Will this hardware setup work?

**Leegeoff** · 08-06-2008, 02:55 PM

I am planning my first car pc and have planned out all the hardware for the pc itself. Before i go buy it i want to make sure it is what i'll need. Here is my list of parts:

LCD - Lilliput 8" Touch Display
Motherboard - Mini ATX
CPU - An old Intel Pentium 4
Power Converter - Opus 150W DC-DC
Video Card - ATI Raedon 9550
Sound Card* - Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE
RAM - Corsair DDR2 Dual Channel (2 x 1024MB) 800MHz
Optical Drive - DVD/CD ROM Drive
Cooling - 2 fans
Hard Disk - an old laptop hard drive in an external disk case

*Will need this to run audio through the car audio?

Will these parts work together? Also, am i missing any parts i'll need?

**defecat0r** · 08-09-2008, 09:36 PM

well to start with, is it Mini ITX, or Micro ATX, coz as far as i know there is no Mini ATX? I could be and probably am wrong tho

Do u really need the video card? most of these smaller boards have onboard video, it might be a good idea to stick with that to save on some space?

If you're going for an older P4, you might find you need DDR1, not DDR2.
Also, not sure about others opinions on this, but you might find it better to go with LESS ram. If you are intending on using hibernation, the system has to read/write that full 2gb of ram to/from the hard drive during startup and shutdown. I'm at the same stage you are, picking bits for my setup, and i'm going for 512mb and no more for that very reason.

I'm also going for a 3.5" to 2.5" HDD Converter - http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.727 . If you have your laptop harddrive in an external case (USB?): 1/ you'll have to make sure u'r motherboard supports booting from a usb drive. 2/ It might be a tad faster to use the adapter and go from IDE and not usb.

One more thing, if you do ditch the graphics card, a PCI Riser might keep everything at a lower profile with the sound card. They're basically just a pci slot that plugs into a pci slot at 90 degrees. Type "pci riser" into ebay to see what i mean, they're pretty cheap. Also look for a "reverse pci riser" see which direction would suit your setup best.

Good luck with it anyway, hope it all comes together

**rEegLer** · 08-11-2008, 10:52 AM

-The display is good, depending on what your doing with the screen, you may want to go to a 7" as these typically fit in the 2 DIN spots better. But if your just mounting it somewhere on your dash then 8" is fine.

-Yea Def is right, its mini-ITX not ATX. Most mini-ITX boards come with soldered-on CPU's but some of the more high-end mobos come with sockets but i dont think so with P4's (which are mostly socket 478).

-PSU looks good if you get a miniITX. I dont think 150w would be enough for an older p4.

-Like def said, you probably wont need a video card if you get miniITX.

-You don't really NEED a sound card unless you're really picky about your sound quality. I'm using onboard sound and it works fine.

-RAM depends much on the mobo. My new intel board is ddr 667 which is cheaper than 800 so make sure you dont over do it by buying too good of RAM.

-If you going to get an optical, make sure its a laptop drive and not a 5.25" drive out of a desktop. The reason being that laptop drives secure the disk while its running while desktop drives dont, plus they suck power and are bigger. You just need to buy a converter, they're everywhere on eBay.

-Like def said, get an adapter for the hdd.

*You're going to need some form of amplification. Whether it's through the head unit or an AMP it has to be done. Make sure you car audio can except an auxiliary input.

** You're going to need an Operating System. Most people pick XP but there is another whole post on that in this forum. You will also need a Front End if you want to be fancy. There are free ones like Road Runner. Check out the software sub-forum.

**Leegeoff** · 08-11-2008, 06:15 PM

Okay. Thanks for the help in your replies. I have taken your advice and this is my new list:

LCD - 8" Lilliput (sticking with 8" because im making a custom dash)
Motherboard - Mini-ATX
CPU - None (gonna use built-in)
PSU - Opus 150W
Video Card - ATI Raedon 9550 (PCI Riser for profile)
Sound Card - None (gonna use built-in)
RAM - DDR2 (1 x 512Mb) 667MHz
Optical - Laptop DVD/CD Drive
Hard Disk - Laptop Drive 100Gb (with a HDD Converter)

Is this list complete and compatable?

**Leegeoff** · 08-11-2008, 06:17 PM

Oh yeah... I forgot a few things:

OS - Windows (XP or Vista)
Front End - Roadrunner (because of the customizabity factor)

**rEegLer** · 08-11-2008, 09:13 PM

You could also get a 2.5" SATA hard drive and not have to worry about the converter. Plus theyre faster.

**Leegeoff** · 08-11-2008, 10:47 PM

Okay. Thanks for all your help.

**RyanB95** · 08-11-2008, 10:55 PM

I would say Vista is a no-go for a CarPC. I'm sure it's been done, but there's really no need for it. You're running a frontend anyway and will rarely ever use the OS interface at all. Vista use a lot more resources than XP being that it is much more graphical.