[incon_331_twinturbos]

I'm looking to purchase since the one I have is circa paleolithic I believe....I'm thinking I want as cheap as possible but still something that has wi-fi or provision to use a usb wireless deal I guess, and I would think windows 7 would NOT be required, certainly XP would suffice no?

Was looking at this one http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=4947

thoughts/comments?

TIA.
Brad

[decipha]

i just purchased a gateway nv50a from tigerdirect for $400, its got win7 4gb ddr 3gb amd 1/2 tb hdd
not to shabby i like it alot, i tried instaling windows xp on it but they don't make a driver for my wifi card and i don't intend on replacing it so i'll just live with 7, win7 on here is currently using about 800mb of ram where as xp only used 130mb, xp on this thing is amazingly fast

prior to that i had an acer aspire one netbook, she was good to me until the motherboard crapped out so i figured if im going to upgrade I might as well upgrade, she only had 1gb ddr, 1.6ghz celeron, i miss my little netbook at times, this thing is bulky compared to it

[dualdj1]

Was looking at this one http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=4947

thoughts/comments?

That one should work ok, but you'll at least want to bump up the ram on it to 2gb.

[incon_331_twinturbos]

thanks, that's what I was looking for as I'm not a computer nerd (kinda strange to say on this site..lol)

[CA67EFI]

Since the environment for tuning is rather harsh with the vibration while driving, heat from being left in the backseat, etc, my belief is that you should either go high-end laptop with a solid-state drive or a standard hard drive with shock protection, or a cheap, "disposable" laptop.

Personally, i went with a netbook, an acer asipre 10 inch netbook with a 1.6 ghz processor, 1 gig ram and a small HD. They go for about $240 and i got mine on 'special' with a larger battery and bluetooth for the same price. It runs everything relating to tuning just fine. i back up everything regularly to my desktop.

I dont know if it actually makes a difference but i read a post on this site that recommended loading BE and writing all the logs to a SD card rather than the HD to reduce the amount of writing the HD does while you are driving and vibration is present. It seems like cheap insurance.

[incon_331_twinturbos]

Well, I ended up getting this one....http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... CA:US:1123

at just a tad over 2 bills delivered to the house, not too bad in my opinion.

[cgrey8]

I use a Toshiba Satellite with an i5 quad core processor. IT has a 7200RPM HD which concerned me when I 1st got it because I can hear the HD whirring when I pick up the drive and move it around. But after working with the laptop, I found that it has internal accelerometers to park the HD heads if the laptop gets banged, goes into freefall, or is moved sharply. That can actually get in the way of datalogging if that sensitivity is setup too high. Datalogging will be choppy and for WOTs may be non-existent. So I had to set my sensitivity to the lowest setting, which is still quite sensitive, but it doesn't stop logging on WOTs, but does stop for about a second if I hit a hard bump. Note this doesn't stop BE. It just puts gaps in the log where you see ETs that were wider than other places.

Is an SSD better? That's up for debate. Back when I got the laptop, the 64GB SSDs were still not anywhere near what I called affordable. But the 128GB versions are actually getting there. 64GB for my purposes would be WAY too small. I have a 64GB SSD in my work laptop and I'm constantly having to clear the HD of stuff because it fills up so easily. Although a 128GB would be OK. While this isn't a big deal today, it is worth mentioning that if you plan to run WinXP instead of Vista/Win7, then you DO NOT want an SSD. WinXP doesn't "manage" SSDs and thus lets them get slow. Vista just sucks so don't even consider an old Vista computer. But Win7 isn't bad. I've got little complaint about Win7. And for those that feel you MUST have WinXP, Win7 Professional gives you the ability to run a WinXP Virtual Machine within Win7 FOR FREE (no purchasing WinXP for that purpose). Just Google WinXP mode to learn more about how to do that. And amazingly, it works pretty well. Anything that won't run on Win7 64bit because it's just too old (e.g. old 16-bit programs) can be run inside the WinXP VM.

As for the flash drive writing, this is a mixed bag. I've never used a flash drive to datalog to. It might be OK. It certainly would be like an SSD from the crashing standpoint. However different flash drives have different performances. Oddly the speed performance isn't always directly related to the price of the flash drive. I've got some cheap drives that move data faster than more expensive drives. Although my newest 8GB flash drive I got at Target last weekend (on sale for $9) is noticeably faster than all my others. Back in the early days of flash drives, the NAND flash was the limiting speed factor. However with the advent of ONFI NAND technology, they've got very high speed NAND flash speeds attainable. ONFI NAND chips are what they used on SSDs. With high speed USB2.0 and ONFI NAND, you can approach the speeds of the SSDs. Although the SATA connection and the parallel chip architecture of the SSDs still keeps them as king in the speed arena. But for datalogging, today's flash drives should be quite sufficient. The only thing negative I can say about the flash drive idea for datalogging is that it's one more thing sticking into the computer while the computer is sitting in a seat/floorboard. If the laptop goes flying, you run the very real risk of doing USB connection or motherboard damage if the cords or the flash drive are struck at a bad angle.

Putting all that aside, one thing that a person buying a laptop specifically for datalogging should pay most attention to is NOT processor speed, HD/SSD, but is convenience for the way they plan to use it. Netbooks certainly win in this area. They are small, light weight, cheap, and fast-enough. However they may lack sufficient USB connections or enough USB connections in convenient edges. However if the only purpose of the laptop is to be a datalogging laptop, then a netbook probably is all you need.

However if you plan to use your laptop as your general purpose computer, datalogging computer, and everything else computer, then you'll likely need a little more than what a netbook offers. That's where I was when I was looking at a laptop. Most of the laptops in the memory and processor size I was wanting were the big wide-screen laptops. That's great for people that want to watch movies all the time or do gaming. But a wide-screen seemed like more of a hassle getting it in and out of a laptop bag in a vehicle. So I specifically looked for a laptop with a smaller 14" screen and wound up paying MORE for a 14" than an comparable 15.5" purely because I didn't want the extra width. I also didn't want all the USB ports on the right-side of the computer. I wanted them on the left side so the computer could sit in the passenger side seat, facing me without having USB cords crimped against the seat. So I was able to narrow down the field of potential laptops substantially by requiring 2 USB ports either on the left side (one for QH, one for the LC1). You wouldn't believe how many that actually eliminated. My intention was to be able to velcro the 2 together and plug them in quickly. I did not want 1 on the left side and 1 on the rear. Or worst case have 1 on the left and one on the right.

[incon_331_twinturbos]

wow, all great points and I think this thread will help others in the future, with considerations that might not be at the forefront of a purchasers mind (ie. the usb ports on the left side!!!) :thumbup:

[CA67EFI]

Datalogging will be choppy and for WOTs may be non-existent. So I had to set my sensitivity to the lowest setting, which is still quite sensitive, but it doesn't stop logging on WOTs, but does stop for about a second if I hit a hard bump. Note this doesn't stop BE. It just puts gaps in the log where you see ETs that were wider than other places.

My netbook has an internal card adapter that accepts a SD card. Because it is a slot on the netbook, there is nothing extra sticking out, and it is very clean. I have a 4GB PNY card that is nothing special. I wasnt sure that it would be fast enough when i bought it, but it easily accepts and writes a full-rate-every-parameter-logged datalog.

You may want to go this route and crank the HD protection back up.

Does anyone know what the actual bitrate is for a datalog of everything?

[dualdj1]

SD card is a good idea for logging, I may have to do that as well. Mine also has an internal sd slot. I have not had much problems with the laptop in the car, but haven't done much "extreme" logging yet

[PoweredbyEECV]

Acer Aspire One

[MikeB]

I've got an old punkass Dell 610. Was my first laptop and I'm still running BE 2009!!!

Power port doesn't work on it, so it sits in a docking station the whole time. Battery is shot as well.

I only use it for tuning and military access stuff.

[cgrey8]

Toshiba with 2.4MHz Intel i5 & 4GB RAM running Win7 & BE2012. It performs great.

Whenever I got it, it was selling new for $1000 but I bought it factory refurbished online from MicroCenter for $650 and picked it up at the MicroCenter store local to me. It was by far the easiest computer purchasing experience I've ever had...no salesman trying to sell me on a bunch of software, warranty, or other BS I didn't ask for or need. Today the same computer sells for about what I paid or possibly a little less new. I'd buy this route again in a heartbeat.

[99gmq]

"old blue" a Sony PCG-FX190k circa 2001. Screaming Pentium III 700 MHz and 512 MB RAM running Win XP Pro.

It's slow but it has a nice screen, good keyboard, and a real-live hardware serial port, which is the real reason I'm using it. I've worn the home row keys to a high polish over the years...

[crakrz]

Asus 10" Eee PC notebook, Intel 1.6ghz, 2gb ram, 160gb HD, Wireless, Windows 7, BE2012. $300 back in Feb '11. Dedicated for tuning and logging only, has a permanent home in the glove compartment. The battery life is the best part of these little notebooks, lasts for ages before needing a recharge.