What do I need in a laptop to tune, spec wise. Ive done alot of reading and somewhere along the line I have not seen this, or maybe forgot thanks

 

You don't need much. My 200MHz Toshiba is still going strong.

 

a few years back, I ran diacom on (get this) a 386sx/20. yes, 20mhz.

It was a little slow but it ran and worked.

I think that as long as you use a 486 or better, you'll have NO problems. 486 and first generation pentiums (60-233mhz) are all basically throwaway machines to 99.99% of society now, but will work just fine for data logging, which is what I assume you want to use it for?

if you want everything on one machine, and want to use windows burning software and other GUI tools, aim a little higher. but for running moates or diacom logging, 486 or better is fine.

 

Like they've said, you don't need that much computer for most automotive use. I actually prefer old junker laptops, since they tend to get beaten around somewhat when tuning. (I knocked a laptop off my workbench once, but since I'd only paid like $75 for it, I didn't lose too much sleep.)

My advice would be to find the oldest, cheapest used laptop you can find that is new enough to have at least one USB port, as well as good old fashioned serial & parallel ports. USB gives you more options for using some of the newer gadgets, and you can use a flash memory stick to move datalogs & bin files around between computers, which is nice if you prefer to use a newer & faster machine for analyzing results.

 

I just picked up a Toshiba 430 CDT for $50.10 shipped to me. It was advertised as 166mhz, but its only 120mhz. So far, its running tunerproRT just fine although I am not emulating, just datalogging the ALDL. WinALDL works just fine too. I only have the software that I need on it- and nothing else. It seems to work just fine for me. The biggest thing to me was having a serial port- which my other laptop didnt have.

My *junker* Toshiba works just fine for $50. My only wishes were that it had a floppy drive (it only has the CDrom drive) so I could swap files from one computer to the other easier. USB would be great, but its OK without. It also has no modem, further complicating loading files onto it.

I would buy one around 200mhz if I did it again. Not for the processor speed, but for the USB and other more standard features that come from that era in computing.

 

Yeah, the best deal is if you can find one that is new enough to come with USB, but still old enough to have serial/parallel ports.. My PII/450mhz compaq armada is working great and only cost me $150..

 

The simplest answer to this is to get the best laptop you can afford.

I wouldn't recommend getting anything less than 200mhz. The software is getting more powerful, technical, and robust. Gone will be the days where you can get away with a 100mhz P5.

 

Also get the smallest one you can afford. I've been eyeing some of the Japanese stuff. So I can have a laptop at all times and get a man-purse for it.

It would be nice if TunerPro RT worked on a Palm.

 

Not likely to happen. WinCE/PPC maybe.