Let's play help the newbie...again!

**Genesisfactor** · 12-18-2005, 04:35 AM

Hey, okay, got myself injured, so i have all the time in the world right now. I tried this before with my celica, but now i have a new car. I am thinking of a great carputer set up and i have a wide variety of resources avaialble to me in therms of hardware and software. I have two proposed CPU setups. I would like comments and suggestions.

CPU 1: Shuttle X 2.0 p4, 768 RAM, 30hdd, DVD+- RW, GF4 TI4600
CPU 2: HP zt1100c laptop 1.33 Cel-M, 256RAM, 20-40HDD, DVD/CD

My first question is which to use? Obviously the power house is the Shuttle, which was my friend's old gaming machine, but the laptop has a lovely sleep mode and a battery...which technically is dead, but a new one is an option. Whichever i don't use, i'm selling.

Now, OS...and here si the gamut i have to chose from

XP Embedded
CE .NET 4.2
XP
XP Tablet 2005
XP Tablet (original)
2003 Server (ANY and EVERY version out there)
UNIX (with mircosoft developmetn pack)
Linix (and whatever tools my firend has)
Visual Studio 2005 (with J# and J++ if i decide to go a java GUI route or soemthing)

Now, i have some programming training, but nothing that really qualifies em as a programmer to any degree. Something with me an languages. Which OS should i use?

LCD:
what should i pick? WHat are the pros and cons of on dash, In dash, and overhead? I want touch screen, but which brand? lilliput and Xenarc are the ones i see alot of.

Stereo:
Now this has me slightly boggled. Do i need a head unit if i run everythign from my computer to an amp? Infinity Reference speakers...i can't find reviews for it, but its what i'm stocking my car with.

Car:
Anyone have any expereinces with Infiniti G20s? P10 only.

**carabuser** · 12-18-2005, 04:45 AM

Hello there.

Quite a few questions there, I'm going to try to address some.

Hardware setup: I am biased towards laptops for a few reasons. First off all ease of use and installation. Second, powering solutions. You can use a simple inverter, just make sure to ground it. More info on this stuff here and here

Also, your laptop system will most likely resume quicker from hibernation due to 256mb of ram (vs. 768)

OS: I used Windows XP Home with FrodoPlayer as my front end. Couldn't be happier. Gotta confess, I tried RR once with a nice flash skin, but it was too slow.

LCD: Xenarc would be a best choice if you can afford it. For my next screen I'm going motorized in-dash so I can keep my head unit. Why? I like it better that way.

P.S. No, I don't mind spoon feeding people once in a while

**kirbycope** · 12-18-2005, 05:08 AM

Here's a tip you need right away: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/newbie/

**dmurray14** · 12-18-2005, 10:00 AM

SEARCH. This isn't all that hard.

**Genesisfactor** · 12-19-2005, 05:43 PM

hey, thanks for your replies. thank you carabuster for your reply, that's EXACTLY what i'm looking for in a reply- your honest opinion based on a working model which allows to be look at things that i havne't considered. Hehe, dmurry, let me cleaer up some misconceptions on my knowledge on this...

This is just an opinion board that i hoped would guide me on a path i hadn't searched yet. Its been a project about 6 months in the making buying a little here nad there. I just got this shuttle, which gave me a new wealth of options. I am biased towards the laptop, i just wanted to know if anyone felt that i should persue the shuttle or sell it since its so much more powerful. and hibernation you cna do with the Shuttle too, so i mean, it suddenly becomes solely a size/preference issue with a power problem.

With the OS, if you read my posts on operating systems, you can see that i've been throwing out free legal versions of software just for some help. I would RATHER use XPE just to play with if i knew how since i don't need a full boot. I own every one of the above and then some. I just really want to know where my focus should lie since i use a pocket pc as a watered down computer at the moment.

With the LCDs, there's the difficulty...see, i have several models in mind. Is indash worth it? WHich one should i get? Will a stand based LCD be better since it can tilt? What is the most reliable TS LCD out there? I have searched and searched and every oen that we use that's under $600 seems to have its fiar share of problems. I just found out about the SP-716 yesterday..i was hoping that i missed another one.

G20 expereinces...that i will admit i need to search for.

ANd i was hoping that the minor differences in my needs would be enough to warret a new thread catered to me. Kinda like you know you need car speakers, and you know what you like, but you still go to circuit city to check out other models and ask questions. that's all i'm doing...picking brains when i already did the research to make sure i covered all the bases. I'm a mec leaning towards robotics. when i'm TOTALLY done, this car will drive itself....literally. depending on my job, i may get a military grade GPS system. with a 2cm error (almost got my hands on that in the fall :-) ). It will have a vision system and many things that most people haven't done before...i just want to get the base off the ground and will swap out better things later (like starting with a CF gps). But that's phase 4:-). Just please, keep them coming, and just tell me whatever you want.