Thread: how powerful of a system do you need?

The M1000 board is one of the most common boards on here. It is not as fast as others out there, but for most of the people on the forum it does just fine because they are not running apps which are memory intensive. It all depends on what you want to do with your PC, but it will be sufficient for mp3s, dvds and navigation. Good luck!

I'd recommend an older SFF PIII Setup, they cost a fracrtion of the cost for a small space premium plus there a lot more future proof than th likes of the M10000, I got my Base System Stock (CASE - MB - 40GB HDD - CPU - 256RAM - DVD - USB1) for €100, nothing compared to the cost of even a M10000, and then you have to add your RAM, CASE, DVD & HDD ETC.

Do an ebay search for the IBM Netvista SFF, as you can see im my specs you get an excelliently specked machine for nothing, all you will need to do is add USB2.0 (If you want it) and a SSF Graphics Card, the onboard only uses a 1/2mb ram so is no good, but my card i got for 40dollars off ebay also, then you just need your opus, plus as it uses standard 3.5" and 5.25" drives then you save there again. Take that Epia

I run the Via Epia M10000 which is supposedly about a 1ghz chip but I think it's probably more like a 750. It works just fine with mp3, speech recognition, front ends, GPS turn by turn directions, etc. Others say it works fine for DVD but I don't run them.

Bottom line, you don't need a very powerful computer for standard car apps.

I run the Via Epia M10000 which is supposedly about a 1ghz chip but I think it's probably more like a 750. It works just fine with mp3, speech recognition, front ends, GPS turn by turn directions, etc. Others say it works fine for DVD but I don't run them.

Bottom line, you don't need a very powerful computer for standard car apps.

Maybe, but the Netvista's are a standard sized system, they are Small enough to fin in the boot of a Peugoet 106 which is tiny without taking any space, its W300mm x D300MM x H 72MM, the onboard powersupply is 95W so an Opus 120W wold handle it easily and leave enough to power your screen, the Netvista is a Flex ATx, so its a lot smaller than the standard Atx boards, plus the PIII 1GHz that comes as standard only draws 27Watts, so all in all its an excellient package, its a matter of personal choice, personally i dont mind the space hit for save several hundred Euros.

Another reason is future proofing, Frontends are getting more and more advanced and requiring more and more cpu power, the epia's i think are about 30% less powerful than an actual Intel/AMD Cpu, excluding my OPUS, thesystem in completion cost me 150euro, thats less than the cost of an Epia M10000 alone, never Mind the 12000 or 13000,

Just remember at the end of the days it your call but how much it costs you is your call and your choice, its not as if your going to be reaching under the seat to change DVD everyday so why not have it in the boot anyway.

Originally Posted by jnye6625

One other question... I have an athlon 1800+ w/ 512 mb ram, Asrock motherboard, 40 Gig HD, and DVD burner. If I went with a standard size motherboard I might as well use the system I have which will be more than powerful enough. My only problem would be power. If I used a DC-DC converter like the opus 150, would it be able to supply enough power for my sytem? How would I go about finding out how much power i need?

POWER CALCULATOR
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