My first design and build - need advice from you guys.

**Griffin_Dodd** · 01-31-2002, 10:34 AM

Hello All,

So great to find a whole board of people who know about this subject as I am learning that there is a lot involved in the building of an in-car PC than system design alone.

I am building 2 systems of the same specs for my friends Audi TT and my Honda s2000.

The ultimate goal is to build an entire system into a standard DIN sized stereo box. The main problem I'm having is understanding the choice of LCD display for this system which is designed for a full multimedia use - DVD, MP3, Web and Gaming. I want to use a screen between 5 and 6 inches with outside physical dimensions of no more than 7" wide in the hope of being able to slot it into the front of the stereo box.

Here is my proposed set up, I would be extremely grateful for any real expert advice on screens suitable for what I want to acheive. I'd like to pay no more than $200 for a complete LCD solution - is that even possible??????

Thanks for any help you guys can give.

System specs -

Asus CUSI-FX flexATX motherboard with built in 4 channel audio and 3d graphics, USB and LCD panel socket on-board.

Pentium 3 fcpga 1ghz at 133fsb

512meg 133 Sdram

20gig 9.7mm IBM travelstar hard drive (will I need a converter to use this with a desktop board)

Toshiba 2.4x/20x 12mm DVD rom, CDR compatible

Arise DC/DC power converter with noise filter

That's it so far - Joe

**smashr2k** · 01-31-2002, 12:57 PM

Yes, you can get LCDs for less than $200. Will you like them? Maybe not. If you are driving a S2000 or Audi TT, you can probably afford a VGA screen - that would be the way to go. Second, is that mobo really small enough to fit inside a single DIN opening? Thirdly, yes you need a $5-$10 adapter kit to use the laptop harddrive with regular IDE.

**Meatballman** · 01-31-2002, 03:37 PM

Also...most of the Arise DC/DC supplies are AT style. Unless you wait until March when they supposedly will have some ATX supplies.

**crazyshaxs** · 02-01-2002, 04:04 AM

A pentium 3 1 gighz is way over kill and so is the ram. Why dont you get a slowr processor and less ram (256?) and spend more on the lcd!

**zupanm** · 02-01-2002, 08:07 AM

I'd stick around a p2 and around 256meg RAM max. Spend more money on the LCD since you want to do DVD's on it. You'll want a lcd that can handle 16bit color. Spend a bit more on a good video, sound card and lcd and less on the motherbord, cpu and ram.

**Griffin_Dodd** · 02-01-2002, 09:19 AM

Hey thanks guys, I came to the same conclusion myself yesterday, going down to 256meg of ram and probably a P3 733 ultra low voltage unit. I still need to keep performance pretty high as I want this unit to play games too. I'm thinking of moving the mobo over to an nforce powered chipset as it comes with a gerforce 2mx and dolby 5.1 integrated all for about $140.

I'm learning - also my friend who has the TT knows a guy who works for a company the manufactures LCD's for OEM use. He's confident he can get us a few 9" TFT's Hi Res panels for $40-$50 a piece - jeeese I hope so, that would be sweet.

Joel

**CALIBOY** · 02-01-2002, 09:35 AM

If you could get some specs (resolution, nits, pinouts) on this 9" LCD that would be great. I'm sure that I would be in. I need one real bad. Let us know.

**Griffin_Dodd** · 02-01-2002, 09:48 AM

I think if we do get these screens it will be the result of some guy doing some other guy a favour - certainly not a regular purchase - sorry

**CALIBOY** · 02-01-2002, 10:55 AM

I guess I read your above post incorrectly....

"I'm learning - also my friend who has the TT knows a guy who works for a company the manufactures LCD's for OEM use. He's confident he can get us a few 9" TFT's Hi Res panels for $40-$50 a piece - jeeese I hope so, that would be sweet."

When you said, "get us" I thought you meant us at mp3car.com. And also when you said "a few" that meant more than two (the first two would obviously be for the TT and S2000 and there would be some more for "us" at mp3car.com that you would sell.

I guess I was too hopeful. Sorry for the confusion.