Low power laptop

Conachair

Conachair

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I'll shortly be in USA for 10 days working and will be checking out cheap laptops. I have a good one already for dvd's etc but it current draw is a bit high for long passages. Anyone recommend any low power options? Will be used mainly for weatherfax and a bit of nav software so doesn't need to be high spec.
TIA

Padz
 
low power = old low spec laptop. Very few available new that will be low power.

One notable exception is the Fujitsu P7000 which is a small form notebook rather than laptop, but has all the normal bells and whistles such as DVD wireless etc.

Battery lasts for a very long time!

its not cheap, but Ive seen more expensive.
 
[ QUOTE ]
low power = old low spec laptop. Very few available new that will be low power.



[/ QUOTE ]

Very wrong assumption. Some of the new Dells use less than 1.2 amps at 12v . I've come across others that use even less but the get very expensive. The main power consumers on laptops are the screens, Disk drives and 'ports' (the things yo plug stuff into PCMCIA, USB etc)

Shop around - look for a laptop that:

Runs natively on 12V (buy the 12v car adaptor don't be tempted to wire it directly into the boats supply)
Has the DVD/CD drive as a seperate external unit
Has no PCMCIA slots

You will have trouble findind a laptop wiht a serial (RS232) port but if you do find one then go fo rthat. When choosing a USB/Serial converter look around and makle sure you have the most uptodate drivers downloaded before installing, Also IMO stay clear of the Belkin ones.

Then configure the power consumption in wondows correctly and you can save a significant number of watts and therefore amps. Disable ports and any features you are not using plus reduce the disk and screen timeouts as much as you can live wiht and also reduce the CPU processing speed, the latter will slow th elaptop down but should be fine for chartplotting and weatherfax use. Probably also OK for word processing and simple spreadsheets depending on the complexity of the documents.
 
We bought an ACER in Curacao recently. Bottom of the range just under $1000. We are very pleased with it, low consumption on board and deals with the pactor/weatherfax just fine. We know lots of yachties with this make and they all seem to be very pleased with them.They appear to be very popular on this side of the pond.
They are also easy to purchase unlike dell who seem to make the whole experience as challenging as possible!
 
I agree with you Temptress. Modern notebooks are fine current wise (I have measured several when off charge) and anything to the contrary is old wives stuff (putting aside the super powerful/expensive machines that is).

A mistake I see those talking of current use on these forums making all the time is that they quote the charging current which is, of course, silly - cos once the battery is charged one has that energy stored (or else take the battery out).

Not sure that going without the DVD drive and PCMIA slots saves anything - the important thing is not to use them if wanting to concerve power (including taking any cards out of the slots).

If looking for a serial port, while I have not looked in the last couple of months HP still did some nice machines with them in (with card readers, etc as well). As a long time Compaq user the marriage of Compaq and HP seems to be one made in heaven - nice machines and good support. At least for the business user level machines one can register for all relevant product notices and software upgrades and full service manuals are available on their site with disassembly/assembly instructions right down to detailing the exact size and type for every screw. Quite a benefit for cruising.

But they are not the cheapest.

John
 
There is a huge downside to having external cd/dvd drives as well. If you ever need to use the emergency recovery cd/dvd or do a complete OS reinstall, it can be a complete nightmare, as external cd/dvd drives are often not bootable without special boot diskettes to load the relevant drivers. Much easier to have an internal drive.
 
Not sure if it would help much, but with regards to serial ports, recently I saw a bluetooth serial port. The guy just plugged his dongle into the nav-stream output (with external power supply) and then got the data straight into his laptop via bluetooth. Many laptops have this now, and I wonder if this would get past all the USB issues with regards to receiving GPS/NMEA data.
Sony, although expensive are also making a new laptop series with supposedly low consumption too. I think it may be related to using LED tech in the screens.
Jem.
 
most high level laptops have excellent power consumption. On mine, I can control cpu and screen etc to achieve either better performance or greater time on battery. Pretty normal on high end and even some mid and low end new laptops

Blue tooth is not really that new. I've had bluetooth on laptops a few generations ago, and is only another way of getting data to the laptop. Many have them built in, and therefore don't need a dongle to connect. It shouldn't really matter whether the bluetooth adapter is inbuilt, usb or serial - though you always get stuff that doesn't comply to standards
 
If yuo want long battery life go for a mac

wowever I have an hp lappie with a mobile power saving processor and an extra long life battery which clips underneath which can last for up to 8 hours
 
Sorry Brendan, maybe I wasn't making myself clear enough. The dongle I refer to is on the Nav side, transmitting the Nav/NMEA string to the PC. If it was a USB Bluetooth dongle, I doubt it would help overcome any USB/Nav interfacing issues. I thought that perhaps the PC would recognise the bluetooth device as a com port and accept the data string, passing it onto the plotter software or whatever without the USB issues that get mentioned- jumping cursor etc.
The fellow I referred to had written his own nav software and we provided him with a mix of NMEA GGA, HDT and ZDT that hee then managed to sort out and use quite nicely I believe.
Otherwise, rather than USB, PCMCIA serial connectors would likely be better I think, and those are pretty much standard.
Jem.
 
Maplins did do universal adaptors that have sockets etc for a variety of laptops and a variety of power sources- 12/24/110/240v, UK plug, Euro plug, plane, car, etc. Only about £20 or so. PC world also sell a similar one for a lot more. I got one of the pricey ones, then found the cheaper one and got it as a spare. Great things, one power supply works anywhere. Use in car, boat, home, and work (Euro style socket).
Jem.
 
Make sure that you get the right one tho', there are diiferent power outputs you need to br sure that yuo have the right one. Guess who didn't check /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Both the Maplin and Targus appear to have no output selector and don't refer to an output supply, so I guess either "autoselect" or are dependent on the connection attached- at least with the Targus (it's got a transparent connector) it uses different connections inside depening on the attachment used.
 
thanks - first look like an AC / DC universal unit but the latter is more what I need. Interestign that it has a voltage input of 12 - 13.8v which would be a bit of a problem when the engine is running as it's 14.1-14.7v and the output is 15-24v which will need checking against the laptops PS.
 
[ QUOTE ]
There is a huge downside to having external cd/dvd drives as well. If you ever need to use the emergency recovery cd/dvd or do a complete OS reinstall, it can be a complete nightmare, as external cd/dvd drives are often not bootable without special boot diskettes to load the relevant drivers. Much easier to have an internal drive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Again this statment is quite wrong. It depends on the drive. Many of the slim notebooks (Sony, Fujitshu, Dell and Fujitshu to name a few) have external drives that function the same as an internal drive. I agree that many of the add on external drives will cause problems.

The less kit you have in the unit the less pover it will use.
 
The statement is not "quite wrong". I was very careful to phrase it "can be" "often not"

Many Sony and Toshiba laptops came with pcmcia cd drives for instance. I've spent enough time getting these things up and running, including one just very recently for a forumite
 
The less kit you have in the unit the less pover it will use.

Unless something secret is going on that I am not aware of, for all laptops I have used the DVD/CD drive and PCMIA slots use no easily observable amount of power at all (I suspect that they use zilch) unless that specific item is used. For example, I have not come across a notebook where the DVD/CD drive rotates or does anything else unless you put a disk in it (apart from briefly at startup as part of the boot sequence) - and then only momentarily until one demands a read or write. Similarly for the slots.

So, it is not good advice to say that for low current draw the laptop has to do without all of these things being built in. Is certainly more convenient (and cheaper?) if they are, and adds greatly to the utility of the machine.

John
 
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