~Toughbooktalk~

Hey everyone! Been a while since my last post, been busy at school impressing classmates and instructors alike with my techie skills!

Anyways, I just got my hands on a bouncing baby CF-18. Got it from University of Iowa Surplus, they have quite a few of these up for sale for $30 ! It's in perfect shape, no scratches or dings, must have been used in medical classes. Only thing it was missing was Windows, so I loaded that up. I'd like to use it for my storm chasing hobby this summer, so I'm looking into WWAN and GPS. From what I've seen on the forums here, it sounds like the GPS is one of those sore subjects so what's the best GPS to use and what issues should I be expecting? On the WWAN side, a quick physical exam revealed it has the antennas for it, but then again aren't all CF-18 and CF-19's WWAN ready?

Overall I'm very pleased with this little thing, looks and feels good, and it only has 1940 hours on the clock for how old it is

I just got 2 of them and they have GPS,I'm going to restore one and probably strip the keyboard off the other one.They are CF-18NJQZDBM models with less then 2500 hours.

$30.00 That was a good buy. What is the full model number of it.

The full model number is CF-18KDHZXVM

CF-18 with 32gb SSD and 1.5gb of ram with GPS,just finished it. The other one works including touchscreen but iit's starting to get a little dim. Going to sell that one for parts.

natescott90 wrote:The full model number is CF-18KDHZXVM

Model Number : CF-18KDHZXVM
Status : DISCONTINUED
MSRP : $4,111

Description: Intel Pentium M 753 1.2GHzULV (Centrino), 10.4" XGA with Digitizer, 60GB, 512MB, Intel 802.11a+b+g, WIN XP Tablet 2005, Dual pass through, No Drive

So you have a digitizer screen. I like them much better . Never have a problem with the screen. You did get a digitizer pen with it?

Yeah it has the pen with it too, I like the digitizer a lot better than the old resistive touchscreens, no need to calibrate.

safn1949 wrote:CF-18 with 32gb SSD and 1.5gb of ram with GPS,just finished it. The other one works including touchscreen but iit's starting to get a little dim. Going to sell that one for parts.

Did you use a PATA SSD or use a SATA converter? I've got a SATA SSD I can put in but I'm not sure that the SSD and the converter would fit in the caddy.....

natescott90 wrote:

safn1949 wrote:CF-18 with 32gb SSD and 1.5gb of ram with GPS,just finished it. The other one works including touchscreen but iit's starting to get a little dim. Going to sell that one for parts.

Did you use a PATA SSD or use a SATA converter? I've got a SATA SSD I can put in but I'm not sure that the SSD and the converter would fit in the caddy.....

It has a 32gb msata on a 2.5" sata to ide adapter that is the exact size of a 2.5" drive,it works quite nice in the 18. To use the sata SSD you need the converter shown over at NBR,I just happened to have these rolling around so I figured why not?

safn1949 wrote:

natescott90 wrote:

safn1949 wrote:CF-18 with 32gb SSD and 1.5gb of ram with GPS,just finished it. The other one works including touchscreen but iit's starting to get a little dim. Going to sell that one for parts.

Did you use a PATA SSD or use a SATA converter? I've got a SATA SSD I can put in but I'm not sure that the SSD and the converter would fit in the caddy.....

It has a 32gb msata on a 2.5" sata to ide adapter that is the exact size of a 2.5" drive,it works quite nice in the 18. To use the sata SSD you need the converter shown over at NBR,I just happened to have these rolling around so I figured why not?

So if I maxed out the RAM and went the mSATA route, just how much of a speed demon are we talking here?