Laptop VS. Desktop in vehicle

[Jason Foster]

I was thinking, instead of buying (yet another) laptop, to chase with, I'd purchase a Desktop just for the vehicle.

I'm currently using an HP Mini-tower at home that is very small and compact and runs great. The specs are at a better price point than the laptops, but not by much. When I look at this little tower, I say, how easy it would be to use in the car. But I don't want to use this Vista machine, so I'll buy an XP platform for chasing.

What I don't know is how the computer would do with the road bumps (if I'm running a DVD will it skip a lot). Does the heat in the car on hot Texas days really affect the system (even if the computer is shut off).

I figure someone must have tried this in the past with or without success. Hopefully I can get some feedback.

 

[Jay McCoy]

The road is very hard on PC's compared to laptops which have built in shock resistance. Also heat is definitely a factor. If you have a setup like a minivan wher you can mount it in the back seat on a foam base and still have good airflow or even better a dedicated AC air duct then it is feasible. Otherwise I think the laptop is the easier and more cost effective system. Not to mention the power fluxuations you get from a cars electrical system. With a laptop you use the power mostly to keep the battery charged so power surges arent critical but on a pc using that power as the base it could cause critical issues and hurt the CPU or power supply.

I know a number of people who have used home PC's on the road with mixed results depending on mostly setup. The other big advantage of a laptop is it is portable so if you wanted to go sit in a restaurant or rest stop table while waiting for the cap or at night or in the morning when you are targeting the next chase it would be difficult at best to move an entire PC to the room compared to a laptop. I can mount or unmount my laptop with all wiring in about a minute.

 

[David Drummond]

EDIT: post removed (Even though I have built in several of these and have real world chasing experience with them, I evidently don't know what I am talking about according to some people. Don't know why I bothered.)

 

[D. Hayes]

Plenty of websites out there that cover installing a computer in car. Check out www.mp3car.com for starts. I've bought monitors from them in the past for use with my laptop in my truck.

 

[Jerry Prsha]

What I don't know is how the computer would do with the road bumps (if I'm running a DVD will it skip a lot). Does the heat in the car on hot Texas days really affect the system (even if the computer is shut off).

I figure someone must have tried this in the past with or without success. Hopefully I can get some feedback.

Jason,

You can try using a Flash Drive instead of a Hard Drive and you'll have less problems.

Hard Drives will have problems because of heat (or lack thereof) over time because the magnetic head will get out of alignment if they change temperature. The data tends to "wander" and even if the drive doesn't fail from the temperature extremes, your data will corrupt eventually.

A solid state Flash drive might be a bit slower but the lack of a spinning disk will save you a lot of trouble in the extremes. No bouncing will affect it either.