MP3Car.com - View Single Post - I.D. a processor to start a Car Computer System.

Jistari · 12-10-2007, 05:04 AM

Alrighty then, some quantitative opinions needed.

I'm pretty square on building a desktop, and although my experience is a little dated, I can find my way through the
advantages/differences among various technical specs (i.e. the difference between a P4 class machine and a Core 2
Duo, or the impact of a faster front side bus speed) for a desktop but I find myself out of my depth when trying to
evaluate the relative processing power of the types of processors available for mobile computing.

What I'd like to end up with is the Xenarc MDT X7000 head unit (so that will take care of AM/FM CD DVD and the XM
music feed through RCA jacks, all right in the head) and a car computer to handle Internet Browsing, Blue Tooth Phone
access, NAV, a front end and the XM station feed so I can control it from the head.

I would think that a straight Pentium M class processor with a seperate video card (64 or hopefully 128 meg) and a meg of memory running Win XP
would handle the load well enough, but do get the feeling that offloading the graphics proscessing to a GPU may
increase the power and cooling requirement past the point of easey trouble free operation in a mobile environment.

The car (a 2001 Corvette is blessed with a beefy alternator/battery/electrical system) also has a well founded
reputation as a power hungry beast (theres nine computers in there from GM, this is not a car you let sit all winter
and expect the battery to be ok in the spring, I keep it on a battery tender), so I'm endeavouring to build this
system as properly as I can to maintain its usefullness with as little impact to the rest of the systems in the car
as possible.

I feel that once I can ID the proper proscessor, I can probably stumble through selecting the rest of the components
based on past experience, reading here, and the help of you fine people :-) .

My problem :

I've been reading for about a week now, but there is a lotta suff out there. You can redily find the specs on a
processor or a motherboard, but it is often difficult to compare one unit to another when you havent used either.
They all say "blah. . .blah . .powerfull graphics processing engine . . .able to handle the most demanding
applications . . ." so that really leaves you right where you started (they all cant be right :-) ).

I dont need the fastest system out there. Im not going to be playing games on it. It just needs to be able to run the
front end, put the xm data up on the head, play digital music off the hard drive and browse the internet at wi-fi
hotspots (that stuff should be handled by pretty much any of them (correct me if Im wrong) and run a software based
Nav off the Hard Drive <== that would be the most demanding application I would guess.
It will be in a good car computer type case, with a good auto grade power controller.

What I need :

Can someone answer a few qualitative/quantitative questions for me ?

==>Am I correct in thinking that a P4 or Pm processor would be up to that task?

==>How powerful (in relation to current desktop processors) are the mobile like the Via C7's (or even E15000).

==>Is it feasable to be looking at a desktop CPU with a seperate video card, or can the mobile processors handle
running the system and also doing the video?

==>Just to give me something to work with, can someone please ID 1) The most powerful mobile processor out there
right now and 2) the least powerful one that would be likely to handle the load I described above. If I can establish
a range, I can move forward on selecting the other components. As I mentioned, if it were a desktop Id be ok. I
would know that the bottom end would be a P4 or Pm and the top would be a Quad Core, but I would also know that I
dont need the Quad :-) (see my problem :-) ).

I know better than to ask which front end or Nav package works best :-) but . . .if you want to chime in, I will
gladly add your insight to those choices when I get there, after the hardware stuff gets sorted out.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you may provide.

12-10-2007, 05:04 AM	#1
Jistari Constant Bitrate Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: New York Posts: 169	I.D. a processor to start a Car Computer System. Alrighty then, some quantitative opinions needed. I'm pretty square on building a desktop, and although my experience is a little dated, I can find my way through the advantages/differences among various technical specs (i.e. the difference between a P4 class machine and a Core 2 Duo, or the impact of a faster front side bus speed) for a desktop but I find myself out of my depth when trying to evaluate the relative processing power of the types of processors available for mobile computing. What I'd like to end up with is the Xenarc MDT X7000 head unit (so that will take care of AM/FM CD DVD and the XM music feed through RCA jacks, all right in the head) and a car computer to handle Internet Browsing, Blue Tooth Phone access, NAV, a front end and the XM station feed so I can control it from the head. I would think that a straight Pentium M class processor with a seperate video card (64 or hopefully 128 meg) and a meg of memory running Win XP would handle the load well enough, but do get the feeling that offloading the graphics proscessing to a GPU may increase the power and cooling requirement past the point of easey trouble free operation in a mobile environment. The car (a 2001 Corvette is blessed with a beefy alternator/battery/electrical system) also has a well founded reputation as a power hungry beast (theres nine computers in there from GM, this is not a car you let sit all winter and expect the battery to be ok in the spring, I keep it on a battery tender), so I'm endeavouring to build this system as properly as I can to maintain its usefullness with as little impact to the rest of the systems in the car as possible. I feel that once I can ID the proper proscessor, I can probably stumble through selecting the rest of the components based on past experience, reading here, and the help of you fine people :-) . My problem : I've been reading for about a week now, but there is a lotta suff out there. You can redily find the specs on a processor or a motherboard, but it is often difficult to compare one unit to another when you havent used either. They all say "blah. . .blah . .powerfull graphics processing engine . . .able to handle the most demanding applications . . ." so that really leaves you right where you started (they all cant be right :-) ). I dont need the fastest system out there. Im not going to be playing games on it. It just needs to be able to run the front end, put the xm data up on the head, play digital music off the hard drive and browse the internet at wi-fi hotspots (that stuff should be handled by pretty much any of them (correct me if Im wrong) and run a software based Nav off the Hard Drive <== that would be the most demanding application I would guess. It will be in a good car computer type case, with a good auto grade power controller. What I need : Can someone answer a few qualitative/quantitative questions for me ? ==>Am I correct in thinking that a P4 or Pm processor would be up to that task? ==>How powerful (in relation to current desktop processors) are the mobile like the Via C7's (or even E15000). ==>Is it feasable to be looking at a desktop CPU with a seperate video card, or can the mobile processors handle running the system and also doing the video? ==>Just to give me something to work with, can someone please ID 1) The most powerful mobile processor out there right now and 2) the least powerful one that would be likely to handle the load I described above. If I can establish a range, I can move forward on selecting the other components. As I mentioned, if it were a desktop Id be ok. I would know that the bottom end would be a P4 or Pm and the top would be a Quad Core, but I would also know that I dont need the Quad :-) (see my problem :-) ). I know better than to ask which front end or Nav package works best :-) but . . .if you want to chime in, I will gladly add your insight to those choices when I get there, after the hardware stuff gets sorted out. Thank you in advance for any assistance you may provide. __________________ PDP1170/TRS80/Atari800XL/Amiga500/286/486/P2/P4/C2D still a newb (but an old newb, been doing this a while) working my way up to "Complete Newb" Last edited by Jistari; 12-10-2007 at 05:19 AM.

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