September 16, 2006 11:29
I've been carrying mac laptops with me since 1995, and in all that time I've never been concerned with simple condensation. There have been times when I was aware of condensation throughout the boat, and I was concerned about everything, not just the laptop, molding and rotting. Fishing boats are electronics-heavy, yet I've never traced a failure to internal condensation due to humidity, with one very notable exception. I've only seen two ipods at sea. Both were affected by humidity. Both dried out and resumed working after a couple of days too.
When fishing boats began installing wheelhouse computers in droves about 10-12 years ago we did purchase and install a MarinePC, which had a supposedly marine hardened case and some special gadget that was claimed to vaporize over time and deposit some protective coating on the motherboard. It was also placed inside a cabinet with other warm electrical equipment, so condensation wasn't going to be a problem. It failed anyway, but it was the hard drive that died. I would strongly recommend that you never use a Western Digital hard drive. I've seen several of them fail, yet I've never seen any hard drive of any other brand fail. I haven't seen a MarinePC since we got rid of our old one. The people I know who run MaxSea and its processor intensive terrain builder put their money into computing power, not humidity control.
I doubt that you would ever need to worry about moisture while the computer is running, or at least being used regularly. I've spent all of my time in an extraordinarily wet and stormy environment, so I have taken all sorts of elaborate precautions when carrying the laptop, but when it is back on the boat all is fine. It will work until wave action destroys the hard drive.
When fishing boats began installing wheelhouse computers in droves about 10-12 years ago we did purchase and install a MarinePC, which had a supposedly marine hardened case and some special gadget that was claimed to vaporize over time and deposit some protective coating on the motherboard. It was also placed inside a cabinet with other warm electrical equipment, so condensation wasn't going to be a problem. It failed anyway, but it was the hard drive that died. I would strongly recommend that you never use a Western Digital hard drive. I've seen several of them fail, yet I've never seen any hard drive of any other brand fail. I haven't seen a MarinePC since we got rid of our old one. The people I know who run MaxSea and its processor intensive terrain builder put their money into computing power, not humidity control.
I doubt that you would ever need to worry about moisture while the computer is running, or at least being used regularly. I've spent all of my time in an extraordinarily wet and stormy environment, so I have taken all sorts of elaborate precautions when carrying the laptop, but when it is back on the boat all is fine. It will work until wave action destroys the hard drive.