Connecting Hardware

MK17 · 04-30-2009, 10:41 PM

I am planning my Car PC to install in my 2002 Chevy Silverado and have a lot of questions about what cables I need to connect this to that. I start off with a line up of the gear I am looking at using. I am definitely willing to change if something will help me more or increase performance.

Motherboard
Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard
HD
Seagate Momentus 7200.3 2.5" SATA Notebook Hard Drive
DVD Drive
SAMSUNG Slot-in Slim DVD Writer
Turtle Beach RIVIERA PCI Sound Card

Do a need a special cable to connect the HD?
I plan on mounting my DVD drive in the dash and my PC in the Center console so i need a cord long enough for that. Do I need a USB DVD Drive?
I posted this in the newb section before I realized I had more questions but can I connect the sound card to the motherboard.

Thanks,
Michael

SwiftDeath · 04-30-2009, 10:51 PM

What do you mean by HD? HD Radio?

That motherboard should be fine. Segate laptop drives are usually quite nice and reliable.A slot-loaded dvd player is definatley a good idea. Turtle Beach makes good budget level sound cards. Assuming your dvd is sata then you don't need to convert it to usb so long as your center console is within 3 m. And yes that sound card can be connected to the motherboard.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

MK17 · 04-30-2009, 11:18 PM

By HD I meant Hard Drive, maybe the typical acronym is HDD? Though I do plan on adding HD Radio later, but at the moment I am looking at the main hardware.

Do the DVD drives typically come with the SATA cable? or were you refering to the max length SATA cable you can buy.

jpinkerton · 04-30-2009, 11:48 PM

That drive you picked out will not come with the SATA cable.

I would check www.monoprice.com also for prices on their cables, and compare their price+shipping to the price+shipping for a cable from Newegg.

Same goes for the hard drive - it doesn't come with a cable, and your motherboard only comes with one cable, so you'll be able to hook up the dvd drive or the hard drive but not both until you get another cable.

What power supply are you going to get?

MK17 · 05-01-2009, 08:11 AM

I am looking at getting the M2-ATX.

DarquePervert · 05-01-2009, 01:53 PM

You've obviously never built your own computer, MK17. If you've build a PC before, you'd understand how the components all go together.

I don't recommend building your first-ever PC for the vehicle. You can learn a lot by building a PC for your desktop (or a friend or family member) to get a feel for how everything goes together, then apply that knowledge & experience into building a system to install in your ride.

MK17 · 05-01-2009, 02:44 PM

Honestly, I think I will be fine. I plan on building this and getting it configured before installing it in the truck. I am a lot smarter then may questions may lead you to believe.

Now for a few more dumb questions

What are these connections?

Close ups

skeet2331 · 05-01-2009, 02:50 PM

I'm not trying to be rude but we are not going to spoon feed you on how to build a computer. Do some

and all your answers will come to life. We are all more then willing to help you if you encounter any problems along the way.

SwiftDeath · 05-01-2009, 02:56 PM

The white plug should be a 4 pin power connector so that the CPU gets enough power to operate. The other ones are less clear, could be usb, firewire, random cd cabling thing (Seen an old style cd sound connector on a newer mobo b4 trust me it was weird).

Follow this link. You should probably download the product guide. Page 11 has a good diagram.

MK17 · 05-01-2009, 02:57 PM

I understand that, I know this forum hates spoon feeding and so do I so i I try to search it before I ask, but if I search this forum I get sidetracked for HOURS on other stuff

. Guess I need to try harder on searching

I searched for some diagrams that would have it on there but couldn't find anything. If I'm overlooking an FAQ or you know of where I can find this information please point me in that direction

MK17 · 05-01-2009, 02:58 PM

Answered my question before I could type it

thanks!

skeet2331 · 05-01-2009, 03:09 PM

As Swftdeath has shown

.

SwiftDeath · 05-01-2009, 03:12 PM

I apologised if I went too far. I had hoped that if he had the appropriate technical info he could take it from there.

My apologies

I am new to forums and I did read all the policies I could find. I suppose the more you give, the more people will expect later on.

sharpmusic · 05-02-2009, 12:30 PM

As far as I'm concerned there is nothing wrong with pointing someone in the right direction. I'm sure most of the sense of fulfillment of building a Carputer comes from doing the research and the grunt work of installing it (Failure and success). Which could prove to be expensive.

When I started my project I had a very hard time figuring out how to apply the information that I researched to my specific car model. it became apparent that there were so many Camry's out there on the road but there weren't many with car computers. Personally, if I could save someone the trouble I had to go through, It wouldn't bother me at all.

jpinkerton · 05-02-2009, 03:59 PM

I think they're more concerned about helping to a point.
What is Spoon Feeding
How To Search

I think Darque was right, if you haven't built a computer yet it might not be a bad idea to build yourself one (even for cheap, you can build one for $300ish off sites like www.newegg.com) so that you understand it a bit better.

It does not hurt to ask questions but there is a lot of information of the forums already and Google.

Once you have an idea together there's a Newbie - Proposed Setup section you can post in to get ideas and feedback from.

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