Welcome to the board. Hope you enjoy diving.
By now you may realize that further discussion on this thread is largely pointless.
There are two schools of thought. They tend to disagree at a rather fundamental level. Neither is likely to convince the other of any stronger argument. Feel free to select either one and defend it vigorously.
Just remember two things.
Don't confuse "want" with "need". You don't need a computer. Whatever you're spending for two of them, you're spending because you 'want' them, not because you 'need' them. You need a regulator to dive, but not a computer.
Computers will likely give you longer bottom times on each individual dive. On diving vacations, however, you often dive multiple times per day. Computers will calculate this total residual nitrogen exposure also, but - as someone else mentioned earlier - they do so with a precision (based on a model) that allows you to press right up against the NDL limits. Tables, with their square profiles, offer a built in conservatism. You can press either one, to be sure. But on any given day of, say, 4 dives, tables v. computers, you'll likely find a longer total exposure time with computers (because they allow for longer individual dives).
Just be careful...when you dive multiple dives per day for three or four days in a row, you can suffer a DCS hit while technically staying within NDL limits (using either). But, again, the tables offer some built-in conservatism that the computer, more precise in its calcs, does not.
IMHO. YMMV. Have fun on your vacation.
Doc
