2008 St Louis Area Meet - Page 5

boomintrac · 04-20-2008, 12:32 AM

Happy to be part of the first St. Louis meet, and great to meet all the STL people. Im gonna try to squeeze the next one in depending on when in June it is, and mabye I can get a few more chicagoians down.
Well I just got home so I'm beat.
Later Aron

Machinehead · 04-20-2008, 07:08 AM

That was a lot of fun. It was cool to finally meet some other nuts like myself. Can't wait for the next one. Thanks again for hosting Gizmo!

Quote: Originally Posted by GizmoQ

(Lilliput transflexive

in an Xterra)

Yet the worst looking in dash install. I have some work to do to keep up with the rest of the gang.

slash · 04-20-2008, 11:33 AM

It was nice to meet and hang out with the rest of the geeks... I mean guys... weather wasnt too bad, no down pours. I gained a ton of information that will help me in my system.

Look forward to the next one, hell, I'll even have the show truck at the next one!

slash · 04-21-2008, 09:43 AM

So the motivation bug is kicking me in the butt, and I am itching to start buying parts... damn you guys for getting me more excited about building my system.

I have been leaning toward the M4-ATX 250W Intelligent DC-DC PSU or the Mp3Car DSATX 220 Watt Automotive Power Supply

How good/bad would this be as far as power consumption
BIOSTAR AM2VCOMB34S AMD Sempron 3400+ AM2 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX Motherboard/CPU Combo

and I decided to drop a few pics for the June Meeting Teaser

Air Management

Brakes

Last Nights project... will finish the second layer tonight

This is the dash I'll be working with. I will be eliminitating the vents entirely and have the whole useable space where the vents, radio, and HVAC controls were to mold all my goodies in.

Machinehead · 04-21-2008, 09:59 AM

That truck is going to be so sick when you finish it.

slash · 04-21-2008, 10:23 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Machinehead

That truck is going to be so sick when you finish it.

The optional word there is "when" I finish it.

I was out there for 6 hours last night hitting the sound deadener and some miscellaneous stuff.

We'll probably finish the deadener on the firewall and floor tonight, then get my dash back in for test fitment and to see what I can and cannot mount behind the glovebox.

If it works out, I'll build a custom mounting box directly behind the glovebox to mount my CarPc. I really hope I have the room, as if I can, I'll set it up so that the glovebox can be dropped to access the MOBO.

Any thoughts on that MOBO/CPU I posted above?

nst6563 · 04-21-2008, 10:32 AM

Yes...I'd like to see it when it's finished.

And since everyone liked the ~12 sec boot I had, I'm going to put together a disc which has all the registry tweaks plus the lastsession.ini and possibly even a full unattended install with most of the tweaks in place already. I'll also throw in a script to automate the setup of EWF/HORM for those that are insterested in that as well.

So far, for the unattended setup I've got the following in place:
Registry Tweaks ( I think there's possibly over 100 of them...the list is very long and I didn't feel like counting)
7zip
Flash
winamp 5.35
Road Runner (May include DFX3 and Carwings Skins...haven't decided yet)
Microsoft Bootvis (for optimizing Boot times)
Latest version of DirectX
.Net 1.1 & 2.0
Xport3

I just need to build the disc and give it a test run. So far I can include that list in both XP and Server2003. So I may make one for each.

If there's anything that may need to be added to the list let me know.

slash · 04-21-2008, 10:37 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by nst6563

Yes...I'd like to see it when it's finished.

And since everyone liked the ~12 sec boot I had

that 12 sec boot is bad *** bro.

nst6563 · 04-21-2008, 10:43 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by slash

Any thoughts on that MOBO/CPU I posted above?

I'd say for for the 250w psu with that setup just to give yourself extra headroom. My original board I was running a 3.06Ghz P4, 1Gb Ram, 2x 2.5" 5400rpm drives, USB hub, 7" Lilliput touchscreen, 30w Altec Lansing stereo speakers (tucked away behind the dash to hear GPS directions while on the factory CD/Radio) on an Opus 150w. I have plenty of headroom now that I dropped the board and chip to the Intel LittleValley with a 1.3Ghz Celeron (Conroe-L) that only uses about 30w max compared to the 80w of the previous.

slash · 04-21-2008, 11:00 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by nst6563

I'd say for for the 250w psu with that setup just to give yourself extra headroom. My original board I was running a 3.06Ghz P4, 1Gb Ram, 2x 2.5" 5400rpm drives, USB hub, 7" Lilliput touchscreen, 30w Altec Lansing stereo speakers (tucked away behind the dash to hear GPS directions while on the factory CD/Radio) on an Opus 150w. I have plenty of headroom now that I dropped the board and chip to the Intel LittleValley with a 1.3Ghz Celeron (Conroe-L) that only uses about 30w max compared to the 80w of the previous.

I recall you mentioning that setup a few times...

Supposedly the AM2 has less draw. I'm hoping this will be a good MOBO/CPU combo, I got a post in the Hardware section where I have been asking opinions on the hardware. If I get another couple of people to say it is a good board, I'm going to order it and ram asap. And I am also looking at options on sound cards.

Machinehead · 04-21-2008, 11:39 AM

You could do on-board to a processor, or something like the Auzentech X-Meridian, although it appears that card has been discontinued. M-Audio is an option too, they make a couple of internal cards the Delta 1010LT does what the Firewire 410 does but it's internal.

If you can get a card that does ASIO you can tune your system via software.

Edit: I was looking at Boomin's install this morning, he did a really nice glove box install.

nst6563 · 04-21-2008, 11:39 AM

yeah, it should definately have less draw and you could probably get away with a smaller power supply. I like to have a bit of headroom though as everything in the car directly related to the PC, I run off the PC's power supply. That, and it's definately not a good thing to run your PSU close to max capacity all the time as it will greatly reduce it's lifetime (at least this is the case for standard desktop PSU's...I'd assume the same holds true for DC-DC versions as well).

I have an Auzentech X-Mystique and it's great. You can still find the X-Mystique, X-Plosion, and X-Meridian on Ebay. If you're using the Analogue out though, I highly suggest upgrading the op-amps as it makes a very big difference. Different Opamps produce different sound as well, some are crisp/sharp, and others produce more melow natural sound.

boomintrac · 04-21-2008, 01:06 PM

Thanks Machinehead, It would be better if I had the bright screen though.

I to am a big believer in having more power. I know that I reccomended the DSATX, But I didnt know that Minibox released the M4, The M2's have been real reliable to me and the Minibox PSU's really hate it when they are ran close to the edge.

BTW Im RSVP'ing for the June meet already, and next time I will be staying at our friends house in Springfield, taht was a long drive at night.
Aron

mjb_ · 04-21-2008, 01:16 PM

Sign me up for June as well. The plans I had here fell through and I ended up spending all weekend sitting around twiddling my thumbs. Totally not cool!

slash · 04-21-2008, 01:27 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by boomintrac

I to am a big believer in having more power. I know that I reccomended the DSATX, But I didnt know that Minibox released the M4, The M2's have been real reliable to me and the Minibox PSU's really hate it when they are ran close to the edge.

BTW Im RSVP'ing for the June meet already, and next time I will be staying at our friends house in Springfield, taht was a long drive at night.
Aron

Yeah, I've was alreadying eyeing the M2s and M3s before the meet, now that I see the M4s are on their way, I think I am going to get one rather quickly.

Look forward to seeing you again for the June meet.