Suitable hardware

**Abmolech** · 11-14-2006, 02:54 AM

Hi,

Taken the plunge and have ordered RME HDSP 9652 sound card and two AEB8-0 extension cards

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/hdsp/hdsp9652.htm

The system only requires one PCI slot and enough redundant space to stack two "sound cards" on top.

This system should give me 16 analogue outputs. I wish to do a surround system with each driver on its own channel.

I have suitable drivers and amplifiers for this task.

Fronts are an MTM array wit two 3" and one tweeter in the kicks and an ambient tweeter in the pillars. Mid bass duties are 8" woofers in the doors.

Centre channel is an array of six 3'' and two tweeters

Rears are stereo 3" and 8"

Subs are four 8" and two 12 NLC's.

The amplifiers are six DLS A3 with three A2 for the tweeters.

The program for the crossovers is from here.

http://www.thuneau.com/allocator.htm

I can run multiple programs as long as the cards are synchronised, and running on a single instance of AS-IO.

What I require is a suitable windows based PC, case and power supply.

I will be building from scratch.

Please recommend,
Case,
Power supply,
Motherboard,
CPU and ram.

Thanks in advance
abmolech.

**DarquePervert** · 11-14-2006, 06:43 AM

I recommend doing some research, starting here: New to CarPCs? Don't know where to start?

**JC-S60** · 11-14-2006, 06:58 AM

Originally Posted by Abmolech

Hi,

Taken the plunge and have ordered RME HDSP 9652 sound card and two AEB8-0 extension cards

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/hdsp/hdsp9652.htm

The system only requires one PCI slot and enough redundant space to stack two "sound cards" on top.

This system should give me 16 analogue outputs. I wish to do a surround system with each driver on its own channel.

I have suitable drivers and amplifiers for this task.

Fronts are an MTM array wit two 3" and one tweeter in the kicks and an ambient tweeter in the pillars. Mid bass duties are 8" woofers in the doors.

Centre channel is an array of six 3'' and two tweeters

Rears are stereo 3" and 8"

Subs are four 8" and two 12 NLC's.

The amplifiers are six DLS A3 with three A2 for the tweeters.

The program for the crossovers is from here.

http://www.thuneau.com/allocator.htm

I can run multiple programs as long as the cards are synchronised, and running on a single instance of AS-IO.

What I require is a suitable windows based PC, case and power supply.

I will be building from scratch.

Please recommend,
Case,
Power supply,
Motherboard,
CPU and ram.

Thanks in advance
abmolech.

There will be *A LOT* of real-time processing going on while playing music, so I would recommend you check out the specs needed for hard and software first.

I guess you'll need a fast processor and a beefy power supply to go with that.

Good luck!

**durwood** · 11-14-2006, 08:50 AM

Wow. Good luck. Join us over here...

Software options for Tuning

and here...

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...threadid=63078

After reading those threads you will see you will need some pretty heavy computing power.

**Abmolech** · 11-14-2006, 09:15 PM

After reading those threads you will see you will need some pretty heavy computing power.

Agreed.
Any particular favourites?

Leaning towards Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, 2.67GHz, LGA775.

And a laptop type harddrive.

**durwood** · 11-14-2006, 09:21 PM

I prefer AMD. I switched to P4 a while back because of the HT but my AMD 1500XP could take on this 2.6 P4 anyday. Just remember to account for heat and power consumption is all I can recommend. I think most of the demanding audio processing programs require somthing over a 1.5Ghz.

**Abmolech** · 11-14-2006, 09:34 PM

Supposedly these chips run at 2.2 volts, and require less wattage than their competitors.

For heat, any advantage in using water cooling?

Power I have a 250 amp alternator and a digital regulator and dual car batteries.

http://www.sterling-power.com/htm/ab1290.htm

If you mean power supply, The only ones I have seen are the opus 250 watts.

I will only be running an on board video card with the lowest I can find. This box is only a pro logic II decoder with crossover/ equaliser/DRC and weighted volume control unit.

**durwood** · 11-15-2006, 10:22 AM

Supposedly these chips run at 2.2 volts, and require less wattage than their competitors.

Excellent. That will probably help. I have seen AMD coming out with reduced wattage processors as well. Just make sure the operating temperature of the processor is can withstand the temperature extremes that happen in a car.

As far as water cooling, I personally wouldn't want water anywere near my electronics. There are some threads on this forum discussing different cooling options. You can run into problems if you keep it too cool on a hot day. When the car warms back up, you could run the risk of condensation.

**Abmolech** · 11-15-2006, 10:49 AM

Thanks I will check that.

I am looking at the mobile range of CPU as well, apart from twice the price, is power consumption critical to success as a car pc?

**Jahntassa** · 11-15-2006, 12:28 PM

I would not try water cooling in a car environment. Way too many shakes and jiggles to mess with things. I have water cooling on my desktop and I get paranoid that something is going to come loose whenever I move the machine, which, isn't that often.