Running full Bitcoin node in real battlefield conditions?

[MysteryMiner]

In few weeks I'm going to be deployed in combat zone. I want to take some form of portable computer with me. I currently have old HP Pavilion dv8000 17-inch notebook. I am not sure that dv8000 will survive in my backpack longer than me. I will leave it in barracks or APC before going on patrol or assault but I really have no idea how the situation will develop.

I am looking at Panasonic Toughbook CF-29. Are Pentium-M 1.6GHz with 1GB RAM capable running Bitcoin with some other things (Tor Browser, Firefox, Youtube) on that CPU? My pentium4 desktop runs full Bitcoin node but the blockchain synch and startup takes really long time like 15 minutes to launch the Bitcoin Core client.

How about taking Asus EEE PC 701 or similar? I know the SSD drive with reasonable capacity is expensive and how the Celeron or Atom is with newest Flash media and Firefox? I remember my partner used EEE PC 701 with Windows XP for networking and configuring when we installed network infrastructure for small ISP. It was pretty responsive for such small notebook.

[blacksails]

In few weeks I'm going to be deployed in combat zone. I want to take some form of portable computer with me. I currently have old HP Pavilion dv8000 17-inch notebook. I am not sure that dv8000 will survive in my backpack longer than me. I will leave it in barracks or APC before going on patrol or assault but I really have no idea how the situation will develop.

I am looking at Panasonic Toughbook CF-29. Are Pentium-M 1.6GHz with 1GB RAM capable running Bitcoin with some other things (Tor Browser, Firefox, Youtube) on that CPU? My pentium4 desktop runs full Bitcoin node but the blockchain synch and startup takes really long time like 15 minutes to launch the Bitcoin Core client.

How about taking Asus EEE PC 701 or similar? I know the SSD drive with reasonable capacity is expensive and how the Celeron or Atom is with newest Flash media and Firefox? I remember my partner used EEE PC 701 with Windows XP for networking and configuring when we installed network infrastructure for small ISP. It was pretty responsive for such small notebook.

I don't know about the other stuff you posted, but my tip to you is to install Lubuntu on the computer with Pentium-M 1.6GHz. Runs like a charm. Then it should be able to handle at least some lightweight client like MultiBit. Firefox and youtube works fine as well, and TOR shouldn't be a problem either.
I know for sure that Firefox and youtube works just fine even on only 512 MB ram. On Lubuntu that shouldn't be any problems.

My guess is that Asus EEE PC 701 should probably work with Lubuntu as well. I couldn't find the specs online (they all told me different).
Here's a link that could give you an idea if it would work: http://askubuntu.com/questions/162626/what-are-the-minimum-system-requirements-for-lubuntu
That being said, I don't know about youtube and stuff on it.

[MysteryMiner]

Windows XP is fine with me and works great on the hardware I mentioned. If I ever go *nix way on them then it will be Debian or OpenBSD.

Firefox and Tor Browser work good on Windows XP with 512 RAM. Biggest issue is Flash in Youtube and webpages. And I always run with AdBlock Edge add-on.

The concern is longevity and portability of the notebook. If somebody here want to swap my HP Pavilion dv8000 (AMD Turion-64 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM, Radeon Xpress graphics chip, dual hard drives 100GB each) for Panasonic CF-29 in working condition I will do it.

[blacksails]

Windows XP is fine with me and works great on the hardware I mentioned. If I ever go *nix way on them then it will be Debian or OpenBSD.

Firefox and Tor Browser work good on Windows XP with 512 RAM. Biggest issue is Flash in Youtube and webpages. And I always run with AdBlock Edge add-on.

The concern is longevity and portability of the notebook. If somebody here want to swap my HP Pavilion dv8000 (AMD Turion-64 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM, Radeon Xpress graphics chip, dual hard drives 100GB each) for Panasonic CF-29 in working condition I will do it.

Okay, but you know that XP is not supported anymore, right? Could make you vulnerable to a lot of cyber-attacks, which wouldn't be good if you're entering passwords and running bitcoin clients and stuff.
Lubuntu is Debian based btw.

[MysteryMiner]

Windows XP is fine with me and works great on the hardware I mentioned. If I ever go *nix way on them then it will be Debian or OpenBSD.

Firefox and Tor Browser work good on Windows XP with 512 RAM. Biggest issue is Flash in Youtube and webpages. And I always run with AdBlock Edge add-on.

The concern is longevity and portability of the notebook. If somebody here want to swap my HP Pavilion dv8000 (AMD Turion-64 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM, Radeon Xpress graphics chip, dual hard drives 100GB each) for Panasonic CF-29 in working condition I will do it.

Okay, but you know that XP is not supported anymore, right? Could make you vulnerable to a lot of cyber-attacks, which wouldn't be good if you're entering passwords and running bitcoin clients and stuff.
Lubuntu is Debian based btw.

It does not matter at all. It is marketing trick to force people buy both new OS (Windows 8.1 which have poor sales for obvious reasons) and new hardware capable running the "supported" OS. It is called planned obsolescence.

For me it is irrelevant that I don't receive some patch for unused component or some other thing. Critical patches will be released for WinXP just as there were patches for critical vulnerabilities for Windows 2000 after it's support ended. And 99,8% of people get their computer pwned by their own actions (grab your dick and double click downloaded picture.jpg.exe) rather than by exploiting 0-day in Windows.

I probably will go with the dv8000. When in rest I will watch nationalistic and patriotic video clips with my comrades on it's 17,3 inch widescreen. And educate them about nature of russian imperialism and how to better fight against it by aiming properly.