Just starting out...

**stump52** · 12-02-2005, 12:12 PM

Hey everybody, I've been lurking in the shadows here for a few months planning out my design, and I think I'm finally ready to begin piecing this thing together once winter break starts (15th...damn my physics final or I could be outta here the 10th)

I've installed audio components before so I know my way around that type of stuff, and I've also built my own computer before, but never tried to integrate one into a car, so I wanted to run ideas for the setup by everyone to get suggestions for improvement or other ideas I may not have thought of. So far the computer will consist of -

MSI MicroATX Motherboard
AMD Sempron64 2600+ (only 1.4V required and its cheap as hell

)
512MB Corsair ValueSelect (If I see it cheap someplace I might spring for a gig just cause too much ram never really hurts anything)
Seagate 250gig HDD
Audigy2ZS
old ATI X300SE card that i pulled from my desktop when i installed my X850XTPE

and some form of wireless card, I'll decide that later since wireless is easy for me (pretty much my flippin job these days, I can't believe there are people too dumb to follow our published instructions and demand that I set up their computer for them...end of rant).
oh yeah and a dvd drive and a touchscreen.

Now, I calculated power requirements and its looking like I'm gonna need a 300W power supply and an inverter unless I am grossly mistaken in my calculations (thing is, I'm dumb but I don't think I'm THAT dumb). So any ideas on how I could possibly lower power requirements with a setup similar to that above would be awesome, as I would really like to avoid the cost of a pure sine inverter and the noise problems of a regular inverter. I know I'll be able to run my processor at a lower voltage probably comparable to that of the Turion64 processors (1.2V), but beyond that I'm sort of at a loss as to how to cut back these requirements..I'm not against running onboard video but I don't think that X300 has very much required in the power department..

As far as the rest of things go, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get this up and running well with the help of browsing this place, really my only questions lie in the conserving power area since i've never really had to worry about this before. Just for the hell of it though, I'll list off other plans about this sucker just to see what you all more experienced fellas think.

Custom fab enclosure from MDF to mount this in the trunk
GPS - worry about it once everything else in place
Will be running a separate HU and getting sound from AUX input

If I have to go the inverter route, I've found a few that can get optional remote mounted switches so I'd go that way, but if I can get my power reqs. down to a nice level I'd love to do away with that and go DC-DC.

I know, long *** first post, but thanks in advance for any thoughts/suggestions for improvement.

stump

**ITL** · 12-02-2005, 01:03 PM

I think you should definitely go DC-DC for the sake of efficiency. It'll also give you one less thing to worry about when it comes to noise. I don't understand why you're power reqs are so high, but if they truly ARE, using 2 PSUs could be an option. Using a 2.5" drive as opposed to a desktop drive will reduce your power reqs as well.

**stump52** · 12-02-2005, 02:37 PM

gah, I didn't even think of using a laptop drive, good call on that one.

I'll take another look at the power stuff today, I worked it all out last night at some ungodly hour so it is quite possible that I'm off by what could prove to be enough to let me ditch the inverter and go DC-DC. Thanks a lot though...if anybody else has other ideas feel free to chime in

stump

**stump52** · 12-02-2005, 06:10 PM

ah, you were right, power wasn't that high I was off by quite a bit, I'll have to make sure I'm not falling asleep at the keys next time hah. So I figure with the components listed in my first post I should have no problem running a Keypower 250W DC-DC PSU, now just to wait til next paycheck and finals to end...