Thread: Help this starving student build his 1st carputer for under $500!!! Please!

Nice double post Welcome to the forum.
If it helps any, I run an Epia M10000 with bluetooth, wifi, dvd drive, keyboard, gps, video, touchscreen, mouse, 4 port usb hub. Mine's powered by a Carnetix P1260 (60w) and I get no problems at all, video plays great, everything works tickety boo

Check out the FAQ emporium for some good hints and tips together with other guys installs to see how they've configured things.

Originally Posted by rustyboxx

I get no problems at all, video plays great, everything works tickety boo

wtf is tickety boo??!! Haha, must be another European term.

Anyway, welcome to the forum. I don't know much about the weaker ~1Ghz mobos, since I don't own any. You could go the route of a heavy duty inverter and pretty much use any computer you want. Many of the new and nice inverters like the Vectors work great, are cheap compared to DC power supplies and allow you to use more powerful computers.

Also, in terms of DC power supplies, have you considered the DSATX one?

DSATX 220 Watt Review

Sure, it's $200, but if you are really set on getting a DC, it's about the best and offers the most features.

I just wanted to say that $500 is a steep budget if you are looking to buy all new hardware and a DC power adaptor. Hell, you could easily spend $400 on a decent screen alone. I recommend looking into installing one of your gaming PCs into your car via power inverter, and spending the $500 on your screen, cables, software, GPS, etc...

With the nice car, you'll want the system to look nice up front. You can always upgrade/swap out the carputer stuff later on. ie...ask for a DC PS for XMas, get a mini-itx mobo for ur bday, etc...

Also, many ppl will recommend that you just wait until you can afford everything you want. Sometimes thats the smartest thing to do - then you aren't wasting money on inferior parts, just to spend more money later on replacing them.

M'eh - that's the fun of this hobby.....never settling and always striving to make it better

Good luck

Originally Posted by SnyperBob

wtf is tickety boo??!! Haha, must be another European term.

The usual meaning, is that something is satisfactory, all in order, or OK.
We can’t be sure what its origin is. Eric Partridge always contended that the word was forces’ slang, most probably from the Royal Air Force, and that it dates from the early 1920s or thereabouts (though the Oxford English Dictionary doesn’t find a written example before 1939).
The difficult bit is taking the word back any further than the 1920s. It could combine that’s the ticket—with much the same sense—with the childish phrase peek-a-boo. But some find a link with the British Army in India, suggesting it comes from the Hindi phrase tikai babu, which is translated as “it’s all right, sir”.

Originally Posted by Tekka

I'm planning on using the following accessories
-USB WIFI
-USB bluetooth
-USB powered dvd slim drive
-USB card reader...
-7 inch Lilliput touchscreen
-Plus a few others I haven;t thought of yet....

I don;t think the Opus will be able to power all of that + the motherboard and the lillitput...

Oh, and you did realize that with the list you made, the accessories alone are like $400 or so?

Lilliput ~$250
DVD Slimline ~$100
Wireless Inet ~$40-$50
Bluetooth

Not to mention everything else:
Harddrive
Memory
Case
Mobo
Power supply
GPS Receiver (optional)
Software (optional? )

I just don't see this being feasible with the list of stuff that you said you wanted above - all for under $500. Sorry man. You may want to save up a little more, or go with something used/pre-owned.

Also, you don't have to wire the Lilliput into your opus. I'd wire it directly to your ignition or something. My Xenarc is run off the ignition. Shut the car off, the screen shuts off.

Keep an eye on the the "for sale" forum. Make sure the seller has a good track record, there are some excellent deals in there at times.

geeks.com have had some great sales on in the past keep an eye on them as well.

Here is one:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...2600-N&cat=MBB
Sell the mobo and get the MSI that has the NForce2 built in. (just a thought)

500 with all those requirements ?? Not gunna happen man. Sorry, your dreaming.


Lets say you went with a cheap screen 250 and a Epia MII10000 there's 400.00 Not including

Case = 50-90.00
Pwr Supply = 40-100.00
HDD = 60-80.00
Ram = 35-80.00


I've been in this hobby for a while and I started out thinking I could easily build a carpc out of spare parts and spend no less than 300-500.00 I have spent literally 10times that. There are so many other costs than you just cant plan for.

You're in college right? I doubt you have ALL the tools you need to do everything this hobby requires, I know I defiantly didn't while I was in school. Thats where the hidden costs come into play. Because you either pay someone to do something you don't have tools for or you have to buy your own tools.

Not to push you away from the idea, I'm just tryin to help you out because I was in your shoes. It's definatly going to cost around 1500-ish...

Starving student/brand new driver/brand new Tc. Don't seem to mix together very well.

to do this in your budget I would look for a used pIII laptop... like 1.2... & maybe a used liliput.... it can be done but forget about doing every thing you said in that budget... it would be a huge chore to do it even with much lesser equiptment in your budget....

then, like everyone else has said.... it's the little things you didn't even consider that add up quick... I know it's real easy to spend several hundred on just little incidentals... & like it's already been said, you can eat up the bulk of your $500 on just a good screen....

to do this in your situation will require extreme resorcefulness & creativity, not to mention pretty significant sacrifices.... the fact that your starting with a brand new car doesn't help either, in the fact that you can't just butcher crap togeather the way a lot of beginners would, mommy would kill you if you butcher that new car!!! .....good luck.....