rakess

Hello,
I have been reading this forum for a while and well, I've always wanted to make a Car PC and the opportunity is about to come!!
I am getting a celica (gen 7, probably a 2000) very soon, and am all excited and would like to start planning and had a few questions. As I am a car PC noob I wanted to start with an easy install, so i was thinking of buying this:
http://store.mo-co-so.com/barebones-...ter-p-179.html
I really enjoy the fact that it is auto power on/off and the price is appealing.
Now for my first question:
Should I get a solid state hard drive or will a regular hard drive do fine? My rides shouldn't be too moving but I was wondering if a regular drive would suffice.

Luckily for me the Celica has a double Din dash, so the next thing i would buy would be a lilliput double din 7 inch touchscreen:
http://store.mo-co-so.com/double-din...tor-p-182.html
Seeing everyone work with bondo and fiberglass is appealing, but I think this would make for a cleaner option, and can easily be taken out which is nice if I need to resell, would you think cutting out the dash and installing a 7 inch touchscreen would be better? I am going to go to a car yard and try to find a celica and tear out the dash, like that if I mess it up its not an issue.

Do I need an amp to power my speakers?? I would like to just power the speakers from the PC, and then I have a powered sub already (sub with amp built in) so I wouldn't need any extra power.

Does anyone know what the "cable package" option is, I tried looking it up but found nothing.

So to recap, and add my extras, I would buy:
Barebones 4th Generation 1.6GHz Dual Core Car Computer
Solid state or normal hard drive
Lilliput double din in dash touchscreen
usb GPS (SiRF III USB GPS Receiver?"
External wifi receiver

Last question, When I buy this computer will I get the cable to plug in the power source??? Or do you think this comes just in the cable package?

Sorry for the long read and thank you very much for your replies, they are all very appreciated (unless its total spam that is).
Cheers!

MP3Car.com

 

strikeback03

I would imagine a cable to plug into the system and connect to the car wiring is included (a short one at least). I think the cable package is just extended cables to run from a computer to a screen farther away than the stock cables. You could e-mail mo-co-so and ask, they are helpful there. I would have bought the drop-in 7" display, but I found one already molded to my dash on another forum instead. I have a regular HDD in my RSX and have not had problems with it, if I do I'll get a SSD but I figured I'd save the money initially, if I have problems in the future SSDs are likely to be cheaper than they are now.

Edit: forgot to mention, what are your speakers powered by now? If they draw power straight from the HU, then you will need to either relocate the HU or install a separate amp. If they are already powered by another amp somewhere, then you should just be able to connect the computer output to that amp.

jpinkerton

Nice little setup there. I have had a great experience with MCS, they're quick to ship and quick with communication.


Most people have no problems with the desktop drives in their cars, however you're going to want to also look at your temp extremes. Where I'm at the temps do get very cold (-20) and can get very hot (100+). Right now I'm planning a laptop drive, but if that fails I'll move to a SSD. Similar to strikeback, by the time I go to buy an SSD it should be fairly cheap in comparison.


You could also look to Nexson on these forums and see if he'd have the time/what he'd charge to fabricate a dash for you. You could pull the dash that comes with your Celica, and send the dash from the junkyard to Nexson. He does great work and could likely fabricate something for you at a reasonable price.

Then just store the dash that comes with the Celica and if you ever go to sell you can easily swap out the dashes and not have to worry.


I honestly don't know the answer to this, what make/model is your sub with amp? You could try a live chat with the techs at Crutchfield.com and see if the sub w/ amp you have would work without a headunit in your Celica. I'm guessing it would, but hard to say 100%. If it doesn't or wouldn't they'll be able to recommend a decent amp for you.


E-mail MCS and see what that option is, like I said they're quick to respond.


You'll need to run fresh lines from the battery to the interior where you want to place your CarPC. You'll want to add up the AMP draw for your build, then read this guide - it has a chart in it that shows you the gauge of wire/fuse you'll need. My build is going to pull about 40AMPs, and that's rounding up.

If you're not comfortable running the wires or drilling into your car (in the event you cannot find a predrilled hole to pull the cables through) most car audio shops will do this for a small fee. I found one locally that will charge about $60 to do the drilling/pulling of cable for me.

There is a lot of information on these forums. Sometimes the forum search doesn't work for me so I go to Google and do a search like:

And I'll get more results. Also read through some of the items in the FAQ link in my signature, that'll help as well.


Have you found where you want to mount the computer? That was a tricky part for me.

Don't forget to take lots of pictures and detail your install in the Worklogs section!

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FAQ to the FAQ - Great Starting Point

My 1997 Chrysler Concorde Carputer

rakess

Thank you very much for the quick and detailed reply!!
Well it looks like I may need an amp, so what I was planning on doing was raising the trunk. What I mean by that is adding an extra layer to it, like that under i could put the computer and the amp, or just making a little wood box on the side. Luckily I have access to wood and mostly carpentry tools, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem, or I will see if I can mount it under the deck.

I will definitely get a normal hard drive, mostly because they have a special shock resisting placement for it which should be nice.

As for connecting to the battery, I don't mind drilling a bit and have already gone this way to connect a Subwoofer.

I should be getting my hands on the car in less than a month, totally overexcited.

Thanks again for the quick and detailed replies, they are VERY appreciated!

jpinkerton

As I'm sure you're aware wood doesn't vent quite like a normal case would, so if you mount it in wood be sure there's enough ventilation, especially if you're putting it in the trunk.

Can't wait to see final results, take lots of pics

__________________
FAQ to the FAQ - Great Starting Point

My 1997 Chrysler Concorde Carputer

strikeback03

If you do a false floor make sure you have a way for cool air to get in and warm air to get out.

MP3Car.com