Sea-Tech Navigation Laptop and Umpteen Goodies

[skipgundlach]

I'm in the last stages of some work ashore...

For those mariners reading this, one of my projects, now nearly
finished, has been to transition from Sea-Tech's extremely
powerful and feature-rich Navigation laptop and Cap'n Navigator
Package to a 12V mini computer with separate screen. If you're
in the market for one of the Sea-Tech Navigation packages,
complete with the Cap'n package and the many other programs they
load (as well as MaxSea and the entire NOAA chart catalog, along
with everything down to Venezuela in the Cap'n charts, which I've
loaded, plus other enormous amounts of bells and whistles related
to the laptop and other programs), drop me a line, cuz it will go
on eBay shortly if not.

This is a link to their current offering. Mine is not this specific item, as they change computers fairly regularly, and mine has 4G of ram but only 60GHD, but otherwise the specifics are similar.
Navigator



L8R

Skip (skipgundlach at gmail dot com)

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at Web-Folio -- Your Portfolio on the Web !
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"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."
(Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah)

[Bradley]

What is your new system. That is what I want to do.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Bradley

What is your new system. That is what I want to do.

islandtimepc.com, bob stewart...

Custom made to your requirements. See both the Morgan and Island Packet Sailnet lists for in-depth discussions about brewing your own if that's what you'd like to do.

My system will have a dozen 12V switches for all the various gear I have which I want to individually control. Not for the faint of heart, not plug-and-play...

L8R

Skip

[Boats]

How much? I'm interested.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Boats

How much? I'm interested.

I've not given it a great deal of thought - under the circumstances, it's a laptop with lots of programs already loaded, but I'm not selling programs (though they'll work). If it goes to eBay it will be wiped and reintiallized.

OS and all the appropriate driver disks are included; I forgot to say that I have three batteries of various (one new, one old, one in current use) condition, and as all the programs loaded are available in evaluation form, (copy) disks for those are also included.

So, you'd have to evaluate how much a not-quite 3-year old laptop with umpty addons (external 3.5, TV, serial, parallel, USB, OS2, card reader, etc.) but a monster CPU, 1920x1200 17W screen, full sized keyboard, and all that, was worth to you.

I'm going to be getting the specs on the machine, and post some links to manuals and the like so it's easier to visualize...

Thanks for asking.

L8R

Skip

[skipgundlach]

The gory details ...

Well, as I mentioned in my initial note, I was rounding 3rd on my project. Accordingly, I hadn't taken the time to assemble the information below, but now, have.

As it's fairly voluminous, if you're not interested in the machine, this would be a good time to go on to the next message. However, if you're even a bit interested, this will give you a great bundle of information. This is a Clevo D900T machine, very widely used worldwide by high-end gamers, marketed by Sager in USA. Links below will provide more info if these are unfamiliar names to you.

As before, rather than getting into discussions taking up the list/forum bandwidth, if you'd like direct communication with me about it, please drop me a line directly: skipgundlach at gmail dot com.

So, to start, the first question even the curious usually want to know is how much do I want for it. As you can see by going to the links below, this machine as built is well over $3000, with nothing more than the XP Home OS (SP3 installed, all current upgrades applied).

Whether the (extra) stuff I'll leave on it (and, of course, the carrying case + all the original connectors, manuals, drivers and OS disks) with backup disks on the "downloads" folder and subfolders is of interest to you doesn't matter as to the cost, as it's not considered.

So, I'm open to $1500 or discussion. Those of you who have followed my path these last several years know that a good home may well be more important than the money involved. Thus the request (some might see it as "demand") to write to me directly if you're interested.

Rather than blather on about all the stuff which is very conveniently and clearly provided in the links below, I'll just say that, as different from a standard ~$2500 build, this machine has these upgrades:
* 4G RAM (but the bios can only see/use 2.75) in 4 1G chips - if I'd known, I'd have just bought two 1G chips more than the supplied 2x512M instead of filling all 4 slots with 1G
* DVD RW
* nVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX w/256MB with
* 17" WUXGA 1920x1200 screen (standard is SXGA 1680x1050) and
* Remote for the Avermedia TV Tuner
* 2 extra batteries, one NIB, one tired
* 60G 7200 RPM HD
* Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet LAN + Internal 802.11g Wireless LAN Card + Internal Bluetooth Wireless Module
* A long list of utilities and useful programs not installed by Sea-Tech, including antispam, antispybot, antivirus, diagnostics, MSOffice97, video players, Firefox and Thunderbird, Google Talk,Earth,Picasa,videoplayer and others, 3D screensavers, Skype, more

Now, on to the links:

Sager 9860 review (NP9860 review) - NotebookForums.com - a comprehensive pictorial review and benchmark test series

Sager 9860 Multimedia Notebook Computer - this shows a retail version of the computer, along with the various upgrades available

Sager 9860 Specs - a short info page on a base unit of this type, very geeky, including its ability to have two different applications running on two different screens

Clevo Guide v2.0 - FAQ and Reseller Info - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion - a discussion of "who is Clevo" as well as more information on them than you'll probably want to read :{))

Reminder: if you're interested in this, please drop me a line directly: skipgundlach at gmail dot com.

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at Web-Folio -- Your Portfolio on the Web !
Follow us at TheFlyingPigLog : Morgan 461 Hull #2, Flying Pig
and/or Flying Pig Log | Google Groups

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."
(Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah)

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Bradley

What is your new system. That is what I want to do.

This was posted to a Morgan list I'm on...

Hi, Mike - comments inline - and list,

Just a note before I begin, to say, "watch for a comprehensive addendum to the original, later today..."
Ok, I know you are selling, but we are all buds, and the purpose of this forum is education ( at least IMHO).
So, why the switch ?

Several reasons...

First, the external screen is what we use for our entertainment. We drive movies from a compressed HD from which I migrate the particular movie we want over to the active machine for that purpose, thus not having the storage HD running (power, wear, motion, as it's a standard drive). The laptop had to run to watch the movie. If we were willing to move the laptop (it's a pretty big screen, with a huge pixel count) each time, it would suffice. Indeed, before we got the external monitor, that's what we did, and sat it on the saloon table (vs across the saloon on a shelf for the external unit). It was a pain to move and set up, etc. More below.

Second, we were always having to move/store/secure the laptop in heavy seas (it generally remained on the nav table unless it got ridiculous) and that was a nuisance. As my hands are large, and go into pain on a standard keyboard (this unit has a full-sized keyboard, but my hands have to "crab" to make it work, generating RSI), I use a USB Microsoft Natural (offset hands) wireless keyboard and mouse. That's all that will be on the nav, and it's a piece of cake to store if we have to, as well as being very much easier to lift the top when we needed to get into the desk, plus not having the top monopolized when we weren't using it.

Third, we're very energy conscious. One of my upcoming logs will deal with how I'm migrating everything possible to independently switched 12V (and in some cases, 5V) devices, minimizing the use of the inverter.

Fourth, this is an extremely powerful computer, as following the links in my upcoming post will reveal. Therefore it's hungry. We took off our genset and added wind and solar. In the tropics, likely we'd have ample amps - but we're not there yet. Regardless, this unit will bolt down and it won't matter what the sea state, and the monitor will be on a bracket at the nav, ditto - we'd just move it to the standard stand for movies.

Which 12v mini computer did you buy? I just researched a Mac Mini, but it could not drive two displays with it ( one remote in cockpit with sunlight readable screen, the other below)

IslandtimePC.com rstewart@islandtimepc.com Bob Stewart is entirely accommodating and will build your computer to your specific needs. If you're a geek (I am) and want to go through the exercise of sourcing the parts and building your own (I didn't, but for years [ashore] my desktop and tower computers never even had their cases on), you can build one from many various suppliers, but this was very convenient and explicit to our needs. PS the unit I got can drive two (vga and dvi) screens, so if I were so inclined (I may yet become!) I could remote a weatherproof screen topsides, along with some other keypad and mouse setup at the helm.

Go to his site and browse around. He's also the guy who made my extraordinarily frustrating journey into full wifi connectivity happen, and that just by helping out, before I realized he was a computer supplier, and without my having spent a nickel with him. Had I known what I know now, I would have bought my wifi package from him, as well, saving me over 2 years and countless, untold, hours, of frustration and failure with my other units.

Did you buy a larger chartplotter for cockpit (like the new Furuno Navnet 3d?)

No. We're entirely too poor for that!!

Are you sticking with a laptop? If so, good choice as the drives are specially made to deal with motion which I found out.

We have what we labeled "Landside Laptop" - an inexpensive Acer - as backup and to carry to an internet café should we need to do that. Our wifi setup likely will make that an extremely rare event. As to the drives, our 12V unit is extremely compact and uses laptop drives, so no worries about motion. In any case, the motion of the sea is relatively benign, so I'm not worried about it.

Anyway, looking forward to the best forum writer to give us some insight what are moving to for a computer resources onboard and why.

<blush> Thanks for the vote of confidence...

Please. thanks

HTH

L8R

Skip




See our galleries at Web-Folio -- Your Portfolio on the Web !
Follow us at TheFlyingPigLog : Morgan 461 Hull #2, Flying Pig
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
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