Machine for tuning

[silver-mod-o]

Hey guys. I'm obviously new here and I can tell this is ont of the sites I'll do more reading than posting but I was wondering what you all use to tune from... Desktops in the shop next to the dyno? Laptops? Please post up and let me know what I should get.

I have been looking at various laptops lately and want to get an inexpensive one to tune with... all it will be used for is tuning and internet. Probably going with Sprint mobile internet when I get it. not 100% new to this side of it but compared to a lot of you guys, I'm still wet behind the ears... Let me know.

[silver-mod-o]

I've been looking on laptopcloseout.com... they have some refurb's over there for cheap...

[Bill@HPTuners]

Gateway laptop
1.4 ghz celeron
1 gig ram
60 gig HD
win xp home edition
$449+$100 for the additional ram 2 years ago.

[silver-mod-o]

What all do you use it for? is it strictly dedicated for tuning?

[12secSS]

I use an eMachine that my wife gave to me for christmas a couple of years ago.

Specs:
eMachines
M5405
Windows XP
AMD Processor
1.6GHz
448MB RAM

I mainly use it for tuning, but I also use the media tools for editing videos from the track or uploading pictures to/from. It also has functioned as a tire block. I will be replacing it with a newer, although less expensive, laptop in the future.

Best bet I can recommend is get a cheap (affordable) laptop with the biggest screen. It will get beat up, so no use in getting the latest, most expensive machine out there.

[silver-mod-o]

thats why I have been looking into the refurbs... a couple scratches and scrapes wont hurt my feelings at all... I just need something tough enough to handle riding in the truck while I drive LOL...

I feel al laptop mount coming on too

[kenny c]

I have a toshiba satellite.

1.8 gig core 2 duo, 2 gigs of ram, 200 gig HD, Vista home premium...etc...etc...

I use it as a desktop replacement. I run photoshop CS3 extended and a few other memory intensive applications. It's my only pc, so I use it for tuning too. I just have to be careful and I back my HD very often.

I paid about $1100 for it at best buy.

[VYSSLS1]

i have a Toshiba A100, 1gb ram, 80gb HDD, XP Pro,

use it for web and tuning only,

[Bill@HPTuners]

I use mine for work, tuning, everything basically.

[eficalibrator]

If you do a lot of in-car work, a touch-screen laptop is REALLY nice. I use a Panasonic CF-73 toughbook. A lot of my Ford tuning colleagues swore by them and I gotta admit I'm convinced after using it for a while.

In my experience, the little things make bigger differences than processor speed, RAM and all that. Almost any modern computer today can handle tuning chores. Make sure you have sufficient USB connections (or buy a hub), a car charger, spare batteries, cables, and a case/bag big enough to carry all the other "goodies" you use when tuning.

[silver-mod-o]

I had the toughbooks in mind just in case it fell off the seat under braking or something... we used them in Iraq and had one fall out of a 7 ton at 30mph from 8ft in the air.... dusted it off, powered it back up and it never missed a beat. The touchscreen Toughbook seems like the ultimate in durability and convenience. Price with one of them would be my main concern... I would like to get the software and computer and be ready to tune for less than a Grand.

[eficalibrator]

I bought a semi-rugged, so the price was more reasonable. I don't anticipate driving over it, but it's nice not having to cringe during the occasional "oops". Touchscreen is a HUGE convenience in the car.

[jmoody66]

If you have a home computer already I can save you allot of money....just buy 3 or 4 extension cords and put it in yer car. You have to tell the neighbors though cuz mine pissed me off and ran over it a few times right at the friggin connection part! Get er done!

[silver-mod-o]

I just thought about setting up an old desktop in the garage and use it for nothing but tuning, I have one in the closet just sitting here with I think windows 2000 on it... I could just upgrade some things, set it up, and keep it covered when I'm not using it I guess... but I'd really like to be able to pull over and change things when I'm working on a tune instead of waiting until I get back and put it in the garage.

[truckmann]

I have a COMPAQ EVO N610C P4-M 1.8GHZ 512MB Ram 30GB DVD WINXP that I got from ebay for ~ $370 with a wireless card and a nice bag to carry it and all my plunder. I use it almost everday to get on the internet while sitting on the couch watching TV and of course for tuning.

[zq8bob]

Check Ebay. Mine is a P III 950, 768 MB ram, 15 gig HD. IBM Thinkpad. got it on ebay for $250. It was an office lease. needs a new battery (only lasts ~ 15 minutes) but with an inverter in the car, I am fine.

[Frost]

If you have a home computer already I can save you allot of money....just buy 3 or 4 extension cords and put it in yer car. You have to tell the neighbors though cuz mine pissed me off and ran over it a few times right at the friggin connection part! Get er done!

kinda limits how far you can drive down the road and do the tiny things.... you know, like LOGGING

[John_F]

www.geeks.com has some real cheap refurb laptops.

[horist]

don't need much... I use a 1ghz, 512MB RAM HP laptop that I bought about 5 years ago... 3k laptop at the time (before I was even tuning)

A cheap laptop (with USB) is all you need

Back w/the serial version I even used a 333mhz IBM thinkpad.. didn't even have a USB port... that's how old it was... .and it worked fine for HPT (hard to believe I paid 250 bux for the thing lol)

You don't need a new laptop to tune.... I wouldn't go below 1ghz though (so you can at least use it for other things)

[Bill@HPTuners]

You don't need a new laptop to tune.... I wouldn't go below 1ghz though (so you can at least use it for other things)

Yeah, the newer pcm's can spit out so much info that if the laptop isn't up to par it won't be able to keep up with the incoming data & can drop frames. I haven't seen it with my laptop but I've heard of some having dropped frames on E67 pcm's when scanning with an older minimum requirements laptop.