over-measured hardware

jospfh · 03-11-2003, 09:52 AM

Hi,

It's nice to see other people are building nice stuff too.

But one thing I don't understand, why do a lot of people use such over-measured hardware?

What I mean is, you don't need a P4 2GHz to play DivX, XviD, DVD etc. A 800Mhz is more than sufficient. You might even consider using a 400Mhz or even lower when not playing movies and only use music and gps.
And for those only playing mp3s, a pentium I system is enough. Even a 486 DX2 66Mhx will do when using DOS or linux!

The same with graphic cards. For playing movies you don't require a super mega fast 3D chip and tons of memory. As long as it supports DMA (Direct Memory Access).
Before I had a dualhead card I used a 8Mb pci card along with my GeForce AGP to play movies on an other screen.
For playing mp3s only a LCD character display, connected to the parallel port, will do.

The reason I came up with this is that there is not much to find on 'mp3-only' systems in this board. And I was wondering what you guys think about my opinion.

Jospfh

PTCruiser · 03-11-2003, 10:05 AM

Most of people don't care that their system is on a battery...

It's not a std PC @ home!

Personnaly I have a small EPIA M9000 933Mhz (~PIII 450 Mhz CPU power...) and GPS/DVD/Divx/mp3 work perfectly...

I don't need a PIV system on my car...

I don't rip dvd or code or play game while driving....
It's a Car computer not a home computer => not the same CPU need.

Rob Withey · 03-11-2003, 10:08 AM

I completely agree. For mp3-only systems you don't need much. I'm running a fairly modest P233 with 128Mb and a 4x20 VFD. Keeps the power consumption down too which means I don't have to fork out for expensive power supplies.

For watching movies though, you need a little more cpu grunt, and a lot of pople use P3 class machines for this - don't know of anyone using a 2.4 GHz P4. Good luck to them powering it if they do.

Rob

Rob Withey · 03-11-2003, 10:12 AM

I take it all back about the P4 thing. I just seen the specs on srz3's vanputer...!!!

That is powerful, but for what?

Rob

phil.45 · 03-11-2003, 10:18 AM

Most people dont use high power CPUs for the same reason manufacturers dont shove P4's into VCRs or washing machines - They need more current to drive them, take more cooling, and would be a waste. Im not really into video editing or CAD in my car, so theres no point in using a high spec for what is effectively an embedded appliance.

ShinkunoNamida · 03-11-2003, 12:01 PM

I'll jump on the bandwaggon here.. while I do have a dvd drive (which hasn't even seen my car yet) It's just a dvd drive that I use because it's that slim slot loading one, and I will be using it to play cds, and in the future DVDRW with mp3s

Listing "DVD" as a feature is just fluff

I have an epia800 bare minimum for running DVDs etc.. I don't even open the tft screen really unless there is something wrong with the system, and I need to figure out what.

edit: ooo I guess I use the screen for GPS when I go on road trips too! forgot about that.

TruckinMP3 · 03-11-2003, 12:55 PM

Overpowered PCs.... well I'll be putting in a DVD playing system for the kids to watch movies in the Suburban.

for cost/heat and power reasins it will probably be a P3 CPU

For that matter we have very few reasons to have anything more that a p3 850 or so for any common home application.

I think of common home apps like:
email
office apps
web browser
most games

play MP3/DVD/DIVX

Encoding video, high end photo/video editing can be done with a p3 system loaded up with RAM..... Just faster with a high end P4.

MP3DUB · 03-11-2003, 01:02 PM

I don't know, but I can speculate that its because of the falling prices on those superfast systems that they're making their ways into peoples projects. Some (bleeding edge) people are also bound to have "cast off" parts that are still insanely fast just sitting around gathering dust. There are also probably some power users that figure bigger is better in any instance, so they go balls out on a carpc. I'm now using an epia setup, but back when I had a duron, I basically had a LAN box with me where ever I went, which also has to account for a few people who want a gamable pc with them wherever they go.

ShinkunoNamida · 03-11-2003, 01:06 PM

that brings to mind this ridiculous idea we had for a "caraLAN" basically a bunch of cars with gamable computers and wirless networking crusing down the highway with the passengers gaming. Why? "because" I suppose

Never got past the concept stage of this, but I'm sure something like this would get attention from european news sources, who seem to have a love affair with "geek" stunts.

TruckinMP3 · 03-11-2003, 01:49 PM

I saw (maybe here) a vid clip of 2 cars passing a network cable so they could play one of the console systems "linked" or multi player.....

each vehicle had a driver, player and a 3rd to handle the cable...

MP3DUB · 03-11-2003, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TruckinMP3
I saw (maybe here) a vid clip of 2 cars passing a network cable so they could play one of the console systems "linked" or multi player.....

each vehicle had a driver, player and a 3rd to handle the cable...

Yeah, it was with 2 xboxes by some gaming clan.

CaffeineAddict · 03-11-2003, 03:18 PM

I remember that, I believe it was posted here, Halo on Xbox if im not mistaken.

Edit: You beat me to it MP3DUB

TruckinMP3 · 03-11-2003, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CaffeineAddict
I remember that, I believe it was posted here, Halo on Xbox if im not mistaken.

Edit: You beat me to it MP3DUB

That is it.... crazy...... reasonably safe, they disconnected teh cable to let someone pass.... then resumed the game.
I guess it was because they could.

frodobaggins · 03-12-2003, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ShinkunoNamida
that brings to mind this ridiculous idea we had for a "caraLAN" basically a bunch of cars with gamable computers and wirless networking crusing down the highway with the passengers gaming. Why? "because" I suppose Never got past the concept stage of this, but I'm sure something like this would get attention from european news sources, who seem to have a love affair with "geek" stunts.

Wifi Caravan

http://www.via.com.tw/en/Digital%20L...iFiCaravan.jsp
http://www.cubicmetercrystal.com/wificaravan/
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=243

jospfh · 03-12-2003, 07:17 AM

Good to know I'm not the only one who thinks some people use overmeasured hardware. Although I understand that it is a hobby we are talking about, so why not implement your crazy idea's.

I'll stick to my 133 Mhz system

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