I just ordered the PC which will become the heart of our navigation systems–the Aleutia P1 Marine PC (@Aleutia).
I have probably spent 4 the equivalent of four full days mostly late at night looking into fanless PCs that either designed to be run on 12V DC power or happen to be powered as such but come with an AC-DC converter. PCs in that secondary category might work fine hooked directly up to the ship’s 12V power, but really should be run on a DC to DC regulator that essentially guarantees the PC is seeing 12V consistently or if it’s a 19V PC (lots of options out there for that) then it could handle that as well. I would look at the Carnetix Regulators if you decide to go that route.
I decided on the Aleutia because I felt it was the most hardware for the right price. I’m not saying it was the cheapest! However it is a very cable power sipping PC that can do the work I need. It also has the advantage of already being able to accept a wide input of DC power (6V-32V DC) which means I won’t need the regulator for the PC (I might still need one for a monitor TBD). Here’s a quick list of the specs of the unit I selected:
| Processor |
Intel ATOM D510 1.66GHz (The lower power slower of the two choices) |
| RAM |
4GB (Upgraded from 2GB) |
| System Cooling |
Fanless |
| Power Input |
6V – 12V DC |
| Power Draw |
19W * Let’s discuss this below |
| Solid State Drive (SSD HD) |
I will supply |
| OS |
I will supply |
| Bulkhead Mountable |
YES |
| Tested in Nigeria |
YES – No really… |
| Wi-Fi |
No * (Optional) |
| 64Bit |
Yes |
I didn’t include a Solid State Drive because their options for SSD HD were limited and I can slide in a better larger drive than their choices.
I didn’t buy Windows 7 64 bit from them because I have a better deal than theirs.
I didn’t include Wi-Fi because this PC is going to be mounted less than a foot from the wireless access point. I will cable it directly instead.
As for the power draw, the PC is designed to be very efficient, but if I go buy a crappy SSD which is a power hog then this will all be for naught. When I select my SSD I need to be very conscious of that! Aleutia’s options were for a 32GB or a 64GB Corsair Nova SSD which draw 0.5W (0.04A @ 12VDC) at idle and 2.0W (0.16A @ 12VDC) max. If I bought Corsairs most high performance SSD it would draw 0.2A at idle 0.5A Max. Not as much as other things on the boat, but I want this PC to stay on 24×7 so I need to watch every little bit I can. I’ll probably go with the Corsair Force F120 120GB SSD because it is larger, has better perf and the same power draw as the NOVA series which Aleutia has spec’d and tested. I might be able to find an even more miserly SSD but I’ve not looked yet.
The next step is making a decision about the Monitor…. but that is another post for another day.
