Thread: 2007 Mustang Car PC

You don't need such performing pieces.

- 2Gb is plenty for you, I suppose. 4Gb is not recognised because of the 32-bit OS that is limited in memory recognition.
- These processors will get somehow hot when they will be needed. Try to get something slower... they are too fast on what you are going to do. After all, they're laptop components, and such they are already low-consuming. A T5450 and slower would be all right, and you could always use the software RightMark CPU Clock Utility (if you run Windows) to lower the voltages on that CPU without any harm, as it will bring down both the heat (by at least 10C... tried it on my girlfriend's laptop) as well as the power comsumption. And you will have plenty of horsepower with a slower CPU, you dont really need a 4GHz cpu (being a dualcore)
- Install a slipstreamed version of Windows XP on your FDM done by yourself (or else it's illegal). The FDM disk will already reduce your load/write times by ALOT, it's going to be even better if you can have a slipstreamed version and you will shut down processes during boot.

Other than that, seems okay for a nice'n'fast Carputer. Your current specs are quite overkill, so I would suggest dropping them. I dont know about the other pieces, since Im new myself bout this Carputer thing...

A 45nm process on a faster CPU will keep a bigger strain in heat, as everytime you will need the CPU it will run it at full speed, and these speeds will generate more heat than a slower CPU on a 65nm process.

Hey Nagoshi,

I don't need nearly that much power, huh? Okay, that makes things easier actually, so it's a relief, not to mention nicer on my wallet. I've got more motherboards to choose from this way. There are plenty more motherboards that support Meroms. On that note, does anyone have suggestions on boards with really low POST times? I'll be searching in any case, but if you feel like helpin a fella out.

I would always rather have extra power on my hands with potential to upgrade without too much loss in system performance, than to have to change motherboard/cpu. I guess that's why my current PC is still going strong after 6 years, not bad at today's rate. Anyways, I just don't have a good sense on providing just enough power. But car pcs have admittedly different requirements so I'll be adding your suggestions to my list. It's true that I didn't really think about the fact that these cpus are dual cores, so 3.2 should be plenty.

This was the area that really needed the most sorting out. Thanks again. Now I can calculate my power requirements and decide on a psu.

Well, most of people runs their CarPCs on Via CPUs, which are slower than Pentium4, and on slower processors because of the low cost, so I'm 100% sure even a T5450 would be overkill.

Any motherboard should have quick POST, if you can tweak around the BIOS yourself without screwing your motherboard. And you'll have a quite fast Windows loading on a Flash drive/Solid state drive, since the read times and delay are much faster than a normal HDD. The only thing I would be afraid of the long time would be the motherboard POSTing, but in general that does not take more than 5 seconds in most motherboards, so if you can skip on drive detection and set it yourself you'll save some time there, as well as some other settings.

And I doubt you'll have to upgrade such a CarPC for quite a while... actually, if people with Via 1300MHz can run them perfecly, you'll be able to run it, as well as next-gen softwares, for some years again with a Merom So I really suggest cutting in pieces, one stick of 2Gb RAM if possible will reduce heat, and a CPU of maximum T5500 or around that, or slower... you should be doing okay for quite a while ^^

An average laptop consumes about 70watts of power. My gaming notebook eats 90watts. That's still quite less than a P4 on an m-ATX motherboard. These Meroms does not eat so much energy.

Originally Posted by Nagoshi

Any motherboard should have quick POST, if you can tweak around the BIOS yourself without screwing your motherboard. And you'll have a quite fast Windows loading on a Flash drive/Solid state drive, since the read times and delay are much faster than a normal HDD. The only thing I would be afraid of the long time would be the motherboard POSTing, but in general that does not take more than 5 seconds in most motherboards, so if you can skip on drive detection and set it yourself you'll save some time there, as well as some other settings.

And I doubt you'll have to upgrade such a CarPC for quite a while... actually, if people with Via 1300MHz can run them perfecly, you'll be able to run it, as well as next-gen softwares, for some years again with a Merom So I really suggest cutting in pieces, one stick of 2Gb RAM if possible will reduce heat, and a CPU of maximum T5500 or around that, or slower... you should be doing okay for quite a while ^^

Yea, that's the hardest component to nail down atm. The motherboard. I've seen an attempt to consolidate all the POST times from the forum around here, but it never really got anywhere. It seems like some people don't really care about POST times because they stand by all the time. I'm deciding between a Commell LV677, Aopen i945GMt-FSA, or the MSI Fuzzy 945GM1, but I'm getting inconclusive results from my searches. Some of the posts are quite old as well, so I'm not sure how relevant they are. Right now though, I hear the Commell needs some TLC to work properly, I don't know anything about the i945GMt and I think the MSI Fuzzy 945GM1 is supposed to have the slowest POST times? I have no idea. But if I can pin down this motherboard, I can order everything and get it cracking. Any suggestions? I'm thinking about just going with my gut and grabbing the Fuzzy or Aopen. But the Commell's at a very good price point atm.

As for the CPU, the T5450 was a great suggestion. It comes at a very good price point. I'll be taking that one. I'll also be dropping down my RAM from 4GB to 2GB. Either way, it looks more and more like I'm just gonna have to drop some cash on one of those motherboard and find out for myself how quick the POST times are..gotta do things yourself if you wanna get em right sometimes.

I appreciate the suggestions, I just need to decide on the motherboard, if you all have any suggestions, they will be appreciated.

TIA Again.

-s197PC

s197pc im and running a MSI Fuzzy 945GM witha c2d mobile t5600 in my 07 stang it is over kill for a basic radio but i know i can run any format of video including hd without slowing down and thats what i was going for plus i can run most games too just not and mega high settings (using on board video) the whole computer is in the dash except the amp used to power the 4 speakers thats under the passenger seat

This is blk02si thread about how he put his computer in his mustang its what inspired me to do the same
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/fabr...ps-indash.html

Hey Xargon, yea, my original thread mentioned that install. I was pretty impressed by it too and also plan on following in his footsteps.

How long is the POST time on the Fuzzy?

take about 25 sec to get into windows and fire up road runner, add about 5-6 secs for the psu to fire up the computer tho.

you just have to set it up right in the bios like turn off the floppy drive etc to reduce the post time to next to nothing its all in the setup.
also dont epoxy the screen to the trim kit if your really careful with a dremel you can get it to fit in the trim kit with out messing up the screw post that hold the screen to the front casing (i used a xenarc 700stv)