asking about old laptop as car pc

tukangjagal · 05-18-2006, 09:58 AM

guys... i have an old MITAC pentium 2 laptop. i have decided to put it into my car as my entertainment system.. means it will permanently attached to the car, because my head unit already spoiled. but i have few question before i do this

1. will the vibration caused by the car will affect the system in the laptop such as hanging?
2. is the laptops hardisk shockproof?
3. will the cd skip when i play it while i'm driving?
4. i have only 2 usb slots... i'm planing to connect 8 ports usb hub to the laptop.. are there any problem if i do that?
5. considering my system is only pentium 2 400 mhz, will there any laging in playing dvd?
6. are there any problem if i use 10 meter usb cable to attach every single of my external device to my laptop?

here are the list of my device that i would like to install
1. external creative soundcard
2. external tv tuner
3. external dvd rom
4. alpine 5.1 power amp

input, sugestion and coments are really appreciated...
thx guys...

DarquePervert · 05-18-2006, 10:10 AM

First of all, you need to head over to the FAQ Emporium and do lots of reading. You're going to want to read up on the isues that are specific to laptops in a car, as there are specific issues you're going to have to contend with.

1. Unlikely.
2. No HDD is shockproof. Laptop HDDs are better protected from shock by design, however.
3. It might if you hit a big bump while it's playing.
4. A powered USB hub needs power, but that's the only issue I know if.
5. Play a DVD on the laptop before you put it in the car to find out.
6. Again, try it outside of the car to test. There could be issues, but you're not going to know until you try.

b8bboi · 05-18-2006, 10:27 AM

Your 400mhz CPU won't be able to handle all those extra devices. Yes, DVD/Divx will lag but yeah, try it out and see for yourself. Do you even have USB 2.0? If not, forget about all the external soundcard, tuner, etc.

Un_discovered · 05-18-2006, 01:33 PM

Have you ever heard of the term; "System Requirements"?
I highly doubt that a Pentium II is going to do anything for you if you want a setup like that.
There is little chance that a 200MHz will play DVD.
But yeah, do some serious reading.
All of that would work, on a better laptop.
But not that.
No sirree.

WarDriver · 05-25-2006, 01:45 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Un_discovered

Have you ever heard of the term; "System Requirements"?
I highly doubt that a Pentium II is going to do anything for you if you want a setup like that.
There is little chance that a 200MHz will play DVD.
But yeah, do some serious reading.
All of that would work, on a better laptop.
But not that.
No sirree.

Easy with the flaming on the new guy. He asked legitimate questions...(speaking of reading...) he is dealing with a 400mhz not a 200mhz. It also depends on his OS. I know of several linux flavors that would run all those quite nicely on 400mhz w/256 of ram.

Now OP you will probably get into some issues with the TV capture card. Most laptops have very low video ram, and if you plan on running Windows, you might want to scrap the TV card. Oh, and if you do not have a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card you might want to invest in one especially if you are external DVD. I might have a used one laying around you can PM me if you'd like to make an offer on it.

Un_discovered · 05-25-2006, 01:54 PM

Just re-reading what I said.
Where the hell did I get 200MHz from then o.O
I musta had a long day that day...

Genesisfactor · 05-25-2006, 02:10 PM

Hehe, i get those sometimes.

Tuk, your dvds will play if you have sufficient ram. Its not going to be a powerhouse, but i mean, 400MHz, using XP and 320MB of ram will do you fine.

Skip the TV tuner card and don't bother with DVD unless your'e getting PC card as USB won't cut it (tried it with a 600Mhz P3-M Transnote and it was choppy as all hell over USB). PC card based sound is a good idea also, although USB would work well too. However, i say save your precious CPU for more other things that aren't as intensvie, and let the much more capable PCMCIA cardbus take that load. The PC card bus will run the other stuff great no problem

.

10ft shoudl be fine, but try not to over do it, there is a limit for USB. Its like 25ft or something