You modern Chaps might know,,,,,,,,

[ianwright]

Time for a new computer, I like to buy a new one every ten tears or so.
So,,,,,,,, laptops are really very cheap at the moment, under £500 and if I can find one that I can use at home for the Internet and take on the boat to type up my log plus use as a chart plotter (!) perhaps I'll get one.
No music downloads, no cd 'burner' what ever that is, but good battery life, mains power and 12volt ship supply capable.
What should I get? Or what features should I look for?
It's for use on a wooden boat and to talk about wooden boats so, well, you know, I thought I'd ask. Be gentle with me,,,,,, I still know nothing about modern times and my education finished after sliderules and before calculators.
Please speak slowly and only use words in general use in the '70's. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

IanW

 

[Beagle]

In general, the item that goes perfectly with a MAB (manky awd boat) is a MAC (manky awd computer, aka Apple)!

Given your applications (text edit, internet, plotting), I would think that buying a used laptop is even the best solution. Just buy a brand new battery for it and you're back in business for little money...

 

[IanPoole2]

Ian,
If you want to use the RYA plotter you'll need a CD player. If you visit Marina's I'd go for one enabled with WiFi so you can get on the net from the marina. Otherwise - look at the mainstream ones - Toshiba, Dell, HP etc. As far as the 12V supply is concerned, checkout if they have Cigar Lighter adapters (I think these are optional extra's).
There are some pretty good ones at the moment - but all of them have problems with battery life, look at "step-down" type facilities - these can reduce the power consumption by reducing the screen's brightness etc. Also try to get one with "hot standby mode". These shut down and come to life on the touch of a button - picking up exactly where they left off.
Also, be aware that some GPS' require the laptop to have a serial connection, which the "ultra-thin" ones do n't generally have.

 

[AlexL]

[ QUOTE ]
"hot standby mode". These shut down and come to life on the touch of a button

[/ QUOTE ]

My old Dell laptop could always manage the shut down part of the standby, but never got to grips with the "come to life on the touch of a button " part of the Deal!

Seriously though - you really will need a CD reader which these days means a CD burner aswell anyway, if you have a choice go for as much memory as possible, even at the expense of slower processors etc, as memory has much more effect on the speed of operation than anything else, and is very expensive to upgrade on laptops.
If you cannot get a 12v ciggy lighter option, then 240v inverters are pretty cheap for a little standalone one just for a laptop.

 

[gregmlucas]

If you do decide to buy new, take a look at Acer Computers. We've started buying these laptops at work - You get a lot for your money and so far the reliability seems good too.

Agree with other respondents, go for more memory over faster processors. Also, the Centrino processors which are fully set up for WiFi tend to be less battery-intensive.

I have to put my "IT Professional" hat on for a second. Nobody ever thinks about backing up data. Whilst for home use, most of what you store on a laptop (or desktop) is pretty non-critical but it's amazing how many people store all their holiday and family snaps for example on disk (if they have a digital camera) and don't keep backups. Again probably not really critical, especially from a financial point of view but with modern kit these days backups are so easy to do.

To answer this issue and your implied question about "CD burners" - this will allow you to copy (aka cut or burn) a whole bunch of data (including all your important files and photos) onto a CD for posterity. You leave the CD at home and take the laptop sailing, then if you accidentally drop the laptop in the oggin you haven't lost all your stuff 'cause you have a copy at home. Hopefully, the laptop will get replaced on insurance.

Hope this helps

. . Greg

 

[BrendanS]

Have a look at this. For the price (£499) the spec is excellent, and even has serial and parallel ports for connection to plotter (most laptops these days do not have serial or parallel ports, which mean you have to mess around with USB to serial connectors)
http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/DisplayInfoMain.asp?e=967F8B64-146D-4315-8C20-7382C2A84435

 

[knotgood]

here is a bargain for £399 including delivery.
Should cope with all your needs

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/produc...;l=en&s=dhs

 

[bob_tyler]

If you want to use the internet don't get a MAC. Many sites, including some flight booking sites, just won't work.

 

[ghost]

macs are focused toward entainment - toons n tunes, artworks etc. no no no no......not on the boat.
memory much more memory. The operating system may be as big as say a tea cup, but a small amount of its working "brain" will conjure up whats called "virtual memory" - using just a little space - and this could be the size of a swimming pool, that the application you are using can freely operate in. allowing the application to work fast and undiluted.
Operating systems can manifest any no. of these virtual memory slots that can deal with a lot of info, whilst still feeding the cat or steering the boat or watching Freida do the flaming ping pong ball thing

 

[trouville]

Thats true!

We have in our family an acer, a sony and IBM, all bought in the last year.

The sony is great small has a fast 2.0 centrino and has a DVD recorder built in and the batteries last about 5 hours.

My IBM is an X40 with a ulv centrino 1.2 processor it "seems" as fast as the sony, but i have up to 8 hours on a small battery- The down side is that i have to use an external CD/DVD rom.

My daughter has an acer it cost almost half the price of the sony and was bought a year ago when centrion processors were at a premium its realy very good indeed and i would have bought one but i wanted a small 12 inch screen and the small acer isent as good as the IBM and costs the same. But the 15inch screen acer in whatever version are extreamly good value indeed!

Dell also have good offers but first choose and acer, or IBM (on other model you find as best value/quality) and configer the dell with the same processor memory HHD size and THEN compare the price!

Id aslo say get as much memory as possiable, check to price asked for the additional memory, then look on line or at your local shop at compatable memory prices, IBM will discount the laptop but the same "kingston" memory offerd and user instaled (simple) is offten twice the price as that supllied from an memory dealer.

Go for centrino as the good AMD processors havent found there way into the majority of deeply discounted laptops thus the centrino powerd beast will have a couple of hours more running time on battery

 

[jonjo]

Re: Life expectancy

It sounds as though a laptop would suit your requirements but you should factor in a much shorter replacement cycle. The life expectancy of a laptop is 1/2 that of a desk top.

Laptop keyboards also take some getting used to because they are cramped, spongy and some vital keys are relocated or made smaller. Suggest you drive around to PC World and try out a few, they have many on display in the Peterborough branch.

 

[ianwright]

Re: Life expectancy

[ QUOTE ]
er. Suggest you drive around to PC World and try out a few, they have many on display in the Peterborough branch.

[/ QUOTE ]
Great minds,,,,,,,,,,,,, You caught me heading to the door to do just that!
IanW

 

[ianwright]

Got One,,,,,,

Now all I need is to find out what all my passwords and so forth are on the old PC. And shift stuff fom old to new. I'm sure it can be done but I have no idea how.
I think I lack the computing gene. I first went on line via a Comm 64 at 1200 and have absorbed nothing since then. Anyone lend me a 13 year old expert,,,,,,,,?

IanW

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Got One,,,,,,

read the last post in this thread. There are some links to sites which discuss using the Wizard that is part of the XP operating system to transfer settings from old to new computer. It's not perfect, but it will get a lot of stuff over for you.

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Got One,,,,,,

oops, forgot link
here