Well, I work with a guy who is a locksmith on the side & he is interested in permanently mounting a laptop in his van for business use.

Questions: Any brand recommendations? Used / Refurbed?

Any thermal considerations? He intends on leaving this thing in the van year-round - unwise?

Your opinions are greatly appreciated.

 

Every one will have a diff. opinon about this. My preferance is Dell, Dell has a site for refurbished laptops. Me I think I would find a local place where you can go in and talk with someone, possibly the owner/tech. When it comes to leaving it in the Van all year, the summers will be the ruffest because of the heat factor. As it was with XP there are still a lot of things to be worked out with Vista. The Tech I spoke with stated he wouldn't recommend Vista in an older Puter. It takes a lot of Memory and a large harddrive to run it. I like my XP Pro and will stick with it. With out an alarm system I wouldn't leave it in the van at night anyway. That $25 some a** would get from a pawn shop will pay for his next drink.

 

ive got an Hp pavillion dv 5000 thats mounted in my semi,it been threw alot of ruff miles and still no problems or the last 2 years

 

Panasonic Toughbook, but they're expensive.

 

I have Compaq nw8240 which is $3,000+ laptop (had to get it from school). I had it for over 2 years and I had to replace wireless card and something for my screen (entire screen went black). Everything was covered under warranty.

 

this would be my choice