Quote: Originally Posted by
Ruffy 
Just buying a cheap $100 dollar amp does nothing because you still have to get your signal TO the amp and thats what I was emphasizing. It's one of the biggest gripes about carpc's I see. Show me a cheap solution that gives high quality aftermarket like sound to an amp for under $100 that doesnt have induced audio noise, jitter problems, raises the noise floor. Every onboard solution ive tried in a car has audible noise, and to me that wont do. Hell my X-Fi Fatality on my homePC has audible noise if it's around any funky equipment.
I bought my bluetooth adapter for $6 bucks
And it works.
That being said at the end of the day a cheap carpc using a cheap usb sound or cheap pci sound card will not sound as good as something like a Pioneer Z1 or this. My shuttle doesnt sound good connected to my amps, or the higher end JL audio setup my friend has in his car using just 1/8" to RCA cable. The noise floor is incredibly high. My laptop has the same issue when connected to either setup. There's an audible hiss and the volume is low. My friend tried a carpc, went with a opus 250w for power, a mp3car store like carpc. Then ditched it after pouring alot of money trying to get the sound how he wanted it. Now he runs a Pioneer Z1 and can't be happier. We tried various usb/pci solutions for him, Even went into the audiophile range of sound cards and none compare to the aftermarket unit. His car PC is now his HTPC.
What speakers are you using with your x-fi??
I can remember the first computer I had. It was a AMD K6-2 500Mhz with a MASSIVE 20gb hard drive and HUGE 128mb SD RAM! That thing was SCHWEET! lol I can remember when browsing the internet, I could hear zzzzzzz sounds coming from the speakers when they were at medium to high volumes!! Really annoying, but hey, when your young, you have to beg your parents for everything, and this must have been a good 10-13 years ago!!
My second computer was entirely picked by me using the components I thought were best bang for the buck so to speak as I only saved up a little bit of money, It was absolutely gorgeous! Infact I still have it, turned it into a HTPC and recently donated it to a friend whose laptop fried!
Everything was onboard and integrated into the motherboard! Integrated Nvidia Geforce 4 graphics core that could actually play Farcry!! Ok so I used to get my *** whooped because the framerate could have been a little better, but was adequate!
It had a amzingly fast AMD Athlon XP 2200+, 512Mb DDR RAM and a massive 80gb hard drive which I thought I would never fill!
It also had an integrated 5.1 Nvidia Soundstorm chip, which was tonnes better than the old computers, no more general hissing, but sometimes would get a little inteference but nothing too major!
My current and newest computer is a beast! Although I do wish i did not go for the "best of the best and the latest"
This computer currently has over 2tb of Hard drives, dual 8800GTX's, a very pretty motherboard with loads of little lights everywhere, 2Gb of the fastest RAM and errm....an Athlon 64 AM2 3500+..........I ran out of money to buy a dual core lol
I also slotted in a Creative Audigy 2 ZS soundcard and hooked up some THX certified Creative S750's 7.1 surround sound speakers....pure 700w RMS of power...122.4dB!!
With this new computer, I hear absolutely NO inteference. There is even no inteference when I am talking on my mobile phone...even when its next to the speaker/amp!
After all what's the point of having a kickass soundcard but the standard speakers that you got for $30? I believe inteference is not only the soundcards fault, but other components within the computer and the speakers themselves!
Oh and just to let you all know how much I spent on my carPC so far.....slash the car...i havent passed my driving test yet lol
Anyway, I bought a faulty Via M10000 on ebay for £15 3-4 years ago
£4 for some replacement capacitors for the motherboard
£13.50 for a used USB GPS unit that uses the SIRFIII Chipset and uses NMEA protocol
£12.50 for a Creative external USB soundcard
£5 for 512mb DDR RAM
£60 for an Opus 150w PSU and a Carnetix p1900 140w Power regulator
£2 for a powered USB hub with some flashy lights
I will either use a spare 120Gb 2.5" HDD or a spare 320Gb 3.5" HDD...or may put in a 500Gb
That is my current expenditure so far, with operating system COA coming from an old laptop and probably using RR.
If I wanted to build a computer capable of running Vista for cheap to be used inside a car, I would buy the following:
Mobo: Albatron KI690-AM2 - 17x17cm ITX mobo which supports desktop processors and has the fastest integrated graphics core available which is a ATi X1250 and also has HD 7.1 channel surround sound. This motherboard was built purely for use as a HTPC!!
CPU: AMD Athlon BE 2300
RAM: 2x512mb Laptop DIMM's
All this can easily be aquired for approx £200 which is roughly $380!! I just wished they would go ahead and release the damn motherboard already!
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