Which toughbook for marine use?

MM5AHO

MM5AHO

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Considering buying a 2nd hand toughbook or similar style laptop for use aboard.
I'd want a pretty basic spec - 512k Ram, >10Gb HD, XP or later OS.
Any recommendations?
More concerned about it lasting and being reliable.
 
The CF-28 runs XP but not as quickly as you may like.

CF-29 is now available at tolerable prices.

The backlit rubber keyboard is the more waterproof.

The hard drive is a standard 2.5" so easily available at modest prices. It is protected by the rubber mounted caddy it sits in.

Make sure you get a complete one as buying bits like batteries and hard drive caddies can be pricey. A standard USB GPS works ok but it is possible to get built in ones.

My old American sourced CF-28 didn't have wifi so I had to take it apart to connect a new pci wifi card to a built in external aerial which improved the range substantially.
 
The skipper of a boat I race on bought one on eBay. My first impressions were that it was very slow.

It had been around the world in a Volvo race, but I never got the chance to gain second impressions. I velcro'd it to the chart table (it was a carbon fibre chart table not wood, so no risk of stripping the varnish with the adhesive).

The velcro held, but the seas were a little unpleasant and the shocks caused the screen to shatter. I think I know the wave that did it and if I ever see it again...

So anyway, they're not as tough as they think they are, so make sure it is well protected. If you buy on eBay get a high-spec one.
 
We have a CF-18 MK1 with 1Gb of memory. We have two batteries for it and a 12V charger. I upgraded the hard-disk to 350Gb and it keeps our audio/ebooks and some movies. We also have a USB attached DVD/CDW player.

It runs Memory Map Marine Charts, and our Deskjet 400 Battery powered printer for keeping chart output on deck. We also have a 3G USB modem for remote internet.

Wouldn't be without it. Just got a CF-74G3. It is considerably larger than the CF-18. It draws more power. However the screen is close to daylight viewable and audio works better.

However I think I prefer the CF-18. I'd like it to have a GPS on board but on the whole we don't use it as a plotter. The external USB modem definitely works well and seems to work better than the onboard 2G modem.

We've had it 5 years now. Never had any problems. reliable piece of kit. We use it with some external AA powered speakers for watching movies and listen to music.
 
Writing this wireless on on internal battery on my IBM thinkpad 600 circa 2001-its tough dependable and I run XP service pack 2 on it-20gb harddrive-dead easy and cheap to buy-a doddle to upgrade-everything including manuals software etc available on Levono site-loads of bits on e bay whatever Thinkpad model you choose-I also have a couple of early 2000s A20Ms.
This one in total has cost me about £80 in totaland its been going strong for nearly four years.
 
HI, I bought the CF 18 off EBAY from a seller in Belgium. Booted it up to see a British Gas logo on the screen. Mine has the 40 Gig hard drive and the 900 processor. I used mine every day from April to October while sailing around the MED. I have the tablet version. The CF 18 has a pen for the touch screen, you can't use your finger !
Its light, runs MAPTECH perfectly. Just remember to boot it early up as it takes ages to boot. I don'tuse it for anything else although it has wireless etc and word processing. You will need an external DVD to load any programs. You can pick these up for 25 pounds. I have spliced a seriel cable into my GPS that plugs in to the seriel com and use the USB port for the AIS.

One of the other guys had the latest and greatest model. Yes it was fast , could store movies, music etc. Down side is that is weighs nearly twice as much and to buy new is 5 times the amount of my EBAY one.

I have a 5m USB exstension cable so I can use it cockpit.

Did look at upgrading it, not worth it, as it runs the MAPTECH without problems.
Hope this helps
 
I bought an old cf-27 off Ebay about 3 years ago it cost £40 plus p&p It was sold with no guarantee of battery life as it turns out it will run for about 2 hours on the battery. I have a 12v cigarette type adaptor so it will happily run off the boat batts. Only really wanted it for Navigation. I'm really surprised how quick it boots up but I only have CMap and wxtide on it plus a few other docs. Got a serial port so easy to connect up NMEA form the gps. Most newer laptops only have USB ports so an serial to usb adaptor is required. Only thing is no internet access on it but I manage ok without
 
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