Motherboard + Power Supply question for mp3car experts

**denk** · 08-27-2007, 06:06 AM

Hi there,

I am trying to build a car pc and have couple of motherboards that i might get. I'm pretty surtain about the power supply which i want t get because it's go very nice features - the Minibox M2-ATX DC-DC ATX Automotive Computer Power Supply.
The big question i am facing is choosing the right motherboard for it. As i understand this power supply provides maximum of 160W.
So here is the choise of the motherboards:

1 - VIA EPIA EX 15000
533MHz FSB, 1xDIMM, DDR2, PCI, 1xPCI, 0xPCIe-1, 3xUSB2, Firewire, Audio, Video, ATA, SATA, RAID, Mini-ITX
Pretty good one but doesnt provide flexibility in terms of upgrades and addons so it means once i get it - that's it. But i'm 100% sertain that the power supply i'm getting will work with this otherboard

2 - MSI K9AGM2-FIH + some decent 64bit AMD CPU + some low end DirectX 9 pci-e graphics card that would be able to run Windows Vista.
Here the system wuld be more flexible but will the power supply handle this load?

Thank you.

Denk

**bambam** · 08-27-2007, 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by denk

Hi there,

I am trying to build a car pc and have couple of motherboards that i might get. I'm pretty surtain about the power supply which i want t get because it's go very nice features - the Minibox M2-ATX DC-DC ATX Automotive Computer Power Supply.
The big question i am facing is choosing the right motherboard for it. As i understand this power supply provides maximum of 160W.
So here is the choise of the motherboards:

1 - VIA EPIA EX 15000
533MHz FSB, 1xDIMM, DDR2, PCI, 1xPCI, 0xPCIe-1, 3xUSB2, Firewire, Audio, Video, ATA, SATA, RAID, Mini-ITX
Pretty good one but doesnt provide flexibility in terms of upgrades and addons so it means once i get it - that's it. But i'm 100% sertain that the power supply i'm getting will work with this otherboard

2 - MSI K9AGM2-FIH + some decent 64bit AMD CPU + some low end DirectX 9 pci-e graphics card that would be able to run Windows Vista.
Here the system wuld be more flexible but will the power supply handle this load?

Thank you.

Denk

The MSI board looks nice from the reviews I read. I am curious as to why you are considering Vista? I tried it and it was a resource hog and took longer to load. I use an nLite'd version of XP and it runs great with very fast load time. I am using RoadRunner with DigitalFX skin as a frontend and so far, it has been very stable. The frontend is used for mp3, video and gps; there is nothing Vista would offer me that XP doesn't provide as my backend.

Just my $0.02

**WarDriver** · 08-27-2007, 07:41 AM

Originally Posted by bambam

I am curious as to why you are considering Vista? I tried it and it was a resource hog and took longer to load. I use an nLite'd version of XP and it runs great with very fast load time. I am using RoadRunner with DigitalFX skin as a frontend and so far, it has been very stable. The frontend is used for mp3, video and gps; there is nothing Vista would offer me that XP doesn't provide as my backend.

Just my $0.02

I'm with BamBam... I work in an enterprise data center and we won't even deploy Vista to our personal workstations. It is a resource hog. We tried it just for fun one day....it even slows down our dual core laptops. We had to bump them to 2gb of ram just to use under our normal load. I want to say it took 1/2- to a full gig of ram just to run the OS. Not to mention the bugs, security risks and software/hardware incompatibilities.

IMHO car PC's are to be simple, especially your first one. Get the ball rolling and upgrade/change later.

**petec** · 08-27-2007, 07:59 AM

I would also agree. I have seen XP builds as small as 128megs. ("almost" embedded). I am using XP for my CARPC. At home though I have been starting to use 2003 Standard and Linux for many of the "PC's" versus XP. To date I only have one Vista PC running. Touch screens are all running 2003 standard at this time.

**Phatsacks** · 08-27-2007, 08:14 AM

Look at the Nvidia 7300gs for a PCI-E, some research showed that it uses 16w, and the 7300LE uses 24w. Those are the two lowest PCI-E power consuming cards I could find.

(feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)

**BiG K** · 08-27-2007, 10:58 AM

The PSU is perfectly fine, you could even get away with 90w!!

I would suggest getting this:

http://www.albatron.com.tw/English/p...ication&no=239

It is the same size as the VIA, takes a normal AMD AM2 processor and already has a pretty decent graphics card onboard.....the most powerful onboard graphics you can have, which is an ATI X1250

**2k1Toaster** · 08-27-2007, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by WarDriver

I'm with BamBam... I work in an enterprise data center and we won't even deploy Vista to our personal workstations. It is a resource hog. We tried it just for fun one day....it even slows down our dual core laptops. We had to bump them to 2gb of ram just to use under our normal load. I want to say it took 1/2- to a full gig of ram just to run the OS. Not to mention the bugs, security risks and software/hardware incompatibilities.

IMHO car PC's are to be simple, especially your first one. Get the ball rolling and upgrade/change later.

Yup, new computer with Vista is a bunch o' headache. Also it has a T7600 and 2Gb of RAM, and it has between 800Mb and 1.2Gb of RAM in use all the time.

Its a programming nightmare as well.

**denk** · 08-27-2007, 06:55 PM

Thanks for your replies guys!
You just put me off Vista completely and you are absolutely righ, i would just have lots of headache if i would install it.
It's just a bit of a problem here in New Zealand that i cant find any other mini-itx boards apart from the VIA EPIA EX 15000.
Even in mp3car store this is one of the most expencive motherboards, is it that good? I just need your advise before i go and spend $500NZ on the motherboard.
What motherboard would you also recommend from mp3car store. Basically what i need from my car computer - to be fast, to have at least 1 pci port for WIFI adapter, (CompactFlash port would be nice as well (but not the requirement), so i could boot windows from it, if it's possible).
I want the car computer to be able to play moviews, music, run GPS soft and maybe engine management system (but not the requirement).

Also what software for front end do you recommend and software for GPS (i guess with gps will be a bit harder to find NZ maps)

Thanks guys!

**petec** · 08-28-2007, 12:07 AM

I have a an "old" Via 1Ghz Nem... in the 330XI - XP / 256Megs - plays movies and music. BT and WLAN is via a BT/WLAN combo dongle. Use WLAN when parked to attach to home network. BT for Internet connection via Wizard Cellular Phone. Next working on BT audio from phone to computer. Current software is CARX. Playing with RR. New CARPC for new car starting with Via 1.2 with CF reader. Will do similar with this one. As I will be using IBUS on new car it will be similar to "old" setup.

**denk** · 08-28-2007, 04:15 AM

Thank you,
so after reading your reviews and comments here is what i am thinking of getting:

Motherboard --- VIA EPIA EX 15000
Ram --- Kingston 1Gb 533Mhz DIMM
Power supply --- Minibox - M2-ATX DC-DC ATX
HDD --- 2x 160s Seagates laptop SATA drives

That's about it for now. What do you think?

And 2 more questions for you guys:
1 - Are the normal 7200rpm hard drives that we use in our home pcs not stable on the road at all? Or it's just that they won't last long?

2 - Can you guys recommend an IN-DASH 1-DIN Touchscreen (good readibility in sunlight) with inbuilt amplifier, radio and possibly TV?

Thank you again for your help!