Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Atom small form factor PC
In Response To: cruising and breakdows ()

Laptops seem like a difficult/expensive/hard to repair solution to marine computers. I had been using laptops since the mid-80s (big/clunky one) and have had three fail on the boat over the 12 years. The power plug failed on the last one - I replaced it but then the internal power circuit started failing - so I built a new very low power consumption PC.

It is a small form factor Windows ATOM (Intel D510) based PC- $350 for everything - then I purchased a small $89 monitor and used an old wireless keyboard/mouse I had lying around.

The PC/monitor pulls less than 30 watts most of the time and hits 60 watts at peak usage

Each component in the PC can be replaced as needed and each component is standard PC equipment and can be purchased anywhere in the world. I can repair/replace any component in five minutes or less.

The hard drive crashes - I can put a new one in for $40 and reinstall windows.
The monitor dies - I buy a new one for $89
The motherboard/ATOM CPU dies I can install a new one for $90
Keyboard or mouse $15 each...etc

The motherboard has a real serial port so I had no problems with my OLD Visual Suite software
Motherboard has built in WiFi.

I've been living on the boat with the PC since mid-April and can find no reason to ever use a laptop again.

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