Laptops suitable for travel in the bush

For the last two years I have had a Dell Optima with me as I drive around from Kuranda to Croydon, Chillagoe to butchers Creek. Often the roads kick up huge amounts of dust and can be rough in some stretches.

The notebook sits in a backpack lying in the back of the Nissan X-Trail. It has never missed a beat.

I am not saying rush out and buy a Dell (although we have found them to be reliable) but in my experience an ordinary notebook is fine. It has been bounced around a lot, but being in the backpack inside the car it has not had dust ingress.

On the other hand, you can kill a hard drive at any stage of a computers life so all the advice on backing up, etc is valid whatever choice you make.

Howard

From my experience the biggest issue is how you charge it.

Physical damage is unlikely unless you are really careless , but incorrect charging can kill them.

I bought a 3500milliamp Projecta charger to charge my NEC , the charger of which was 3500Milliamps. However first time I used it, it blew up and damaged my power supply so the thing will not turn on reliably, so it has been relegated to house duties where it can be left on standby.

So I now have a cheapo HP, and I only charge from a Pure sine wave inverter through the 240Volt charger.

The HP has done one 8 week trip including Savannah way, Ooodnadatta Track, Mereenie Loop etc with no probs. It was in a Targus bag only. This time I think I will dispense with the bag and just put it in the warm clothes box..

Regards Philip A

I think you've opened a can of hard drives here :)

For what it's worth I've been using all three varieties already mentioned (laptop, netbook and Rugged) for work. Just some personal experience:

Laptop - these are generally more rugged than people give them credit for BUT it depends what you mean by rugged - carting around in a car, I wouldn't be that concerned, but as an example of what can happen - I almost killed mine when working in Karumba. I was using it outside to record data (38 deg, 90+% humidity) and then working on it back in the nice airconditioned accommodation (25 deg, probably 20% humidity). After 3 days it wouldn't boot up. After much panic, thinking, telephone calls etc. I removed the hard drive and under the cover was a nice amount of condensation - no wonder the thing wouldn't boot. however, after drying it out it still worked (and still is).

Netbook - I've used a Dell mini-9 with solid state drive. I'm amazed how good these are BUT they are only a netbook. yes the keyboard is small and it has limited processing power, but it has no moving parts, not even a fan and low power consumption. If all you want is mapping and a bit of web/email at $500 they're great and you can use them to back up photos onto usb sticks, cd's or whatever.

Rugged - I love it and would have nothing else for what I use it for (nothing else would survive), but I wouldn't personally buy one for a road trip - too many $$ for a benefit you probably don't need.

It's going to come down to what you want to be able to do and how many $$ you want to spend - my advice would be think hard about the first part.

good luck!

Andy

Earlier today I was looking at the price of second Hand toughbooks on e-bay. I am wondering if one should buy a second hand one rather than a new mini laptop. I am being given $1600 dollars soon.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JohnF

Earlier today I was looking at the price of second Hand toughbooks on e-bay. I am wondering if one should buy a second hand one rather than a new mini laptop. I am being given $1600 dollars soon.

---

personally I'd be too chicken :)

1. people buy them to be used in harsh environments
2. it's on fleabay

True, people buy Toughbooks to use in harsh enviroments. Corporations buy toughbooks because they are tough and don't break and therefore don't have the downtime costs, workforce management and customer issues associated with conventional PC's when they fail.

If you want a really robust and well designed PC to use in a harsh environment, ie outback travelling, then you can't go past a toughbook. At the prices they're going for second hand they are a steal.

Whats wrong with ebay?

Deano

I agree with all the comments.
I bought an ASUS eeepc for my wife and she thinks its great, but as someone mentioned the power and screen size may frustrate you.
Have a look on the secondhand sections of mac dealers. You can pick up a 12" powerbook or even i book quite cheap. Had one before the macbok pro, and it was a great little machine. compact too.
Pelican case is a definite must to guard against everyting.:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rocket scientist

I agree with all the comments.
I bought an ASUS eeepc for my wife and she thinks its great, but as someone mentioned the power and screen size may frustrate you.
Have a look on the secondhand sections of mac dealers. You can pick up a 12" powerbook or even i book quite cheap. Had one before the macbok pro, and it was a great little machine. compact too.
Pelican case is a definite must to guard against everyting.:D

---

Touble is some software I run like E-sword is only made for IBM compatable machines. I do swap files [Powerpoint, Word documents] with IBM compatable users.

A Mac!! :Rolling: Overpriced, underpowered, compatable with nothing - BUT - sexy as hell.

Decide if you want a show pony or a workhorse.

BTW. A Toughbook is built in its own 'Pelican case'. It doesn't need another one.

Deano

I suggest you have a look for a T Series Thinkpad on Ebay.
If you buy a corporate release machine you will probably pay about $5-600 for them sometimes they are still under factory warranty.
They are incredibly durable I have used them for years at the moment I have 3 the oldest is 8 years old and currently runs 24 hours a day and has done so for the last 2 years.
The others have gone through every member of the family right down to the kids.
The later models you are likely to buy on ebay would be T43 s these have the hard drive brake that is perfect for using in a vehicle.
I use to build Laptops for Aboriginal Community use and found these the best.
Tough books are fine if you have stacks of money as they cost heaps to repair or replace a second hand Thinkpad isn't too painful provided you are sensible you will not have too.

One word of warning you cant buy a T43, buy any hard drive and put it in and expect it to work they can be finicky
with their hard drive choice