Is anyone running a desktop computer on-board full-time?

[AdvMotoGirl]

Hi Everyone -

As we continue to prep for our eventual liveaboard life, one of the things I keep trying to work out how to do is bring my full-size desktop on board - It's unlikely to work, but I keep trying to think of ways anyhow, stubborn as I am. We'd run any computer-based nav items from a laptop - the desktop would strictly be for work/fun.

My main concerns are constant vibration and salty, humid air eating the components rather than hard impacts as it would be shut down and stowed for any seas that involved significant motion.

I recall seeing someone mentioning two full-size gaming monitors and desktops for their nav setup and can't find the post now for reference, but I'm just curious what anyone's experience has been like in terms of how quickly the computer degraded, how and where you've got it mounted, et cetera.

My thoughts were to have it low and amidships with hard wires run to various locations - HDMI and USB degrade over distance without an active or fiber optic cable, but those aren't prohibitively expensive. I was surprised to find recommendations to hard-mount it to a solid surface rather than cushion it somehow through suspension or foam padding, so I'm wondering what else I'm not thinking about.

Thanks very much for any advice or anecdotal experience.

 

[Don L]

people still use desktops?

The only issue I see on a boat is where to put it

 

[ranger58sb]

We use a laptop, but could probably do a desktop/mini-tower if we could find a space to dedicate to that. As if we had a proper desk, or something. I don't think too much risk to a tower, inside and stable. More risk of falling to the displays, probably,

Then too, I don't know that there's much I couldn't do with our laptop if I built that out with an extra monitor and plug-in USB drives.

-Chris

 

[AdvMotoGirl]

people still use desktops?

The only issue I see on a boat is where to put it

Yep - though I'm a gaming/media nerd with pretty intense resource overhead. There are laptops that'll work reasonably well, but most will still fall short of my ideal performance. That may just be a sacrifice I'll have to make, though. I recently picked up a new rig and downsized to 64G RAM from 96G, and there are laptops which will accommodate that. My main concern with laptops is the GPU.

 

[SteveK]

With windows 10 kicked to the curb, May as well get a new laptop. That said the box can find a hideaway home.

 

[Jaep]

Have been running full size computers on the commercial boats for over 30 years. Small inverter and surge protector dedicated to the computers. for clean power. Just need to keep the tower in a dry well ventilated space and clean air filters regularly.

 

[slowgoesit]

We ran an older LARGE desktop computer for the first two years on board, down in the office, with laptops in the Pilothouse, and Android tablets with Navionics to back up the Chartplotter. The desktop took up a lot of space, had a 500 watt power supply, and was getting a little long in the tooth.
We replaced with a Geekom Mini PC, 4.5" x 4.5" x 2" high. Faster processor, better video card, and more ram than our desktop! The only drawback was it only had 3 USB-3 ports, but an inexpensive USP rail took care of that.
Power draw is minimal, and can be mounted in any orientation. We mounted one on the ship's office wall, so it is out of the way.

Here is one, Intel chip, 512 RAM, 512 MB SSD RAM, upgradeable, but as is, $260, free 5 day shipping!

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Mini PC 12th Gen Intel - GEEKOM

Level up your creativity with the 12th Gen Intel mini PC featuring DDR5, PCIe SSD speeds 7X faster for silky 8K workflows.

www.geekompc.com

There are others, other brands, etc, but it works for us. We have three of them, we fired all of our desktop computers!

 

[Gdavid]

I'm interested in the topic but have no first hand experience or knowledge.

The topic came up recently:

Laptop or NUC or ? recommendations

If system redundancy is your thing these mini PC's are the ticket, although I will continue to use my Garmin and MacBook pro as I am done with MS Dos. Still, I can see the value even though I would probably go with a Mac Mini because I am a total Apple fan boy...a lot of bang for the buck...

www.trawlerforum.com

 

[chanprr]

Been considering a small form factor PC, in the helm station cabinet, with bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a 14" monitor could be my solution. The helm station has ample room for the monitor on either side of the control panel.

 

[AdvMotoGirl]

Ah, the NUCs are interesting - I wasn't aware they'd become as powerful as what I'm seeing now, thanks for the recommendation! That might change the whole situation entirely.

Thanks to all for replying, very appreciated.

 

[Tator]

We ran a full size desk top unit on our GB50 for 6 years cruising from Puget Sound to SE Alaska every year. We used it for navigation as well as office uses. We had it mounted on a rubber pad and held by a horizontal strap in a cabinet under the dash in the pilothouse. Had no problem in 6 years including taking rolls of 20+ degrees in Queen Charlotte sound. Power was through our Heart inverter.

 

[twistedtree]

People have been running computers on boats for ages without any special considerations, and they seem to work just fine. That said, I can't help but believe that a SSD would hold up better than a mechanical disk when the boat is getting tossed around, so I have switched to all SSDs.

 

[Mac2]

I recall seeing someone mentioning two full-size gaming monitors and desktops for their nav setup and can't find the post now for reference, but I'm just curious what anyone's experience has been like in terms of how quickly the computer degraded, how and where you've got it mounted, et cetera.

Airstream345 has the two gaming monitors.

 

[KenD]

If you want desktop instead of laptop for the processor or gpu; you will need a lot of watts to run it. A decently powerful laptop that you can connect to your main tv as a large monitor when needed makes more boat since.

 

[AdvMotoGirl]

I agree that SSD/NvME are the only way to go for sure, and also that the bigger rig will eat up a metric honkload of power. It's all going to boil down (as all things boat seem to do) to what compromises I'm willing to make and where. I'm pretty spoiled rotten when it comes to computational power - I may just have to suck it up and downgrade to "still pretty stinkin' good."

 

[Seaglory]

I have used desktops for many years commercially simply sitting on either the desk of consol in the wheelhouse, they lasted over 5 years and never had any issues. Now I am using a mini geek GEEKOM Mini Air12 Mini PC 12th Gen Intel - GEEKOM. been great and had no issues to date, it is running TZ navigator, emails and business packages for work and has not missed a beat. Once again is just sitting on "non-slip" on the consol but I am not so adventurous as before so dont go out in 2 mtrs swells anymore if I was I would need to tie it down.

 

[Insequent]

I ran a tower, modest gaming spec, with 24" monitor for about 10 years for navigation. No issues, other than the 1000W power supply it had meant I turned it off when at anchor. A few years ago I replaced it with a NUC, just to reduce power consumption. I leave the NUC on at anchor these days as it draws very little power really.

 

[O C Diver]

Second the recommendation for a NUC.

For the last 3 years I had my boat, I used a NUC to run Coastal Explorer for moving map navigation. Many of the NUCs including mine, use 12 VDC with an adapter to 120 VAC. Several friends have wired the NUC directly to 12 VDC. Many monitors including my 20" HP also can be wired 12 VDC. Certainly would want to buffer the incoming voltage.

Ted

 

[GoldenDawn]

Ran our desktop on our Krogen for 14 years and I believe the previous owner had it for at least five years! Windows XP ! We had 2 programs on it - Fugawi navigation (a legacy Canadian program) and a tide program, from which I could print monthly tide curves. Sold the boat last year and boy do I miss those programs. This survived many voyages, inc Haida Gwaii, circumnavigation of Vancouver Is and Alaska. Also had a recent AIS install that interfaced with Fugawi. Maybe I was lucky.

 

[Shrew]

I game and do web design. My wife is a graphic artist. I've been building my gaming rigs since around 2001. Fun times to which I could wax nostalgic for hours.......but I digress.

As a graphic artist my wife does all of her work on a laptop. Admittedly, you are on the high of ridiculous in regards to pricing, but if you're building gaming PC's then the $6K+ range should not scare you much.

You'll never get laptop components to reach the high end of PC components. Honestly, unless you're doing high end video processing, a laptop will work fine.

As for gaming, you'll likely need to dial down the graphics, but it is not the end of the world. You're dealing with texture at that point. In the middle of a dungeon crawl, I'm not enamoured by how REAL the stone walls look. Just hack and slash, collect gold and items and move on.

As far as longevity, whether its a PC, laptop, console, they all have system boards, components and connectors and none of them are sealed. Corrosion will work in. In a race between corrosion vs hardware obsolescences...as long as the PC isn't outside, hardware obsolescences will likely win the race.

 

[AdvMotoGirl]

Thanks, everyone - I really appreciate your insight! It's good to know I have options.

 

[Greg QS]

I have a commercial work station as an on bord computer running 365 days. Onlogic unit running windows 11 . Can remote access using windows remote desktop and see my maratron system anytime .

 

[billdomb]

Hi Everyone -



My main concerns are constant vibration and salty, humid air eating the components rather than hard impacts as it would be shut down and stowed for any seas that involved significant motion.

I

My thoughts were to have it low and amidships with hard wires run to various locations - HDMI and USB degrade over distance without an active or fiber optic cable, but those aren't prohibitively expensive. I was surprised to find recommendations to hard-mount it to a solid surface rather than cushion it somehow through suspension or foam padding, so I'm wondering what else I'm not thinking about.

Thanks very much for any advice or anecdotal experience.

Have had multiple towers aboard for many years with zero problems with corrosion. Do run them off a UPS to manage power fluctuations as well as when we switch from shore power to gennie or switch gennies. Did haveta get a little creative strapping down the large monitor for when we're rolling.
Long HDMI runs, incidentally: we're over a 60 ft run from our aft camera to a monitor on the flybridge. Just needed a tiny booster connector that cost mebbe ten bucks.

 

[Airstream345]

I recall seeing someone mentioning two full-size gaming monitors and desktops for their nav setup and can't find the post now for reference, but I'm just curious what anyone's experience has been like in terms of how quickly the computer degraded, how and where you've got it mounted, et cetera.

That’s me. We run two PCs at the helm, mostly dedicated to navigation and ship operations (they also run SignalK, SailLogger, etc.). And yes—occasionally a Seahawks game on YouTube TV when we’re underway.

For hardware, we use two Kingdel PCs. They currently run on AC power, but they can be converted to 12V. They’ve got plenty of horsepower for just about any application. Kingdel has also released some newer, lower-power stainless-steel models that I think would be terrific in a marine environment. A good friend—and well-known marine expert—just bought these for his setup:
https://us.amazon.com/KINGDEL-Fanless-Intel-Cores-3-4GHz/dp/B0CNW6ZD98/ref=sr_1_3?th=1

Finally, for casual computing (I work aboard), I reach for my laptop (MacBook Pro) every single time—it’s simply easier to use from different spots around the boat. Even for Zoom calls, I usually grab the MacBook and set it up at the helm in front of one of the PCs.

 

[BobMc]

Hi Everyone -

As we continue to prep for our eventual liveaboard life, one of the things I keep trying to work out how to do is bring my full-size desktop on board - It's unlikely to work, but I keep trying to think of ways anyhow, stubborn as I am. We'd run any computer-based nav items from a laptop - the desktop would strictly be for work/fun.

If you want to have a dedicated computer for nav and another for everything else, why not just get a second laptop or a small form factor with a larger monitor?

The small form factor computers will do everything a laptop or larger form factor (what you might think of as a standard desktop size with an ATX motherboard) will do. Check one out here: https://www.amazon.com/small-form-factor-pc/s?k=small+form+factor+pc The small form factor is much more versatile than a laptop in terms of being able to add memory, drives, etc, and takes up a lot less space than a desktop.

Were we to do it again, we'd use a small form factor for the navigation computer, another small form factor for my wife's work, and carry a laptop as a backup. Easy-peasy!

 

[Blue Yonder]

Our primary helm station is in an enclosed flybridge so I wanted something that could handle heat. I ended up going with a fanless industrial small form factor PC, 32 Gb RAM, SSD drives, running Timezero Pro on Windows 11 (BOXER-6641-PRO). It does use a fair bit of power so I leave it off when docked/anchored. Had the boat for about a year now and no issues so far.

I also added a NAS (network attached storage) box last December that I use for storing photos, streaming content and running SignalK. It sits in an alcove in the Flybridge so again heat was a factor to consider. I went with an ODroid H4 Ultra (https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h4-ultra/), 32 Gb RAM, 8 TB of SSD, a Noctua fan, and installed ZimaOS on it (Linux). It uses around 7 watts at idle. I'm very happy with this set up so far.

Both run off 12 VDC so no inverter loses.

 

[C lectric]

Years ago we carried a laptop on the boat's dash. Actually the flip down 2 piece lid for the V berth entry. I built a turntable with a ball bearing rotator which raised it to a level just above that of the dash handhold./ rail, closure flip down.
The rotating table could be held in place by a SS pin through the table into the
piece below that the table rotated on with several pin spots drilled.
The table was built of teak.

I used some lead to prevent it skating around on the dash board but my wife and I could turn it so either one of us could spin for visibility for both of us and/or programming our planned paths.

I also used some sheets that were highly resistant to sliding around , cannot remember the name, between the dashboard and the laptop. Common in kitchens. The lead weighting helped prevent the whole shebang from scooting about untill we wanted it somewhere else.

My wife also used it to retain contact between herself and her job to get some work done.

Of course wiring had to be done properly.

It served us well for many years untill we became retarded, quit the jobs, sold the house and moved to our current location.

Take a good look at your dash board to see and estimate how much room you have for a laptop..

Oh , and we also had a program in the laptop as a plotting guide.

We have now sold the boat but eventually we went to handheld units, two for me. One a tilt holder that held its unit horizontal on the dash ahead of me , the other hung its unit from the overhead so glances and adjustments were only needed every so often.
Both were easily visible.

However for your intention the first holder would likely do best.

 

[BobMc]

Thin carpet underlay is great for keeping items like a laptop from sliding around. Shelf liner also works, but isn't as thick so may not hold heavier objects.

 

[Wdeertz]

Nothing beats the screen size of a desktop. Went with a Dell all-in-one 24” computer with SSD mounted on a swivel in the pilothouse. While underway usually display n2k data but can also use as a 4th navigation screen. Use primarily for managing family finances and other apps that are easier on a computer versus a tablet. Only issue has been in heavy seas getting some swiveling despite having springs tensioned down.

 

[BobMc]

Screen size is not dependent on the CPU being a desktop. Any monitor can connect to any CPU, whether it is a laptop, a desktop, a NUC or another small frame size CPU.