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**Mcnovy** · 04-05-2005, 03:15 PM

Hi..

well, i got my pieces for at CarPC..
My Configuration is:

Via Epia MII 12000
512 Mb Ram
PCmcia asus wi-fi
Usb Bluetooth

Well, my Question is:

i've been thinking of have a double screen, i got one xenarc toucscreen, im about to mount in the double din.
and thinkin of buying a Roof screen, (not sure if touchscreen or not)
is it possible of using 2 screens with the epia's onboard GFX (one vga, and one s-vhs (the rca is used for SP/Dif)
would it help the perfomance of the epia also, when using Map Monkey..? (its a bit laggy when scrooling the screen..!)
and help the perfomance when both using navi, and watching a Music Video ( DivX . etc) etc. if i bought a PCI GFX (will it "help" the CPU from the rather slow epia...? ) (and how is the power consumption from a GFX Card)

also, i've been thinkin of a usb sound card, many users say that it a much better sound Quality, can someone confirm , or disconfirm this..?
and again, will it help the CPU from the Epia (so the CPU can concentrate on running the machine fast, and smooth (centrafuse anyone..?

)
and wich USB Sound card do you recommend..?

other tips on optimizing the epia board, boot times, working in windows, and applications, and other suggestions are Welcome..!

hope i've made myself Clear..
Thanks

**Bugbyte** · 04-05-2005, 05:42 PM

I have an Epia M10000 and can run music, GPS and voice recognition without problems, so your M12000 shouldn't have any trouble with it.

You can run two screens if one is VGA and the other is S-VGA. There may be an issue about which one would display video if you play that. If you don't mind both screen displaying the same image, you could get a VGA splitter and put a VGA screen in your roof.

There's a recent thread about this here: Help with Epia M10K RCA Video

**Mcnovy** · 04-06-2005, 11:22 AM

thx for the answer, but does anyone know if the sound quality is better with a usb thingy

**XxAndyxX** · 04-06-2005, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Mcnovy

thx for the answer, but does anyone know if the sound quality is better with a usb thingy

I use the SoundBlaster MP3+ USB sound "thingy", and it cuts down on ground noise quite a bit. Generally, an external soundcard is good to have.

**trimpy** · 04-06-2005, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by Bugbyte

You can run two screens if one is VGA and the other is S-VGA. There may be an issue about which one would display video if you play that. If you don't mind both screen displaying the same image, you could get a VGA splitter and put a VGA screen in your roof.

If you use the HD15 VGA connector using the Svideo/RCA vid out on the motherboard will be utilized by extending your desktop to it in the display properties. You can only display video on the primary monitor (selectable with a checkbox) and on the secondary screen you will just see the black overlay box for the vid. Everything else that doesn't use a video overlay will work fine on either screen.

**Amoebacowboy** · 04-06-2005, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by XxAndyxX

I use the SoundBlaster MP3+ USB sound "thingy", and it cuts down on ground noise quite a bit. Generally, an external soundcard is good to have.

cuts down on ground noise and RF interference from the mobo. on-board sound chips are notoriously crappy for quality sound. PCI/IDE cards are only slightly better. Luckily, I'm halfway deaf anyways so i could give a rat's *** but if you have a nice sound system in your car you'll notice. External (USB or breakout box) sound cards, if of good quality with a dedicated DSP etc., are much nicer.