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[Doctor Gollum]

Have just acquired one of the above with a view to using it on the car... plan to use iCarsoft MB 7.4 initially, then later Star C3/4. Might also load DICE on it for Volvo (or its marine equivalent).

Toughbook is complete and working with hard drive (40gb) and memory (256mb) but no software either supplied or installed. Also no cdr/DVD drive (no space), although it has two USB ports.

It is wireless capable and can take a SIM, but not planning on connecting it to tinterweb unless absolutely vital as I will need to run it on Windows XP

I have a few questions...

1. What size hard drive to replace current IDE one? Thinking 1 or 2 TB 2.5" SATA with adaptor.

2. Apparently I can triple the RAM to 768, presumably this will be beneficial.

3. Will any cheapy external USB cd/dvd drive be suitable for loading software on to it? Any recommendations?

4. Which version of XP would be recommended? 32/64bit? Pro or not? I have a copy of 32 Pro with original discs somewhere, but it's cheap enough new.

Budget for all of the above is £100-150, which looks vaible from a quick scout around, even at PC World prices.

 

[TheBoy]

Spend the money on a better base to start from.

Sorry 

[Doctor Gollum]

Spend the money on a better base to start from.

Sorry 

Don't be so gay, that doesn't warrant an apology

All done this should give me what I need for around the £300 mark including the iCarsoft... IF the above list will achieve my requirements.

I have a recent HP laptop which I use for day to day stuff, (Word and Netflix mostly )  and battered tablet for OOF and general browsing.

Toughbook was cheap enough and is half the size of the laptop. It is pretty much indestructible too. It is my starting point, regardless of being the best starting point or not. Yes, I know, I possibly should have asked first

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

I have absolutely no idea what your talking about.
Sorry. 

[Lincs Robert]

I've used these for a variety of challenging needs over the years and always been impressed. Not used one for a while and suspect that these are other similar devices on the market now.

[Lincs Robert]

I have absolutely no idea what your talking about.
Sorry. 

Google Toughbook & all will be revealed

[Lizzie Zoom]

I have absolutely no idea what your talking about.
Sorry. 

Google Toughbook & all will be revealed

Hope so, as I also have no idea what this is about!

I'm intrigued now though

[Lincs Robert]

I have absolutely no idea what your talking about.
Sorry. 

Google Toughbook & all will be revealed

Hope so, as I also have no idea what this is about!

I'm intrigued now though

Basically a very rugged laptop- as some of the Google images will show. Used in extreme climatic conditions where a normal PC would struggle. They generally aren't noted as high performance PCs, but do work where needed. They are engineered with high spec-components and things like thicker circuit boards, rugged metal cases with shock absorbers etc. The sort of thing that a polar explorer might use, or an oil industry specialiast out in the back of beyond somewhere. The only real challenge they suffer from is the effect of temperature extremes on battery life. However, the sort of people that use them generally use them for a specific purpose and are aware of the limitations.

[Lizzie Zoom]

I have absolutely no idea what your talking about.
Sorry. 

Google Toughbook & all will be revealed

Hope so, as I also have no idea what this is about!

I'm intrigued now though

Basically a very rugged laptop- as some of the Google images will show. Used in extreme climatic conditions where a normal PC would struggle. They generally aren't noted as high performance PCs, but do work where needed. They are engineered with high spec-components and things like thicker circuit boards, rugged metal cases with shock absorbers etc. The sort of thing that a polar explorer might use, or an oil industry specialiast out in the back of beyond somewhere. The only real challenge they suffer from is the effect of temperature extremes on battery life. However, the sort of people that use them generally use them for a specific purpose and are aware of the limitations.

Thanks Robert.  That makes things a lot clearer

However, one question remains; why would DG need one of these? DG?

[Doctor Gollum]

First sentence might be a clue

[Viral_Jim]

1-2TB seems a bit of a waste, unless that's the cheapest option now  .

Judging by the rest of the spec I don't get the impression it's going to be doing much heavy lifting, surely 250gb would be more than ample? Also SATA, doesn't that require you to install drivers for XP? If so, could be a headache. 

[Doctor Gollum]

1-2TB seems a bit of a waste, unless that's the cheapest option now  .

Judging by the rest of the spec I don't get the impression it's going to be doing much heavy lifting, surely 250gb would be more than ample? Also SATA, doesn't that require you to install drivers for XP? If so, could be a headache. 

Ok, ignoring questions 1/2 if irrelevant... would this:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/components-and-upgrades/cd-dvd-and-blu-ray-drives/dynamode-insixt-external-slimline-usb-cd-drive-black-04877726-pdt.html

...suffice for reloading XP onto it?

[Mr Gav]

Is it possible to create a bootable usb drive to install XP?

I know you can do this with Win 7 but not sure about XP, might be worth looking at that before you shell out £20?

[Doctor Gollum]

Is it possible to create a bootable usb drive to install XP?

I know you can do this with Win 7 but not sure about XP, might be worth looking at that before you shell out £20?

I would need to obtain a usb drive in order to do that... and if I'm going shopping... 

[Mr Gav]

Is it possible to create a bootable usb drive to install XP?

I know you can do this with Win 7 but not sure about XP, might be worth looking at that before you shell out £20?

I would need to obtain a usb drive in order to do that... and if I'm going shopping... 

Well there is that 

[Mister Rog]

I prefer the Sanyomushi XG295Yi






 

[Lizzie Zoom]

First sentence might be a clue

Thanks DG.  You wrote though:
"Have just acquired one of the above with a view to using it on the car... plan to use iCarsoft MB 7.4 initially, then later Star C3/4. Might also load DICE on it for Volvo (or its marine equivalent)."

Now do you think that explains it to someone, like me, who's IT limit is the PC, Iphone and Ipad?

[redelitev6]

  I always thought "war and peace" was a tough book

[TheBoy]

Toughbooks are great.  But DG's - without looking up model - sounds like it may be from around 15yrs ago, which just isn't suitable to run anything.

I suspect, again without looking, it needs an IDE drive, which are rocking horse shit now, and probably going to struggle to get anything above 80Gb anyway.

The RAM - and it will need its full compliment to be even remotely useable - will be expensive if available.  And TBH, less than 1Gb to run XP with the last SP on is looking tight. Thats before any applications.

[Doctor Gollum]

Been rummaging...

Can get a 1GB RAM upgrade for it, and also a new 120Gb IDE hard drive for it for sensible money.

Does that help?

[TheBoy]

I thought you said it max'd out at 768Mb? 1Gb is minimum I would consider for XP.

[Doctor Gollum]

I thought you said it max'd out at 768Mb? 1Gb is minimum I would consider for XP.

Some confusion there. Spec sheet suggests 1.5gb is allowed

I take it then that when it comes to RAM, more is better?

1Gb is certainly readily available for it.

[TheBoy]

1Gb should be sufficient (initially), assuming that the specs of the software you wish to run don't state higher requirements.


As said, I'd be wary of spending much on it (beyond software), as it's not a great base to start from, and any hardware you buy/acquire/rob will not fit newer stuff.

[omega2018]

about the only reason you'd need a toughbook is to go polar exploring or oil rigging like lincs said. Are you Red Adair? now in the age of SSDs (no moving parts) you don't need to worry about a bit of bumping up and down in a car driving to gatwick and back .  just bin it.

[zirk]

I may have some 2.5 IDE's kicking around somewhere which your welcome to have, cant remember what size they would be though I'll have to run them up as see whats what.

[Doctor Gollum]

about the only reason you'd need a toughbook is to go polar exploring or oil rigging like lincs said. Are you Red Adair? now in the age of SSDs (no moving parts) you don't need to worry about a bit of bumping up and down in a car driving to gatwick and back .  just bin it.

If you bothered to read the whole post, you'd see it will eventually be used in a marine environment 

I may have some 2.5 IDE's kicking around somewhere which your welcome to have, cant remember what size they would be though I'll have to run them up as see whats what.

Thank you Chris, will drop you a text later.

[Kevin Wood]

I've got a "few" IDE drives in the loft too.

[minifreek]

If its only being used for DIAGs on cars (especially VIDA/DICE for Volvo) it will be perfectly fine if you upgrade the memory to its max and also get the biggest HDD you can that will fit.... The IDE drives are still available new, but limited on capacity. 1 Tb HDD should be fine for a while, but does depend on the file sizes placed upon it. Minimum that XP wants to run is 500Mb, it only recognises upto 2Gb anyway so just max it out... If there is new firmware available to flash the BIOS do it, it might allow more to be done with it and possibly make it a bit quicker too... You could also maybe look into replacing the CPU also for a faster chip thats compatible with the motherboard/BIOS, if its possible...

Iv still got an old 386 PC that runs perfect and actually boots up quicker than my main PC, it doesn't like to connect to the interweb though.... LOL

[omega2018]

about the only reason you'd need a toughbook is to go polar exploring or oil rigging like lincs said. Are you Red Adair? now in the age of SSDs (no moving parts) you don't need to worry about a bit of bumping up and down in a car driving to gatwick and back .  just bin it.

If you bothered to read the whole post, you'd see it will eventually be used in a marine environment 

OK Red

[Andy H]

I fitted a Kingspec pata/ide ssd to a Toshiba protégé R200 a few years ago. It was the only way I could find at the time to source a drive larger than the fitted hdd due to the odd multi-pin connector on the cable (most 2.5" drives use a flat ribbon cable and a  zif connector)

It does start a lot quicker with a ssd fitted