Steve For 2 years I have used my Dell laptop with the Nobeltec Visual Nav program. I am looking forward to replacing it with a desktop and flat screen. While the laptop is convenient, it does act up/crash more than our Dell desktop and I want a bigger screen. Robin Goffrier Amazing Grace '81 50' O/A Pilothouse Portland, Oregon

>>For 2 years I have used my Dell laptop with the Nobeltec Visual Nav program. I am looking forward to replacing it with a desktop and flat screen. While the laptop is convenient, it does act up/crash more than our Dell desktop and I want a bigger screen. For a bigger screen, just attach the screen to the video out on the laptop. Heck, get a docking station and external keyboard and mouse if you want. But the desktop has no advantage in this area unless you possibly want to add a 2nd PCI video adapter and use the multi-monitor feature of many recent OSes. And you could still add a PC-Card PCI video adapter if you were that motivated. For the "act up/crash" issue, I suggest that you're comparing apples and oranges. Even if they are the exact same operating system (possible), and you run exactly the same software (which I doubt), and use them in exactly the same way (which I very much doubt), I'll bet they are still exposed to dramatically different environmental conditions (power, temperature, humidity, and physical stresses) unless the desktop is _also_ on the boat. There obviously will be some variation in reliability amongst identical machines - your "act up/crash" issues might indicate a lemon laptop, which certainly do exist, as do desktops - but I don't think it's reasonable to expect that you're going to achieve any reduction to the "act up / crash" issue simply by switching from a laptop to an equivalently configured desktop. Maybe I can put at least the most important part - power - into more "trawler-like" terms. What's the #1 thing that keeps your engine running? Fuel, right? OK, I guess air as well, but you get my point: uninterrupted delivery of constant quality fuel. And what's the equivalence in computers? The supply of power. Laptops are _designed_ to provide this under a much harsher range of conditions - physical, electrical, etc. - than desktop machines. OK, you can lash a huge battery system (a.k.a. a "UPS") onto the end of the thing to solve that issue partially (and for just a few minutes) at the cost of a great deal of inefficiency, cost, weight, heat, and complexity. But it's really a lousy solution. Just my humble opinion, of course, but I've made my living for the last 20 years working with these systems (mostly software, of course, but I've built of worked literally hundreds of machines) and I can't imagine any situation where a desktop would have any real advantage over a laptop on a boat. Keith Pleas Custom FC 44 Seattle, WA