GiantStickMan

Hi, I'm new to the forum and i thought i'd introduce myself, my intended project, and get some thoughts and opinions.

I'm the owner of a 1996 R33 Nissan Skyline GTS-T, recently put in a JVC KD-DV9406 (fantastic deck!), 800W Class D amp, 2 x 12" Alpine Type R subwoofers, a 300W inverter running a modified PS2 that boots from a 160gb HD, and a Xenarc 700IDT screen.

Now it's time to go the whole hog and put in the CarPC.

So far the build will include

Zotac 9300 D-E iTX Wi-fi
Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8ghz
Seagate 320GB 7200RPM HD
4GB Kingston DDR2 800mhz
M2-ATX PSU
VoomPC Case
Possibly also an external USB DVD drive at some point however this is not a priority.

The VoomPC case apparently supports up to 3 fans without having to hack it up, and since it's going in my boot, noise isn't a huge concern. Has anyone had experience with a similar CPU in this case?

Primarily the PC will be used to play music, media files, and emulate PSX games (i have a USB adapter so i can use the PS2 controller already in the car for the CarPC).

I welcome any input/thoughts/suggestions!

MP3Car.com

 

oneillium

Your HDD, is it a desktop or laptop style drive? If it is a desktop drive, you may want to consider going with a laptop drive as they designed to deal with harsher environments like those found in a car.

DarquePervert

Yet so many users have run desktop HDDs in their cars for years. Some have even lived through vehicle-totalling accidents.

The idea that a desktop HDD is so much more susceptible toproblems in a vehicle environment is, in my opinion, completely baseless.

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TheGuv

Well I've got two external drives that have 3.5" HDDs in them and they're both dead due to being carried around with my laptop so much lol... Considering there's very little if any price difference I'd go for a 2.5 lappy HDD.

frankrizzo

I had a desktop drive run fine for 3 years. I mounted it solid to my custom fabbed case in a vertical position...I figured the forces avoided against the platters in this position would help with longevity (i was right). The drive only got 'killed' when my car was hit hard enough to spin directly perpendicular to the HDD. worked but had totally dead sectors, assuming a head crash. BTW i'm in lower new england....notorious for potholes.
my.02

Maheriano

Nice choice on the car, too bad it's not a GTR though. We're not allowed Skylines here under 15 years old.

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Ampie Case
2.5" Hard Drive 80GB Samsung 5400RPM
256 MB DDR2 PC5400
Xenarc 700TSV - VGA Monitor
Intel D945GCLF Motherboard
M2-ATX-HV

2005 Honda Civic

GiantStickMan

The GTR was a little out of my price range! That being said, i think a lot of people underrate the GTS-T simply because 'it's not the GTR.'

The hard drive is a 2.5" designed for notebooks, can't say i gave much thought to it beyond it's speed. The harddrive in the PS2 is a 3.5" IDE drive and despite the fact i drive over a dirt road every day, it hasn't skipped a beat yet.

strikeback03

There is someone running around my area with an R33 GT-R. Knew the right people to get it imported I guess.

While 2.5" drives might be more durable simply due to less mass in the platters to bounce around, probably the biggest reason to use a 2.5" drive is that it fits in that case. Never used that case, so sorry, can't speak to whether it can move enough air to cool the processor or not.

MP3Car.com

 

Punky

I've used over 10 HD over the past 3 - 4 years, consumer grade 3.5" is always superior to 2.5" for all of my experience. Partly because its cold here, and laptop HDD is just doesn't work. Even in the summer though, my 3.5" outperform my 2.5".

GiantStickMan

I've got a question about powering this system.

I've revised some of the parts and want to know if the M2-ATX power supply will work for this system

Zotac 9300-D-E
Celeron D 440 @ 2.00ghz (got it for a steal but *may* upgrade later, 35W TDP)
Kingston 2gb DDR2 800mhz RAM
1 x 320GB Seagate SATA HD

I've just bought a Mo-Co-So case with support for a PCI card and this got me thinking... could the M2-ATX supply enough power to run an Asus Geforce EN9400GT? It doesn't need an additional power connector and only draws 33W at it's maximum load.

Using this calculator http://www.antec.outervision.com/PSUEngine i've estimated peak load to be about 126W, and that includes 2 powered USB devices and more fans that what i will probably be running (just to give that extra headroom)
Will this proposed setup be ok?

I understand that the M2-ATX can supply 160W, but the talk of rails etc confuses me somewhat.

Any help appreciated!

TheGuv

Think you'll find the card beyond the resources of the system tbh, why would you want to use such a card or a mini-itx system? First consider upgrading your processor IMO.

GiantStickMan

I managed to pick up the CPU quite cheaply and it has low power consumption as well as generating less heat than most Core 2 Duo's, however it probably will be upgraded in future.
Having a dedicated GPU would provide better performance and there is a good chance the system will be used for gaming both inside the car and out.

TheGuv

Well if you're playing highend games then ok but otherwise there'll be no performance increase... Even then you'll be bottlenecking the card by putting in into a mini-itx rig.

Punky

Video cards are huge power hogs, and totally useless for carpc. Why would someone even consider playing game on a crappy 7" in your car is beyond me. I'd say, ditch the video card, and keep the system nice and simple.

GiantStickMan

Like i said, the system will be used in and out of the car, so yes, on the 7" screen - pretty pointless. When hooked up to a decent sized TV it would make more sense.
I'm just interested if the PSU can run it so that if i do decide to run one i don't have to remove the card everytime it goes back in the car.

MP3Car.com