netbook for nav?
- Thread starter MM5AHO
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lustyd
Well-known member
Could be the one Here but I've not got time to re-read to check. The study was on their own drives in their own environments. This was brought about by the fact that they introduced a new monitoring suite if I recall correctly, and they ended up with such a wealth of data that they decided to mine it. Although you're right that they have controlled environments, Google have a sufficiently large estate that they can and do see the range of data required for this. They use off the shelf components (quite impressive to see their rack and server design) so they actually were comparing the type of drive you would be using at home.
After the study, I think it was WD or Samsung realised that if they jumped to a 5 year warranty they wouldn't lose much money but would gain huge advantages so that's what they did. Following that move they also concentrated on quality for a while rather than capacity which has led us to where we are now - hard drives are much more reliable than 10 years ago but have not gained much capacity per platter in that time.
RobbieW
Well-known member
Thanks for the link, could be the one but that report does exclude vibration from its results as the authors said they no measurable data. I'm dubious about discounting vibration as a failure mode, Lenovo have been using some sort of accelerometer based hard drive protection for coming up 10 years now. Cost is rarely added to hardware for no good reason!
I'm slightly surprised by your thought that areal density hasnt increased much in the last decade. Then the last time I was involved in hard drive design the product weighed 60lbs and had a capacity of 850Mb, IBM 9335.
I'm slightly surprised by your thought that areal density hasnt increased much in the last decade. Then the last time I was involved in hard drive design the product weighed 60lbs and had a capacity of 850Mb, IBM 9335.
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lustyd
Well-known member
It has increased, what I meant was that has not been the focus so it hasn't increased anything like as quickly as it did before.
Lenovo don't make hard drives (and neither do IBM anymore). The accelerometer is standard in notebook drives and all it does it park the head if it feels a drop. This only protects it from the impact so the motion of a boat wouldn't affect the drive. If it falls from the chart table then the head will park regardless of drive if it's a mobile one.
fishermantwo
Active member
My laptop is mounted on a nice varnished timber frame on my chart table. Its held in place by two ss brackets. The whole unit lifts up with the chart table lid. There is no movement and no vibration. The only possible damage I can see occurring is if someone is thrown about inside the cabin and grabs the screen in its opened position or some object flying about hits it. This is my second laptop I have used like this. The first I sold on and replaced it with a larger screen model.
Just buy a secondhand laptop and concentrate on the quality of the screen and size. Buy a second one as backup if you like or simply keep your whole nav programme, charts etc on a backup memory stick. Laptops for navigation only need a small hard drive and not much memory but the screen is what you look at all the time. It needs to be large!
Just buy a secondhand laptop and concentrate on the quality of the screen and size. Buy a second one as backup if you like or simply keep your whole nav programme, charts etc on a backup memory stick. Laptops for navigation only need a small hard drive and not much memory but the screen is what you look at all the time. It needs to be large!
LadyInBed
Well-known member
I've also never had any vibration problems with my old Compaq.
When in use it is strapped down on foam pads, when stored it stands on its side.
When in use it is strapped down on foam pads, when stored it stands on its side.
