Thread: Lay the smack down on my carputer dream

ok before the flaming starts and all the search buddies pop up ...

almost all of your questions are answered 10 times over in the forums. they're very common.

the very short answers ... 1. look at mini-itx ... via M10000, that's what most use ... 2. use a laptop hd, it can take the vibrations ... 3. m10000's onboard video is sufficient ... 4. inverters are super inefficient and induce noise .... 5. that should be fine for dvds, but you'll hate life for text. that's why most here use vga ... 6. again, start with onboard sound and move up ....


do a lotta searchin and a lotta readin ... lest you'll be flamed by the day crowd

I use an inverter, and it and the computer chassis are grounded to the car. I haven'nt noticed any real noise coming through my speakers, But it more than likely will reboot on you when cranking the engine.

As for hdd, That seem to be a topic for debate around here. Some swear by laptop drives, I haven't had a problem with regular drives.

And for processor, 2400+ is probably overkill, If you want a little more oomph than the Via mini-itx solutions offer, maybe a cheapy ECS K7SOM+ with onboard Duron 1300, add in a better vid card to get tv-out and it would do the trick while keeping things affordable. But for size and ease of stashing somewhere, you can't beat the Epia.

I am also using a composite screen with my setup, and although it isn't perfect, it really isn't that bad. Just stay the hell away from STN screens! Make sure it is a TFT panel in there.

Just my .02 cents worth.

First of all you'd save yourself trouble and possibly money by buying a receiver headset that has AUX in with like 45x4 W outputs to your stock speakers and use the carputer's sound card the 1.2" or whatever port and use a cable that converts to RCA out to plug into the AUX in of the car's receiver then it's far easier that way and thats the most preferred method to do here.

1.More ram is good, so that's fine. But what do you need that processor for? What applications are you going to be running? Most ICE (in car entertaintment) functions and navigation run fine on an Epia M1000 or some other 1ghz-range processor. Full version XP is fine on Epia, as is Win2k

2. I've known of guys who use normal hard drives in their race cars and rock crawlers...I've never, in my entire experience online, heard of someone damaging their hard drive due to shock. General Wisdom says mount it vertically so bumps won't crash the head, but i don't even think that is neccessary.

3. Onboard video from Epia is fine, otherwise, what's your question.
4. I run a dc-dc power supply for efficiency and quietness. I also run a low-wattage invertor for accessories, if neccessary. Something to look into...usually two low wattage invertors are cheaper than a high wattage.

5. Get secure paypal, and go online. You can find LCD's for $150.

6. If you know nothing about sound, have someone (Best buy?) install a head unit that has an auxillery in. Should be about the same price.

Originally Posted by telekineticfool

2. I've known of guys who use normal hard drives in their race cars and rock crawlers...I've never, in my entire experience online, heard of someone damaging their hard drive due to shock. General Wisdom says mount it vertically so bumps won't crash the head, but i don't even think that is neccessary.

If you manage to cause a head crash by hitting a bump, you have more important things to worry about. Like the tree you just ran into.

My question to you would be, what is your purpose for building this computer...what parameters are you trying to reach...what will it do...what does it need to do?

In my opinion it is overkill, by 1000%...but thats because I am not sure what your motivation is.

I mean if you are trying to save money buy getting a cheap LCD, then why run a radeon 9600 and XP and Athlon 2400+.

My $200 laptop can drive a cheap LCD screen.

we need the info...