Thread: Travla C137 & OPUS & ITX P4

OK, just built a new PC cos the ASUS pundit has stopped working and I was fed up of not being able to use my OPUS. The general idea was to get as much as possible in the C137 case including the OPUS. In fact the only thing I kept external was the media drive which I've put in a USB 2 caddy for easy removal and loading.

I like a bit of grunt in my PC, so I used a mini-ITX P4 motherboard with a celeron 2.4 ghz and 512mb RAM. Using the low profile 40GB disk for booting and apps, I can get 2 PCI cards inside and the OPUS.

Here are some pics...

The OPUS nestling where the old 120W psu used to live, its not fitted in properly or wired up yet, but you can see there is plenty of room.





I had to find a low profile 1U P4 cooler as nothing else would allow the CDROM drive to fit. A cooler wasn't supplied with the case of the motherboard, strange is it's quite specialist kit.





The low profile drive allows the installation of 2 PCI cards, if you use a 1" drive then you lose a slot. I fitted a TV card for use with radiator for radio and TV input for rear view camera in the future, tested that and it works fine.



Here you can see the two PCI cards installed. The dual PCI riser supplied is a very tight fit and tends to bend forwards pushing the 2 PCI cards out of position. A better riser was purchased, but it came with only one extender, so rendering it useless. I will chase up why I only got 1 for a dual card and swap back to it at a later date





Now I needed +5V and +12V for the external USB drive, +5V for the USB hub and +12V for the serial GPS receiver. So I'm using the original power socket for the +5v to the hub, I've fitted a 4 pin connector to the motherboard plate to give me the +12V and +5V for the external USB2 drive and there is a very tiny power outlet next to the upper USB2 sockets for the +12V. You can also see where the OPUS power will be connected. These were fire wire ports that I don't need. No extra USB sockets were supplied, the board supports 6, 2 on the back and 4 on board. I found a USB2/firewire adaptor at the local fair for £3 and chopped it in half to give me the USB 2 ports I needed.





I'm just about done, currently its being powered by an external ATX PSU. I will test it all in the car very soon.

Craig