Chromebook, Old Wiped Computer with no operating system, or other compatible with LV

Technical NI LabVIEW
1

My team is looking for a different computer to work with. The problem with our current one is that it was less than a meg of storage and WIFI doesn’t work period. Our options look something like a Dell or Acer Chromebook, a Completly wiped older Labtop, or a alternative computer which our sponser would provide.

Our school gives Chromebooks to all the students in our school. My one concern is with the Chromebooks are we going to run into compatibilty issues with LabView and be unable to download some required software. Another issue would be that, to my knowledge, they don’t store anything on the actual computer other than the rudiments. Everything is stored on a cloud so I’m not sure how this would affect LabView

Our problem with the Wiped Computer is

  1. We don’t know what operating system to put on it
  2. We don’t know how to put that operating system on it
  3. Would that operating system be compatible with LabView
  4. Is the Computer fast enough? (2.2 GigaHertz Max) (4 megs of storage)
  5. Is that battery life resilant enough to last long enough for the competiton?

Alternatively to the other options, if we could justify the need for a new computer to our sponser, they would get us one. Assuming that the above options aren’t realistic, what type of computer would you reccomend. Keep in mind that this computer would be only used for the sole use of LabView so we wouldn’t need to get some fancy AlienWare labtop, just something fast enough that when we try to code, we wouldn’t be waiting 15 minutes for it to load.

Comments and thoughts are appreciated. I am certainly not the most knowledgable in computer hardware so excuse me if I contradicted myself and just sounded stupid on the technical aspect of things. Thanks for any help.

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I don’t think there’s any support at all for LabView on chromebooks. It’s a fairly light OS for light tasks by Google and isn’t really designed for anything heavy like LabView. I do know, however, that you can install Linux on chromebooks but this is somewhat tricky. From Linux you would need to run a virtual machine that would run Windows. The method I just suggested is kind of complex and convoluted and has many failure points… Not to mention the incredible amount of built in storage you need to host Windows and the entire FRC LabView development environment… You would need at least 64 GB of local storage but to my knowledge most only come with 8 or 16 GB.

We use Lenovos and they are very realiable. A few things to keep in mind though. Having Windows 7 is the least annoying to use so you may want to look for one that specifically comes with it like in Amazon or something. A core i3 processor will do you fine but don’t compromise with something like Core 2 Duo or something lesser. We prefer having an SSD on them since they’re very speedy and help us during the heat of Competition but they can be pricey so based on what your guys’ needs are look into that.

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a completely wiped computer that needs an OS is a decent option, assuming the computer is in good condition, and that you can get an OS for it. Maybe use the driver station software to do that? or buy Windows 7 from a vendor? it’s kind of expensive.

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