Thread: Mini as a carpc

Originally Posted by ronnyek

A) do people run audio into back of a regular HU, or does somone make an amp that would let you USE the mini as a HU?

I think people have done both. I personally want to get rid of my HU, so i'll be going directly to my Amps via a USB sound card and some line converters (to bring the line levels coming out of the sound card up to what the Amps want).

b) psu stuff, anyway got get the mac to boot to a usable state REAL fast? Eg, suspend etc?

I think most people are using the CarNetix power supply which has built in support for the native sleep mode. Macs wake up from sleep really fast, but they do use some power in that mode.

c) Anyone gone through and ripped out everything they dont need? Eg, when I boot I dont want full osx desktop or menus or anything?

You could boot it to console mode and then run X11, but then why not just use a Linux box? One of the things I think makes Macs in general ideal for this application is how much they have already built in both to the OS and included Apps. If you don't want to see the menu bar/desktop, use a full screen App. You can even setup auto-login and set the account to launch your UI App at login so you don't have to do anything when it/if it restarts.

-dave

Originally Posted by ronnyek

A) do people run audio into back of a regular HU, or does somone make an amp that would let you USE the mini as a HU?

I run my mac to an amp using an adaptor to change the output to rca

d) for personal use you guys just using c-car? preferences?

90% of the time I use itunes with ikarr to control it easier over c-car

here's my game plan...i'm going to use griffin firewave ....

http://www.griffintechnology.com/pro...wave/index.php

If you have a P1900 from Carnetix, you can sleep the Mini. It comes up in about 3 seconds. Say 5 just to be safe.

Search this forum for "Safe sleep" if you want the equivalent of hibernate on the PC.

that is an awesome layout, that firewave looks sweet!

Originally Posted by viper24

that is an awesome layout, that firewave looks sweet!

Yeah it does, but it's been in preorder for what seems close to a year now

-dave

Originally Posted by iamgnat

Yeah it does, but it's been in preorder for what seems close to a year now

-dave

here's the work around for those looking or waiting for something like this
it works for both PC/Mac...

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html

i've found it for like $79

or if you want up to 7.1 ... its also completely USB bus-powered (no power supply required)

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...ater-main.html

Originally Posted by GSoup

or if you want up to 7.1 ... its also completely USB bus-powered (no power supply required)

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...ater-main.html

The Sonica is what I have since I got tired of waiting for the Firewave. I got it off ebay for $50
I still need to do something about the line level converters though so my Amps will play nice with the Sonica's output.

-dave

Originally Posted by iamgnat

The Sonica is what I have since I got tired of waiting for the Firewave. I got it off ebay for $50
I still need to do something about the line level converters though so my Amps will play nice with the Sonica's output.

-dave

do you have a preamp/eq?

check this...
http://www.xitel.com/product_hfl.htm