The current trend appears to be to install Raymarine TP60 instruments, senders, TP6002 auto pilots and either the C series or the E series combination chartplotter displays.
With the C series you can have one display in the boat and one thus has to decide whether to place it at the helm or at the Nav station - I can just picture all those people crashing into something whilst cossetted down below staring at a small screen, so if it is one screen you know where my money is.
But the E series offers the ability to have multiple networked displays, one at the helm and one at the Nav (one in the head too if you prefer). The E80 has a 640 x 480 resolution 8.4" screen, the E120 has 800 x 600 12.1" screen. Both of them are pretty slick with the ability to overlay radar onto the chartplotter so you can see which of the radar returns are supposed to be there (landmassses, ATONs etc) and more importantly which are not (other vessels etc).

Anyway, they aren't cheap. The best price I can get on a E120 if I were buying one is $3,500 (wow). I can buy a really nice laptop with WXGA resolution for that kind of money and then I began to think - if that's the case why can't one buy a laptop, maybe a 14" LCD monitor and maybe a small keyboard, mouse/trackball and install them below (mounting the laptop out of the way and the monitor in the Nav) and use these as an integrated part of the system (with added benefits) for way less money ?
Anyone any counsel on this or an opinion on why not ?