Please Critique My Idea

Feel free to yell at me and tell me I'm wrong if this wont work. I have a 1998 Honda Accord. Currently I have the Kenwood DPX308U in there and like it, but im thinking about moving up to a carpc. My plan is to use an old Acer Aspire 5050-5430 laptop that I have laying around. It has the 1.7GHz Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core TK-53 processor in it.

First Question: Is there a pressing reason that I should use Windows 7 over Windows XP? I have access to XP with unlimited licenses, but not W7.

The screen I plan on using is a Lilliput EBY701-NP/C/T with the double-din mount on it from MCS on eBay. It's the 2012 model with the LED back-lighting.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/160701820015...84.m1438.l2649

Second Question: How would you rate this screen? I've heard good things about Lilliput's and this one comes with a free anti-glare screen protector as well.

Thanks,
Matt Prenger

Welp. Just bought the screen. Will post back on how it looks.

can't comment on the screen, but I wouldn't use a laptop. from what I read standard drives will fail if you hit a bump, plus laptops heat up a lot and may overheat if you put it under the seat

I can't think of a reason to run windows 7... or XP for that matter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LGHT

can't comment on the screen, but I wouldn't use a laptop. from what I read standard drives will fail if you hit a bump, plus laptops heat up a lot and may overheat if you put it under the seat

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Well I'm going to disagree with you on this one. Except for maybe the laptop being used, I'm not sure how the Acer is built or how that X2 processor deals with heat.
I've got an HP TC4400 TabletPC in my car, and *knock on wood* have had it running for nearly 3 years without a harddrive failure. This is in my lowered car, with the laptop base sitting in my re-fabbed glovebox... no additional padding or cooling. That said, laptop drives are built to accept slight shock and motion, much better than desktop drives. Step up to an SSD and you're set for off-roading!

Now I have recently moved the base of the laptop in behind the screen, and am now starting to notice that it's running hotter... so I'm just going to install a venting fan, as the area is a bit tighter with more electronics generating heat.

How do you plan on powering the laptop? Turning it on and off? How does the laptop handle outputting video externally all the time?

I use the Carnetix P1900 to handle the power and on/off. Does the Acer have one of those 'smart' pins? Monitor output isn't a problem for me since I'm using the standard screen, but I know if I was to move to an external monitor I'd either have to do a 2-button press each time, or the simple way, place a magnet overtop of a sensor to tell the computer the lid is closed... like with a docking station.

What are you planning on doing for a frontend? Are you going straight from the laptop into an amp, or keeping the deck you have and using the aux in?

Couple things to think about....
...aaaand.... now I"m done :typing:

Definitely disagree with LGHT.

Laptop hard drives (2.5") are actually MORE resilient to shock and in general, laptops consume less power and produce less heat than desktops. Laptops are in a lot of ways a better solution than a pieced together kit on a standard mobo but there are a lot of reasons to go the other way too. I have done 2 laptop installs but I would never tell somebody NOT to use a desktop. Check the wiki for good reasons in both directions.

If you have XP, use it unless you need more than 4 gigs of memory. The only other feature you could possibly want would be hybrid sleep. Don't let the Linux guy bother you :) I love linux and use it extensively but windows has its place in the event you don't want to be a nerd. JK tripzero :lol:

I have a 701 and it's a good looking screen but I have an anti-glare optically bonded transflective upgrade. I don't know how good those antiglare stick on units work but I suspect you will have difficulty on bright days and it will probably be duller looking with that film installed.

That should work alright for you, but be aware you're going to have to either get a carnetix DC/DC to run the laptop, or an inverter, which I highly suggest against.

What frontend are you planning on running? If you're going for CF or RR, you may want to get a slightly higher power CPU, and if you're running CF, then definitely a laptop with a better video processor inside, otherwise you may experience lag issues.

Really? Athlon were fast little buggers. I remember recording over 10 tracks at a time on an Athlon 1800+ back in the day. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...ual-Core+TK-53 puts it above all Atom processors and I know lots of people run them around here.

Sure, it's faster than an Atom, but have you tried to run CF on an Atom?

Quit confusing the new guys about hard drive durability.

The best reasons for 2.5" drives (laptop) are physical dimensions (smaller) and power consumption (less). That comes at an increased price at purchase.

We have not had ANY actual proof that they (laptop drives) last longer than a desktop drive. No one has done the lab tests and the tear down to determine root cause in the real world, just conjecture.

When planning an install considering price, physical size, storage size, power needs, and cost are great. A quick search on durability will show the lack of real evidence indicating one form factor will last longer than the other.

Cheers