Rugged Notebooks Guide

I’m traveling to Europe in a couple of months. I’m taking my DSLR, a couple of lenses, and my laptop.

My problem is I don’t have much space on my hard drive on my laptop, but I want to have it to Photoshop images when I have down time. I do shoot raw and lots of bracketed shots. I’ve been needing a storage backup system for some time any way.

I was looking at the Epson P7000, but too expensive for me. I was looking also at a Wolverine Pic Pac II, cheap, but not getting great reviews. I know that these are stand alone back up devices, but wasn’t sure of the cheaper models.

I’m leaning towards the LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 500 GB FireWire 800/ FireWire 400/USB 2.0 7200RPM Portable External Hard Drive since I’ll have my computer anyway. And no, I certainly don’t plan on using a 500gb drive, but for 0, why not get the space.

It also comes with a year of online storage which would give me peace of mind as well. Although not sure how slow that would be uploading from a hotel wireless. Not even sure how large of files they would take.

Just wondering how you might suggest to handle such a storage issue?

Thanks.

Can anyone recommend a good tablet pc for me?

I want it to be lightweight, portable, stylish, yet rugged.

I would like to use it for traditional computing as well as for music, pictures, maybe some light gaming, and most importantly AutoCAD and hopefully Photoshop or Illustrator.

Can you actually draw in AutoCAD with a tablet PC, or a comparable program such as Google Sketchup?

Any advice is welcome. I know a fair amount about computers, but am quite unfamiliar with tablet pc’s.

Thanks

I am planning a cross country (us) cycle/backpacking/camping trip for myself and my kids. I hope to set off in early June as soon as school is out. Two of them have autism (one of which is severely involved, the other high functioning) and the third will be two in april. So, i need something extremely lightweight, portable and able to run off nature as much as possible. this is not for a nightly basis but for extreme circumstances when the kids (and myself of course) will need some relief. this adventure will take us throughout the next year + through rugged and extreme conditions from time to time. We will also be cycling, myself and my 10yr-old son will be the only peddlers. My oldest is too severe (disabled) to assist and obviously the 2-yr-old can’t help much. so we have to minimize weight as much as possible but have enough supplies to keep us safe and healthy. I am contemplating a 600amp power pack to use for nightly computer logging, occasional heating, occasional cooling (undetermined unit so far), occasional movie watching (dvds on comp), and mp3 and track phone charging. This pack can be hooked to a solar pannel for charging during the days while we ride and the pack weighs about 30lbs (another small child), but it also includes am/fm radio, alarm clock, ac and dc outlets, some models even have air compressors. Obviously we will have the smabeginningpumps due to tire repairs and air matress needs but i thought for 30lbs this includes several items in one and can be charged with solar. it can also be charged with a cord when access to plug is available. The tent we’ve decided on is rather large (up to 8 peeps) for the 4 of us. We have quite the convoy of family chariot trikes and trailers assembled. I really want to have a cooling device for those exhausting days – which i’m sure we will have many of, especially in the beginning until our bodies adjust. No need to cool the entire tent but an area to create relief. Any advice on cooling and power units that meet these needs would be greatly appreciated.

Val

Does it? I am looking for a good birthday present (for myself), and I need a new hard drive. I only have 6gb left in my notebook’s built-in HDD, and I will suck that up fast. If the lacie does not, I would like to know of any other memoric options for me, like a hard drive that does get power from the notebook, is portable, and over 160gb. Or, an affordable HDD upgrade for the one I posses currently? (I own an HP DV6000 srise) If that would be the best senario, how much should I invest in an entire general computer upgrade? What should I upgrade?
I mean, like does it need a wall socket to function?
Okay. I’ve got it purfectly rephrased…Does the lacie rugged 250gb draw power from the host computer so it does not need a wall socket to function? Just the USB cord.

I am planning to buy a computer which I would be using it for some trade shows, so I am looking for a portable computer box which is easy to ship and carry, at the same time I don’t want to sacrifice performance as well.

I have been using this server specs all these years:
IBM x225 series server, 2 x intel xeon processors (2.4Ghz), 4GB RAM

Now I am planning to replace this server with a small form factor server, the one which I was keen at is the Shuttle XPC H7 5800 series with an i7 processor,6GB RAM.

Questions:

1) Does a small form factor give the same performance as the ibm x225 server specs what I had given above ?

2) Do these small form factor computers lasts long ? or the parts die quicker ?

3) Any pros & cons , please explain ?

4) Recommend any other small form factor boxes(rugged,durable,performance oriented) computer/servers ?

Thanks
John

I am looking for a rugged portable computer that can handle a full length PCI slot or ISA slot. Please let me know a website that is available for this type of product.