Your choices are good ones and mirror what the majority of folks are doing. If you get it installed and configured properly, it'll keep you entertained and make you happy! If you do a half-*** job and/or don't have the time to configure it right, ANY carpc setup will likely be one of the most frustrating experiences of your life!
My primary motivation in changing was to attempt to resolve a host of minor problems in my orginal system by throwing new/more hardware/power at the problem. Having pulled and inspected the old setup, I now believe most, if not all, of the nagging issues (see below) my original setup had can be attributed to the faulty capacitors I found on my M10k board.
Nagging issues from orginal setup and association with defects found on M10k
1) Flickering video / waves -> Bad capacitor on VGA output circuitry
2) Finicky USB -> Bad capacitor on USB bus circuitry
3) Intermittent system lockups -> Bad capacitor on ATX power rails circuitry
I had done everything possible to resolve each of these and for the most part had resolved item 2 by finding a stable combination of hubs, extensions and device locations. I detailed previously, in this thread, the measures I took to resolve the noisy video but in the end I learned to live with flickering/waves. Item 3 was the one frustration that finally pushed me over the top.
It's too bad I didn't think to look for the bad caps sooner. I could have saved $1000 by avoiding the upgrade. From a feature/performance standpoint, the new system is definitely more responsive than the MUCH slower m10k setup but not so much so to say it's definitely worth the added expense. I'm hopeful that I can put the new processing power to good use -- I'd still like to get voice recognition working in a reliable way.
A HUGE advantage over going with the m10k / m1-atx route is the massive amounts of advice you can get from these boards. If you go with non-conventional or new hardware, you'll be on your own to figure stuff out. Then again, it's always nice to have a more powerful setup, if only to future proof your system for newer hungrier software. In the end, it's up to you and your wallet.
I already pay for DirecTV which includes XM in the house. I can't see paying for XM, again, to have it in the car. I think I'd go for a mobile data plan and do streaming audio in the car instead of XM, if money weren't an issue.
Rando, your thread has helped me immeasurably. I thought I'd pass this along:
Took my car in today due to some problems with the AC. Apparently the 2004 4Runners are subject to a "Silent Recall" regarding the AC. Once you take your car in with a problem, they will fix it for no cost. I don't know if you can take the car in "pre-emptively" or not.
Thanks again for the awesome write up.
If you're talking about the service bulletin to replace the AC magnetic clutch relay -- yah I know about that. Unfortunately, my relay failed last month just a few weeks out of warranty. Per most reports, Toyota isn't replacing the relay pre-emptively for people, only if it fails. Check out my post over at t4r.com (search for MGCLT). I came up with a < $1 solution that will prevent the original relay from ever failing in the first place.
As for the replacement relay itself, it's on national back-order. Apparently Toyota used the same faulty electrical design (no inductive kick-back protection) in several of their cars.
After my '83 Camaro died, I stopped playing mechanic.
I pulled a couple of relay's from the back of my dash before going on a trip this weekend, and the AC is back. Don't know what I did, but it is fixed.
Our AC is getting an overhaul at the dealership as soon as this part comes in. Glad my wife is a looker, and the mechanic is a friendly guy, I guess. I'll be checking T4R a little more when I get back. I've been researching all over the 'net for an audio solution, after all the "experts" told me "it couldn't be done".
.....Don't tell me no.....
Due to the nature of the failure, the relay is most likely to fail intermittently. That means just banging the relay around (like removing it and putting it back in) is likely to make it work again -- for a while. Also, there are several of the same relays in the car. If you swap them around, it'll fix the problem too. The fog lamp relay is a good choice if you don't frequently drive in the fog.
Yeah, I figured it was going to be something like that.
It's hot as hell over here, but I don't mind driving without AC. It just amazes me that time and time again something like this is brought down by such a "partially failed" component.
A swift kick, and the system starts back up again.
Maybe I'm not missing my old '83 Camaro as much as I thought I was.
Let's call it a damaged component that introduces intermittent failures. Toyota's fix likely just introduces a relay that is more resilient to their tortuous design. A simpler (and more elegant) solution involves upgrading the circuit design to avoid the underlying problem completely. That means, install the diode. My new relay is on order but even then I plan to leave the diode in place.
Mine's on order as well.
For the record, not panning the 4Runner, or Toyota in general. I love this truck. A good friend of mine has had his truck in for two recalls, and several thousand dollars worth of service, despite the fact that we both bought our vehicles on the same day. I also have 7500 more miles on mine.
Enough with the Toyota lovefest. Gotta go get back into my dash and run some wires. Need to figure out how to make the little light on the power switch turn on (must have done something stupid this morning).
It's time for a new build. Decades of building and working on PCs and this is the first time I've managed to rip components off a motherboard near the standoffs ... RIP i945GTT-VFA! Presumably a lower power version of the i3 might be the way to go or maybe an i5-2500k under-clocked. Are there any good boards out there that are powere by 18v? It would be nice not to have to change my power setup ... again.
I'm thinking of this for my new build.
Motherboard: Intel DH61AG - This is a nice looking board that will work with my existing Carnetix P1900
CPU: Deciding between i3-2100T, i5-2390T or i5-2500T
RAM: 2x2GB 1333 DDR3 SODIMMS (overkill but hard to buy less these days)
Presumably, everything else can stay the same as my previous build.
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