SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

Which Laptops Has Survived Life Onboard?

23K views 88 replies 41 participants last post by  hellosailor 
#1 ·
I need a new laptop.

Qs:

Which models have proven themselves onboard liveaborads and diehard cruising enviros?

Are Panasonic's Toughbooks worth the price?

Any Apple laptops making it on the high seas?

Thanks
 
#53 ·
I have a Nokia N810 and a 770 prior to that. They are a linux based touchscreen and easily small enough to fit in a cargo pocket(3x6x.5 or so). The 810 has a slide out keyboard that is much better than the 770s screen based keyboard. It has wifi built in and I use it when I am traveling to check mail and what not at hotspots. I have also paired it with my phone via bluetooth for dialup. It does not have a hard drive and uses sd cards for memory.

It is a little bit smaller than the Asus eepc. I have been considering picking up one of those as well but the 810 works fine for now.

Another option may be one of those one laptop per child computers. I had a co-worker with one of those and they are built to withstand some harsh treatment if you don't mind have a goofy looking computer. It looks like of like a speak and spell when folded up. Sounds like they have options for solar and dynamo charging as well. Not sure but I think it is available with linux or a stripped down windows. I know it will do a version of linux and I think MS made a version of xp for it.

I have no idea how any of these devices will react to a marine environment but I have dropped my 810 on concrete floors and besides scratches it survived. Never gotten it wet but I doubt it would handle that very well either. Rain maybe but a good dunking is likely to kill it.
 
#55 ·
Be sure that your laptop is secured to the desk or console. Be cause they don't fly very well and lands hard. This is why I always lash my computer down where I want it to be and stay.
 
#56 ·
Boasun--

I'd love to hear the story behind you learning this... ;)
 
#58 ·
Mac works well

For the past 2 years of living aboard and cruising ive had a macbook
works great, only had one problem when a window leaked one night directly above computer, had to replace the keyboard, no other parts we damaged, ive seen other macbooks have cups of coffee and bottles of water spilled on them and work fine the next day, good battery life too 5hrs or so
 
#60 · (Edited)
I dont know about you, but these Asus EEE pc netbooks are looking more and more attractive. They have external VGA ports to plug into a monitor at the nav station...otherwise, they're small, cheap, and expendable. I've seen 19" widescreen analog lcd's for as low as $100 as well over the christmas season.

You can find one of these netbooks for $250 online with a 8" screen. Thats enough for email, browsing, and the occasional charting. If you need to do major planning, hook it up to the monitor at the nav station (could double as your TV/DVD station) and you're set. Also, it seems like ASUS is coming out with a 10.1" touch screen version for a few hundred more...so that would be an excellent navigation station at the helm as long as you dont need to read in the sun.

Not waterproof by any means, but for $250 - $400....buy 3 or 4 and throw 'em away at the end of the year. For $1200, you'll have 4 years of workstations :)

****EDIT****

All of these netbooks are about the same...Intel Atom processors, SSDs, etc. Here's a refurb Acer (not ASUS) with a true 8" screen:
Acer Aspire One AOA110-1722 Refurbished Netbook - Intel Atom™ Pocessor N270 1.6GHz, 512MB DDR2, 8GB SSD, 8.9" WSVGA, Linux, Sapphire Blue RB-LU.S030A.014 at TigerDirect.com

$250!
 
#66 ·
Three years ago I started using a HP Pavillion. Worked well, a bit heavy to lug around and then the screen went wonky. I use that one at home now. The screen is fine but I never close it. You had to squeeze it a bit to get it to work so it sits open on my desk all the time. Last year I got an Acer Netbook and really like it. Much more portable. I don't use the computers for navigation having a chartplotter but do have a GPS engine that plugs into the computer as an emergency backup.
 
#69 ·
I don't use the computers for navigation having a chartplotter but do have a GPS engine that plugs into the computer as an emergency backup.
Vasco ...

If you don't mind ... which one?

I don't currently have a hand held GPS unit ... yet
it IS on my list of things to get but so many more things need attention first ... and I will be doing day sailing in SF Bay at first ... and would like to be learning to plot and navigate ...
 
#73 ·
I plan on using a Dell 5100 laptop I have and don't use much I also have Maptech lite with US Coastal charts and a usb GPS receiver.
My laptop draws 20 watts so a 250 inverter would be plenty and this is all I would be using it for

I'm concerned about battery draw and was going to install a 20watt solar panel with a charge controll unit

Do you think 20 watt panel is enough?
 
#75 ·
Dryclean, you might want to check the inverter power consumption ratings.
Most inverters are efficient only when running at something like 90% of their rated continous power.

So, if your laptop draw 20W (which I assume means 40W if charging and running at the same time) you might find that connecting it to a 75W or 100W inverter, actually draws significantly less power than connecting it to a 250W inverter. Possibly 1/3 to 14/ less power!

Then take a look at a Kensington or other direct 12-volt adapter for your laptop, and you may find that again, using a single 12-volt "car and place" power adapter draws HALF the power that you use with an inverter plus your regular laptop power supply.

Total difference? Could be 50-75% less power being used if you just use one correct 12-volt power supply for the laptop.
 
#76 ·
I wish I haD READ this thread a few days ago. I had taken my new to me FReedom 33 out for it's second sail, first single handed. I live aboard now for the past month and have had alot to do to make it home. I had been keeping my SONY VAIO PCG GRT-280zg on the nav table. Well, with all the things I had to remember and deal with on my first single handed sail on this new boat. (My old Contest 29 was a very different animal) I had forgotten about the computer sitting on the Nav table. I remembered it after a big gust of wind heeled me well over and I heard this load crash from down below.....now what could that have been?...Oh No, no Oh crap..yea, the laptaap flew across the cabin and hit the sole in front of the galley stove. Luckily, I had a small throw carpet in front of it and believe it or not I think that saved it. With baited breath I tried switching it on.( it had been running before the flop but the crash landing managed to shut it down) Well low and behold...it responded...phew, could believe how fortunate I am. I always thought this VAIO was rather delicate and would not take much to trash it and have pieces of the keyboard fly out all ovwer the place and have huge cracks in the case etc. but not a scratch can be found. The next time I went out I made sure to put it in side the nav table and it was fine but I am looking into strapping it down with velcro or tie doens as suggested by SD and Bosun. It was good to read all this info on computers and yachts as I had not thought much about it and can see that I will need to take more precautions as far as back ups, security etc and also be prepared for replacing mine when the inevitable happens. I will probably look into one of those small acer type units or explore what is currently available as I have not looked into them much since getting my vaio quite a few years ago now..wow how time flies!
 
#78 ·
Hmm. I'm thinking my large desktop hackintosh is not going to make it to the liveaboard. So much for the "Ship's Computer". :( Good think I have a macbook too!

All this talk of redundancy and netbooks is making me think about long-term redundant navigation solutions, such as hackintoshing one, cloning the SSD, and dupeing it on a couple backups. Updates to data could be done automatically using Time Machine, on a drive sealed in plastic containing rice or salts to keep it dry.
 
#79 ·
At the rate advances are being made with flashdrive-based motherboards, I predict "computers" will be five-watt, fanless black boxes sporting various connectors and about the size of a thick paperback.

If you don't insist on having the thing play computer games or play back DVDs, the computing power needed for navigation, e-mail, a front-end for an SSB radio/PACTOR modem, and a clearinghouse for NMEA 2000 inputs is pretty parsimonious. You don't actually need a laptop, and if the thing is buried in cabinetry, you can pull out the flashdrive and bring it ashore or seal it up and stow it in some nook or cranny in order to foil thieves.
 
#83 ·
I have a 2nd hand dell latitude for the last 5 years and it has soaked up enough accidental stray salt water as well as the normal salty environment to give up the ghost - but it still navigates us and has our itunes - best computer ever - but I think having it on all the time means the warmth may reduce humidity in the unit. - just a theory.
 
#87 ·
If you would learn to lash that laptop down you wouldn't need to worry about it flying off of you table or desk.
An eye screw on each side and some cod or shot line will do the trick.:D
 
#89 ·
"the expected life span of a laptop is 4 years on land."
According to who and for what reason? I know some corporate types who bash 'em up every 18 months and need them replaced. And some kids who got laptops for college, treated 'em right, and are still using them in grad school, more than 4 years later, with zero damage. I got a good seven years out of my last one and then passed it on.

"therefore it will run less on a boat" Or, therefore it will last twice as long on a boat, where it isn't obsoleted because it doesn't need a new OS or new software or more horsepower to run the same old nav software and email.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top