which laptop? - Page 3

breaker021 · 06-23-2006, 10:37 AM

that's the biggest annoyance with the tablet that i have - that you can't use your damn finger on it!

and i know what you mean! stealth install haters hate us so much! i dont know why!! I think they're jealous because we get the same "useability" as they do minus all that hard integration work that they do - which I feel is unnecessary! lol... I mean really... If i used my car to commute like 2+ hrs a day, then i would do something like that. I use my car only maybe 100 miles a week, 2 days a week, so for me, all that work for BARELY using the system seems like overkill!

just wait - as tablets get cheaper and smaller, more and more ppl on this forum are gonna switch to 'em... it's just a matter of time... for the time being, they can hate all they want. i dont give a flying f. ;]
- s.

Hcomplyr · 06-23-2006, 11:31 AM

but for those of us that is in traffic for 2 hours a day definately need something a little more, shall we say, solid...?

breaker021 · 06-23-2006, 12:37 PM

I absolutely agree but I hate being bashed because my setup doesn't look like it came from the factory, or, it's ugly, or, why don't you use a 7" touch screen and a docking station, etc. My neighborhood sucks so I can't keep the tablet mounted 24/7. My car has limited cargo space so I can't put a pc anywhere there. I can hide and make a stealth solution but I don't want to go through the effort of doing that since everything i want to do i can do now with the tablet!

In terms of solidness, I'm working on a nicer mount for my tablet which I should have done sometime this summer.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=78495

I have never worked really with metal and I don't own/run/have access to a fabrication shop so things for me go 50x slower! l0l
- sh00k

Mark0055 · 06-28-2006, 03:08 AM

Well - my mp3car project has just kicked off for the 3rd time

i've just "won" a laptop on ebay, its a
"HP OMNIBOOK 5OO LAPTOP p3 600mhz with Docking station "

600mhz, 192 mb ram , 3(!) Gb hard drive

Does anyone know anything about these laptops?
are they any good?
Its got a slightly damaged screen - but who gives a **** about that!

I got it for £96 - thats about $160 I guess
worth it?

thunderdepot · 06-28-2006, 01:51 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Mark0055

Well - my mp3car project has just kicked off for the 3rd time

i've just "won" a laptop on ebay, its a
"HP OMNIBOOK 5OO LAPTOP p3 600mhz with Docking station "

600mhz, 192 mb ram , 3(!) Gb hard drive

Does anyone know anything about these laptops?
are they any good?
Its got a slightly damaged screen - but who gives a **** about that!

I got it for £96 - thats about $160 I guess
worth it?

You paid too much. You may have some problems running some software (especially centrafuse or dvd's). Here is what I got for $210:
Dell Latitude C610
-P3 1.2Ghz
-20GB HD
-DVD-ROM
-256MB RAM
-Windows XP Media Center 2005 with COA & CD

breaker021 · 06-28-2006, 02:39 PM

I've said it b4 and I will say it again:

USE CRAIGSLIST.

I was lucky enough (last november) to find someone selling 2 HP EPC's - these are thin client machines - for $100!!! THAT'S TWO PCS' FOR $100!!!

The specs were: p3 866mhz, 128mb ram, 10gb disk, usb ports and a 24x cd drive!!!!! small enough to put under your driver/passenger seat! if i had kept them (sold both already), all i would have to do is just get a $200 touch screen and i'd be set with a carputer setup!

And even better than that, the tablet which I am currently using in my car, on the market, (with docking station) goes for over $2400.

I paid $600!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I paid that much for the tablet AND the docking station!!!!!! look at the specs in my sig. and drool on your keyboards..

the moral of the story is: never be in a rush. wait for a deal and it'll come to you. the other moral is that craigslist is the ****.

- sh00k

shotgunefx · 06-28-2006, 02:40 PM

Probably depeneds what you run. My first was a Latitude CPTv (433mhz) and could play mp3s and lots of other stuff with no problems. Though you can strip it down a lot more than windows.

Mark0055 · 06-28-2006, 03:08 PM

oh well , maybe hardwares generally cheaper in the US

you're right I didnt look around for too long, just asked i few mates if they had one then jumped on ebay.

The pi$$er is we've got about laptops with higher spec than that (and docking stations!) sitting in the bottom of a cabinet in my office that have been retired and are goint to sit their till they are obsolete due to my companys strict policy on disposing of stuff like that in a so called environmentally friendly way!

ironic eh

anyway i cant afford to wait around I have to get started while my motivation is peaking

I'm planning on really commiting myself next by getting that laptop psu thing from the shop here and the same 7" touch sreeen as the guy with the mk3 supras using, also from the shop here if i cant find one over here at similar price.
I'll shop around i bit more for that if possible

breaker021 · 06-28-2006, 03:18 PM

I do not know about the quality but I have seen some awesome 7" and 8" touch screen monitors on ebay for like ~$200 - with remote!

Check this out

http://cgi.ebay.com/TOP-QUALITY-8-TO...QQcmdZViewItem

And it's in the UK, just like you, so take a walk over to this dude, hand him $200 bucks and walk off with your hot new monitor! ;] lol
- sh00k

Mark0055 · 06-28-2006, 04:12 PM

hey thanks for the link - thats a definate possibility , thats only about 100 quids. I havent done much research yet but i bet thats a pretty good deal.
not sure if an 8" screen will fit in my dash though, have to test.

one more thing, you reckon a 600mhz pc will do sat nav?

breaker021 · 06-28-2006, 07:10 PM

well, I am pretty sure it could but I am not 100% certain. You can check out other peoples setups or post that Q on the navigation section of this board... I know it worked on my friends 900mhz pentium 3 machines but i am not sure about the 600mhz machine... i dont see why not other than it being really really slow to load maps and it might be a little jumpy... still worth a shot though...
- sh00k

Mark0055 · 06-30-2006, 12:53 PM

hmm the links not working now.
found him on the UK ebay though:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOP-QUALITY-8-...QQcmdZViewItem

breaker021 · 06-30-2006, 01:10 PM

^^^ dude, go onto ebay.com and search for "touch screen" and sort by highest price first. when you get in between the $100 and $300 range in the search, you will see TONS of sellers for various diff. touch screens - all in the UK.

or you can just go to uk ebay ;]
- sh00k

Mark0055 · 10-20-2006, 06:05 AM

well - its 3 months later!
I did indeed go to UK ebay, got a bargain 7" touchscreen for about £90.
when it arrived there was a one pixel wide red vertical line through it , so i sent it back. It then took ten weeks for the replacement to arrive, meanwhile the seller had left ebay - i was getting a bit worried!

anyway it arrived, i began setting it up with the laptop, the laptops paltry 3gb drive failed ! my brother gave me a 2.5" 60gb drive , i killed the laptop changing it, or so i thought. After it being dead for a week, not starting up with either hard drive or even with no hard drive, i reseated the ram for the 5th time and it sprang into life and recognised the full 60 gb! yay!
i was on the verge of throwing it away.
so at last i am ready to proceed

Dragonknell911 · 10-20-2006, 08:51 AM

Well I guess its a good time to suggest using nLite to rip Windows down to almost nothing.

Benefits being that it takes less space, boots quicker, and better response from programs when you have less ram.

good luck