help choosing a toughbook

eboe · Post by **eboe** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:36 am

please forgive my computer ignorance, but i have a few questions before i purchase a toughbook.

i'm looking to get a used CF-28 because it seems like there's a lot of decent deals to be found on them. i'm just confused on the options. there appear to be a bunch of different option levels for these. let me tell you what i want to do with it and you tell me what i need (or don't need) to get. i see some listed with processor speeds ranging from 800MHz to 1GHz, and HD sized from 20-30Gigs. none of that seems like a deal-breaker to me.

HERE'S WHAT I'M DOING:
1) it's going to be vehicle mounted and configured to wake/hibernate on ignition sense.
2) it's going to be running a GPS with an EXTERNAL active GPS antenna from a USB port.
3) eventually, it's going to be on a wireless network (private 802.11 WLAN) with an EXTERNAL antenna.
4) after that, it's going to be getting an aircard for wireless internet (Cingular or Verizon) with an EXTERNAL antenna.

MUST HAVES:
first off, i want a touch-screen. preferably the larger 13" one. not sure what applications support the use of it, but want it just in case.

same goes for the rubberized backlit keyboard. i want it just because.

CD/DVD combo drive. floppy is useless to me.

NOT SURE ON THE REST:
not sure if the 13" screen is brighter than the 12" screen. i need to make sure i get an outdoor readable display. are they all 500 nits or did they have different options?

not sure if i need to use a port replicator or if i should just mount it to a plain 'ol tray. i'm not going to be removing it regularly. it's going to be considered a permanent install.

i see laptops and port replicator that mention "pass through antenna ports" and "dual-band pass through antenna ports" and some that say they don't have this option. dunno if i need this or not for what i'm doing.

do i need to get a "wireless enabled" toughbook or can i just get my own wifi card and pop it in? this may be going back to the pass through antenna port question. i guess it's ok if my wifi and aircard are in the pc slots as long as they can both have external antenna jacks on them and not interfere with anything. is that possible?

sorry for the large list of questions, i just wanna make sure i get the right one. used prices are between $600-$1000 without the keyboard and combo drive upgrades. maybe another $300-$400 for the upgrades. i wanna make an educated decision with that kinda cash.

thanks

spectragod · Post by **spectragod** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 3:02 pm

You want one with a Cisco 350 wireless card, it will have an antenna port on the back of the unit for a pass through and a antenna on the unit.

I would recommend a Panasonic port replicator, as most have the antenna pass through standard, it is optional on the Kodiak unit. I have never seen a dual pass through on a 28, 18's & 29's have them.

13.3 display is a bit handier than the 12" screen.

The last 28 I bought off epay had a 10gig drive with 8 gig of zipped porn in a file disguised as a sys file. So basically........ good luck.

SG

eboe · Post by **eboe** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 8:59 am

yeah, definitely 'caveat emptor', eh?

speaking of hard drives, if i bought a cf-28 with a 30GB hard drive, is it possible to swap in a larger drive? do the cf-29 drives pop right in? (the cf-29's have 80GB drives)

spectragod · Post by **spectragod** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:27 am

They just use a standard laptop drive.

SG

eboe · Post by **eboe** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 7:02 pm

k, cool. i just saw a seagate 100GB 7200RPM laptop HD for like $160.

thanks

eboe · Post by **eboe** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 3:45 pm

oooh, one last question. since you seem very knowledgable on the toughbooks, do you know if it's possible to upgrade the CPU's in them? for example, if i got a great deal on an 800Mhz p3, can i swap in a faster processor? ...say 1 or 1.x Ghz?

thanks again

spectragod · Post by **spectragod** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:46 pm

It may be possible, but there are several versions of mother boards, but..... if both units had the same mother board, it would be possible, but unless you really want to tear into one of these, I would just take a pass on that application.

Whatever you buy, try and make sure you get the original driver discs with the unit, just FYI.

SG