Is PII(300mhz) dell laptop a feasbile starter carputer?

ruckus · 07-10-2007, 04:15 PM

I have an old dell latitude laptop lying around that my aunt gave me a while ago. I'm not even sure of exact specs, but I believe its around a 300mhz P2, 10 gig hd, and only 64 meg of ram. Ram situation seems easy to remedy and the only thing that doesn't work is the battery (though hooked directly to the ac power supply it runs fine), which shouldn't matter in a carpc installation anyway.

I was thinking of trying to get a few bucks for it on ebay but was curious if could serve as a feasible starter carputer. I'm designing a build for a future car of mine, but this could give me something free/cheap to fool with at first.

Is this just too underpowered? Or could it be salvaged for a few useful parts?

DarquePervert · 07-10-2007, 07:34 PM

Ot will work, sure.
I wouldn't expect a performance monster out of it, though. If all you want is an mp3 payer, it would work quite well.

ruckus · 07-10-2007, 08:57 PM

Thanks for the quick reply. It sounds tempting to play with a bit.

One of the things I definitely want to fool around with is the fusion brain. I'd like to get a handle on controlling various features of the car like cliimate control. Is that something that would require much in the terms of performance? Perhaps also a backup camera. Just trying to get an idea of how much I'd be able to take a few stabs at before the system would start to get in its own way

OUSilver05 · 07-11-2007, 05:37 PM

I've not messed with any of the phigit stuff, but 300 mhz would really be pushing it for anything more than mp3s.

jonessc · 07-11-2007, 05:45 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by OUSilver05

I've not messed with any of the phigit stuff, but 300 mhz would really be pushing it for anything more than mp3s.

just make sure you nlite your windows setup, so that you have the bare essentials to run wot you want the carputer to do for you, that may help with the performance slightly by lightening the load on the ram and hard drive space.

ruckus · 07-11-2007, 11:04 PM

Sweet, that sounds like it'll be worth a try then. I was thinking of reformatting the thing and throwing *nix on it anyway. I can always swap out this for an upgrade later and keep the major wiring in place right?

TruckinMP3 · 07-12-2007, 08:48 AM

Certainly worth the effort. Welcome to the Hamster Power club.

I an running a celeron 300a CPU. It handles music at less than 20% CPU load with a full install of XP pro.

jonessc · 07-12-2007, 05:04 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by TruckinMP3

Welcome to the Hamster Power Club.

DodgeCummins · 07-12-2007, 07:24 PM

Some of the posters have never tried using a slower machine obviously.

For 5 years I ran a 120mhz machine (Tablet PC type thing) and could run winamp, moving map software, and netstumber...all at the same time.

I test installed the RoadRunner plugin and all its goodness on a 233mhz version of the same machine.

You will have a hard time running any kind of decent quality video, but everything will work fine.

For good video/eyecandy, you will need a much faster machine.

TruckinMP3 · 07-12-2007, 11:27 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by DodgeCummins

Some of the posters have never tried using a slower machine obviously.

For 5 years I ran a 120mhz machine (Tablet PC type thing) and could run winamp, moving map software, and netstumber...all at the same time.

I test installed the RoadRunner plugin and all its goodness on a 233mhz version of the same machine.

You will have a hard time running any kind of decent quality video, but everything will work fine.

For good video/eyecandy, you will need a much faster machine.

I am with you on this. My first set up was a P200 it ran win2K pro and win amp easily. Very quite, easy to cool and cheap to power.

kostyanj · 07-20-2007, 08:36 PM

Sorry to put in my $.02, but why does everyone insist on using WinAmp? It's horrible bloated software.

TruckinMP3 · 07-20-2007, 09:52 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kostyanj

Sorry to put in my $.02, but why does everyone insist on using WinAmp? It's horrible bloated software.

Interesting... I am certain I do not count as everyone

I use an older version that runs just fine for me, not sure what 'bloat' you are referring to.

ThunderStick · 07-25-2007, 07:47 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kostyanj

Sorry to put in my $.02, but why does everyone insist on using WinAmp? It's horrible bloated software.

stupid newbie

ThunderStick · 07-25-2007, 07:50 PM

My opinion is, since you are going to take the dive. Do it right from the start. Purchase a better computer. There cheap on ebay a good p4 2.4 ghz can be had for about $150.00 (when you lucky) Dell SX260. You are going to spend all the money on power supplies and other stuff. Do it right and chip in the extra 100 - 200 bucks and get the right computer as well.
Just my opinion

kostyanj · 07-26-2007, 12:31 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by ThunderStick

stupid newbie

I love people who are tough online. But beyond that, I said that winamp is bloated because in my personal experience it takes forever to load and play on my 2.0 ghz laptop. Now if you're talking about older versions of Winamp then I can agree that that is one of the best audio players available. I don't like all the skins and new features in Winamp.