Thread: Hardware Review: Mobile Computing Solutions Mini ITX 2ghz Computer (and peripherals)

Originally Posted by deeznudts

Thanks for the suggestions I might do a little of both depending on the results I get. It was like 80 degrees outside temperature today. It was the CPU that got that hot 180 range. The puter even froze at one point. It's located in my hatchback inside a covered Styrofoam tray (came with car) under a particle board flap in all black interior. The case was mighty hot to the touch today, so i'll have to do something quick. Summer is right around the corner. Dan I see your in Texas. I'm guessing the weather there is just as hot if not hotter. What temp. readings are you getting with the additional fan. I've been looking at some case fans, and I think I'd like to hook them up to the battery on a switch. I see most case fans are three wires. Did you connect the two wires to the positive and the one to the negative for yours wired to the ignition? Thanks again.

I run 3 busses under the panel in the glove compartment. 1 Buss is Ignition 12 volts, the other is 12V constant, and the third is ground that goes directly to the frame. So the fan uses 12V ignition and pretty much frame ground. Temps run around 120-130 with the door held open by the EVDO device (the antennae folds out and I hang it on the top of the door). Really not much difference to the computer with the door open or closed, but when it's closed, I wouldn't put a snickers in there. lol (There is a BIG difference in the temperature of the compartment). I have 4 other small fans I was going to put on one side of the compartment to blow the heat into the adjoining compartment (subwoofer), but haven't seen a real need yet.


Edit: Be careful following those directions. I am pretty sure that my XM Radio engine noise is caused by that fan and not the engine. I have been kinda busy and haven't verified that (it can be easily unplugged). I'll check tomorrow and report back.

Originally Posted by danielkh

Really not much difference to the computer with the door open or closed, but when it's closed, I wouldn't put a snickers in there. lol

But you can toast your bagel on your way to work. Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll give it a shot this weekend. I think this is the first time I'm hoping it doesn't hit 80 here anytime soon.

Originally Posted by deeznudts

I have a mo-co-so puter. Same as Dans, and I've had similar probelms. First of don't power your touch screen through the bus powered USB hub. It has a tendency to stop working, there are many posts on this. I've had similar problems with the DVD drive. I tried the active USB cable and a couple others. I found that the short cables worked, but the long ones didn't. I went out to best buy and bought a 10' gold plated geek squad cable, and it works fine. I don't know how much better that cable is than the others, it's kind of pricey. But it's been working now for 4 months.

On another subject, has anyone installed additional case fans on one of these? I have mine in a concealed space and it got damn hot today, up around 180 F according to the bios temp. reading. Would love to know how you did it if you did.

Touchscreen was not going through a bus powered hub, but instead a powered one. Doesn't matter anyway, I already gave up on the board. Thanks for the info anyway.

Originally Posted by jjakes24

Touchscreen was not going through a bus powered hub, but instead a powered one. Doesn't matter anyway, I already gave up on the board. Thanks for the info anyway.

I know it's tough when things don't work. I've been there. But one of the reasons I wrote the review was more because of customer service, not the computer itself. Heck, anyone can build something and it not work. It really depends on what happens next that defines a company.

Chris will take care of you (or I'll delete all my posts Chris!). lol

He's a good guy. Just take a few breaths and start over.

Originally Posted by deeznudts

But you can toast your bagel on your way to work. Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll give it a shot this weekend. I think this is the first time I'm hoping it doesn't hit 80 here anytime soon.

Engine whine is magically gone, so never mind. lol

Originally Posted by danielkh

I know it's tough when things don't work. I've been there. But one of the reasons I wrote the review was more because of customer service, not the computer itself. Heck, anyone can build something and it not work. It really depends on what happens next that defines a company.

Chris will take care of you (or I'll delete all my posts Chris!). lol

He's a good guy. Just take a few breaths and start over.

Yeah, he already has taken care of everything. Thought I mentioned this but I met up with him yesterday and he is replacing the motherboard with the 1.2 celeron as I type this. I couldn't ask for any more in ways of customer service. I just told him I was fed up with jetway and just wanted to go with a different brand and he was completely understanding about it. I never blammed mobile computing solutions for my problems, rather jetway. I just wanted to make sure people know about the problems with jetway's c7's.

You did mention it. I'm just slow on my responses. Lol

My cpu just hit 70c+ after 3 hrs driving on a road trip. The trunk where my case is located was stuffed with luggage (so poor ventilation).

So now I am thinking about mounting an 80mm fan to the surface of the case. But I think the hole saw would just make a big mess from the heatsink-ish extrusions from the case. Maybe I will just end up improvising some type of cardboard ducting so that the cpu fan draws cool air directly from the outside rather than circulating the same inside stale air.

Anyone have any pics of fans added to their case?

I got this turbine fan from newegg, about 5 bucks I think. I cut a hole in the plate on the side near the PS. I have it blowing air into the case. I'm debating rotating the fan that came with the case 180 degrees to provide an exhaust. The hole was a ***** to cut, and I glued it on with gorilla glue which has been rock solid so far.



As you can see in the image the CPU is in a storage compartment in the trunk, I've added another fan to the flap to bring cooler air into the compartment.



I also am debating using that one as an exhaust, but it dosen't look nearly as cool upside down as it does right side up. I think the objective is to keep air flowing across the PS and chip, which I am curently not doing. Just blowing a bunch of air in. So far I've topped out at about 114 F (45 C) process, maybe 100 F (37 C) system on about a 2hour trip with 75 F outside temp.

If it gets much hotter I will turn around the case fan that came with, flip the one in the flap, and cut another hole in the flap to provide air to the turbine.

Hope this helps, There are a couple ideas further up the post as well....