StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Right, we are getting set to go out to sea here again, which means I was going to try to fix my old laptop up so I could use it. Except then Ernesto hit, flooded out my room in our apartment. Most of my stuff was ok because I had it boxed up in plastic crates because I'm moving, but it smoked said laptop. I plug it in, press the ON button, and nothing happens. Warrenty has expired, so it would cost more to get it fixed then buy a new one.

SO I'm looking to do it and do it right this time, as this 2000 dollar HP paperweight I now have was nothing but a hassle.

After consulting with some people who know more about computers then me yesterday, I've come to the conclusion that to keep this reasonably priced yet get a lot of power, I am best off buying a random one off pricewatch.com or some such and upgrading the hell out of it. Others here who have done so have gotten really good systems for ~$850 by that method, so that's what I am aiming for as well.

SO what stuff should I be looking for to put in this? What are good wireless cards, bluetooth, videocards, etc? What specs should I look for? I want this to be a media and gaming heavy system. I'm gonna try and salvage the processor out of my old laptop, I don't know the full specs and type off the op of my head, but it was an intel clocked at 3 GHz, which should be sufficient (I can upgrade later to a Core 2)

Also, security is a big issue for me - I'll be taking this out to sea and will be out on deployment right until I get out (I should be flying off) so it will have all my personal information (eg banking) on it. Identity theft has been a real big issue on this ship, so what should I look for for a security system? Are those fingerprint scamnners affordable enough that it would be worth it? What about for firewalls and such?

Finally, where can I look to get a new case for it? Not the carrying case, the plastic one. I like the looks of some of the systems on ibuypower.com Some place has to make those.

Thanks.

Wireless card - anything that supports 802.11g should work fine. Also, i'd make sure that the computer has gigabit ethernet capability.

Bluetooth - same thing, just make sure it supports Bluetooth 2.0

Video card - if you want it to be a media/gaming system, you should go for a 128 MB video card at the least, 256 MB if possible, though 128 suffices for most games that I can think of off the top of my head. NVIDIA and ATI both make good mobile video cards of this capacity, let me know if you want specific reccomendations. Don't forget a good sound card.

Security - assuming you are using Windows, the built-in firewall suffices for most needs, as I recall. If you want an extra layer, Norton and McAfee make virus scan and security products that are commercially available. I've only had experience with the Norton suite, and unfortunately I cannot fully reccomend it, but there are reviews online for both that I could point you to if needed. Fingerprint scanners are a personal preference IMO; I've read conflicting things about their necessity/effectiveness.

I have no knowledge of the standalone laptop case market, so I can't really say anything to that. Hope the above helps though.

In the case of the processor; pay attention to whether it is socketted or soldered. Some laptops have soldered processors which cannot be removed without changing the motherboard.

I'd say to get at least socketed Core Duo (or even Core Solo)- since Core 2 Duo (Merom) uses the same socket, a firmware update and processor upgrade later and you get a huge performance boost and 64-bit to boot. And in all honesty, a 2 GHz Core Duo will smash a 3 GHz Pentium 4, and a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo will make mincemeat out of it. I've seen those things outperform 3.8 GHz Pentium 4's in benchmarks.

for security:
FIngerprint scanners are fairly affordable, but someone with a little practice can spoof one and for the same price (about) You can buy a license for PGP and just encrypt the whole hard-disk (or any portion there-of) with a 4096 encryption. Just be sure never to forget the password ( I keep my password on a seperate, encrypted USB fob that never leaves my person. But I'm paranoid)

SeeingRed wrote:Video card - if you want it to be a media/gaming system, you should go for a 128 MB video card at the least, 256 MB if possible, though 128 suffices for most games that I can think of off the top of my head. NVIDIA and ATI both make good mobile video cards of this capacity, let me know if you want specific reccomendations. Don't forget a good sound card.

Smoking crack or what?
The amount of memory in a graphics card is nearly always irrelevent. You are nearly never limited by the amount of memory on a card, rather more limited in it's actual processor.

In case of mobile GPUs, in the oldies basement, the 9xxx line from ATi, mobile versions were quite good, next generation was nVidia's on the mobile sector(6xxx range), I'm less sure about the current generation, look around for mobile reviews.

ThatGuyFromThatPlace wrote:for security:
FIngerprint scanners are fairly affordable, but someone with a little practice can spoof one and for the same price (about) You can buy a license for PGP and just encrypt the whole hard-disk (or any portion there-of) with a 4096 encryption. Just be sure never to forget the password ( I keep my password on a seperate, encrypted USB fob that never leaves my person. But I'm paranoid)

For that matter, you could simply use EFS to encrypt your data. Fingerprint scanners can be spoofed but it takes more technical knowhow then commonly available and most laptops use a "slide" scanner that makes latent prints harder to use.