dongle which plugs into a serial port to authenticate the software license. A serial port might be necessary to hook up to your GPS. Some laptops don't come with the ports you might need. Make sure that the version of Windows i.e. W95, XP or Vista works with the software you intend buying. Don't get to hung up on the size of memory, hard disk capacity or the processer speed as they are almost meaningless for navigation software unless you buy a laptop that is about 10 years old. All things being equal get the most capacity for your money, but whatever you get it should be fine in that respect. I wouldn't recommend buying from eBay as you are better off paying a bit more and getting a warranty. Laptops are not the worlds most reliable items and they are a pain to fix. Hope that helps. Bye the way I am the MD of an I.T. support company!
 
Dell. Have had two on board for the last 12 years (almost ten of those spent full time cruising) and they still perfect, so highly recommended.
 
IBM Thinkpad T22/41 or higher; USP "Button" GPS; fold-away keyboard and wireless mouse.....run for years.
As Steven says, its not the processing power that is in question, it's the longevity.
 
Buy a Mac Book http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa

You can install Windows and run Windows and the Mac operating system at the same time. It is a brilliant solution. You use OSX for everything and Windows for navigation.

There are no viruses for OSX yet so you have a much more stable machine. There is little to chose between OSX and Windows, you can more or less do the same thing with both systems, so you will have the best of both worlds.
 
Oh what the hell - we are a computer remarketing co - offer mostly to trade end of line & refurb kit, deman parts etc Warrantied - drop me a mail if of interest.
At worst will try to point in right direction.
 
How long is a bit of string? How much do you know about configuing the things?

The laptop I have on the boat is 10 years old. It is fine for chatplotting (I use raymarine, SeaPro and Maxsea on it), Word Processing and Web browsing.

But if you need any help setting the thing up and configuring the OS then buy a new one with all the spftware already installed, some configurations disks and a number to call if things don't work.

You can get a new laptop that will do everything you want for under £300 in the high street and probably less if you shop around online.

Most Laptops do not have an RS232 port (the Serial plug you need for most GPS systems) so you'll have to buy a USA to Serial convertor (last one I bought was £12 from Maplin).

Also look at the power consumption carefully - all those extra bits (DVDs, Speakers, Extra bright screens etc...) all use lots of power so ge tone without them or disable them.

I'd get any laptop that runs off 12v, a USB to serial convertor and buy a car adaptor for it. IMO it's just too much trouble to bother with invertors or DC to DC converters.

Good luck
 
I picked up an IBM T23 ex-corporate job with a 3 month warranty for less than £60.
Has Win 2000, Serial Port, USB ports etc and very reliable! I used one at work a couple of years ago and was the most rugged laptop I have ever used.
I would recommend IBM's as good machines, look at this website (where I got mine) they have quite a lot of s/hand ex corporate ones that look reasonably priced:

www.sterlingxs.com

Jonnny
 
I was thinking of getting a Toshiba Toughbook second hand. Some have screens viewable in daylight and are waterproof. Therefore you could take it into the cockpit if necessary

TudorDoc
 
What software are you going to run on it? Some Nav software will run on a very low spec whilst others require a much higher spec. Once you've decided that you can start looking at hardware.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Oh what the hell - we are a computer remarketing co - offer mostly to trade end of line & refurb kit, deman parts etc Warrantied - drop me a mail if of interest.
At worst will try to point in right direction.

[/ QUOTE ]
Perhaps you might be able to assist 'Trouville', the Master Wordsmith who could certainly do with a little help.

If it came to cost, I am sure they forum members would happily search the darker recesses of pocket or purse?
 
I too bought a S/H IBM T23, having used a T22 as my corporate work-horse for the previous 3 years. Solid as the proverbial (but not in the same league as the panasonic notebook - which is in another price category).

The only problem I have had was when the bag got soaked in the bottom of the tender, and I did not dry it out soon enough, so I ended up with some salt-water corrosion round the battery terminals. No long term damage though.

John
 
If I maybe drift slightly, I soon got fed up with the limitations of free wifi on my recently purchased s/h Compaq Presario so I now have a "Three" dongle modem for 10 quid a month. I can use it anywhere (in fact I am sitting in my lorry in a truck stop this Friday evening) and using it to send this. And at the weekend, I can use it when I am at home on the boat. I believe they sell them in most Superdrug stores.
 
Just bought an IBM thinkpad from a re- marketing company (tier1 asset management off ebay - service so far very good). It seems solidly made by comparison with the £300 new lappies, has a nice screen and runs everything pretty well.

My advice would be to make sure you buy a lappy with XP on it and not Vista. In my case most of the add on software drivers I have for things like gps will not yet work with Vista. For the same reason , forget Macs unless you can try beforehand using all the kit you intend to operate on the boat.

Another reason for not buying new if the dreadful battery capacity of most new cheapo lappies.
 
I would reccomend Vasari computers they are specifically designed for marine use and are true 12v computers (not many are)
 
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