Ryze

Hey guys and gals,

My name is Ryan, I live in Minnesota. And I drive a 04 Saturn ION Redline.

I have always been interested in a caputer, but I am in no way computer inclined to build a carputer. So I am here to learn.

I want to build a custom carputer decently cheap ~600-700 dollars total for Audio, GPS, WiFi, and be able to hook up my tuning/logging/scanning software (HP tuners) I'm not much into watching movies so that not a big deal.

The biggest thing is I want sound quality with the ability to have all my music at my fingertips.

I do have a couple of questions. I have 2 laptops here that no longer work, one is really old and the battery sucks, and the other one the motherboard is fried (overheated).
Can I "borrow" any of the parts from these?

Also I have the HDD out of these laptops, both I am told are IDE HDD (i do not know how to tell the difference). Can I use this Mother board with these harddrives?http://store.mp3car.com/Intel_D201GL..._p/mtb-054.htm

What am I going to need to hook up the carputer to a couple amps and speakers/subs without the need of a headunit? Also where can I find a decently cheap radio tuner?

If anyone could help that would be great, and please keep it simple for me, as I am not super familiar with PC terms and what not.

Thanks
Ryan

FusionFanatic

if you're not going to be using your laptop as the carputer, then basically the only non-proprietary components are the HDDs and RAM sticks. everything else is specific to that laptop is generally not usable in anything else.


PATA; (formerly called "ATA", and often exclusively called "IDE") uses a large 40-pin connector and usually a flat ribbon cable (laptop PATA drives often slide into a board-mounted connector, no ribbon cable).
SATA; (also IDE, but that's a discussion for another day ) uses a much smaller 7-pin cable/connector.


that board has both PATA and SATA connectors (2 channels each). you can use almost any HDD with that board, including the two PATA laptop drives you already have. NOTE: SATA is the same for both desktop and laptop drives, but in laptop PATA drives the pins in the connector are closer together so you'll need an adapter like this


http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/advf...iew&advfaqid=7

__________________
current carPC setup
previous carPC setup

Ryze

Thank you a ton! You helped out quite a bit.
I have an adapter for the HDD that I've been using to get my old information off of, and it is called a IDE Sata to USB cable, but it has a 40 pin input? So that is confusing me a little bit. I'm assuming that it is labeled wrong (ebay item) and your correct that I have a PATA HDD.

Now is there a difference in RAM sticks that I must know about, because if not I'll use the ram sticks out of my old dell. Then I'm assuming all I would need then is a power supply, MB, sound card, all the cables necessary to hook up the amp and a touch screen.. the WiFi stuff and GPS stuff correct? $600-700 sound feasible with this project?

Also according to the how-to you posted, it says there is no FM radio for the computer yet, so if I still want to listen to the radio I would need to keep my headunit?

lucegunz

Honestly to answer your memory question, most laptop memory sticks are not compliant with desktop boards... like the one you listed, yes even though that intel board is super tiny its considered a desktop board.... so i dont think youll be able to use any of the ram sticks you but ram is cheap 15-20 bucks will get you a one gig stick for that board....

my carputer buying all the parts from scratch, which it sounds like you already have a good harddrive, cost me under 300 bucks that includes a small case (which included most of the cables needed and the mother board has a few too bundeled in) it included dc to dc power supply so i can draw power directly from the battery etc... basically the whole system cost me around 275 USD...

As far as the radio goes i know certain screens come with built in FM tuners so you dont need to keep your head unit and there are other alternatives i belive but i did not have to explore those routes as my screen included AM FM radio tunner....

EDIT: THough my screen was very very expensive i think you can find one that will keep you under the 700 budget you listed no problem....

Ryze

Okay, So far I think I am going to use a Intel D201GLY2A Little Valley. Any one have some incite about this mother board? the good? the bad?

I'm trying to do this one step at a time, so I am positive everything works together.

So far I have learn a lot and am always looking for more information (first hand is good)

EDIT: Seems to me that this Mobo might be easier to use and upgrade later
http://store.mo-co-so.com/via-vb7001...ard-p-114.html

Thanks
Ryan

Kardain

If you are planning on running HPT, you are stuck with Windows but there are a couple decent front ends that I've seen out there... not that its a bad thing, I just personally don't like having to pay for an OS that doesn't get used often... I've been trying for the last couple months to get it to run under Ubuntu with no luck (the last thing that's keeping my laptop tethered to Microsoft), which, like yourself would like to integrate HPT into a car computer.

You might want to take a look around and see what others have done as far as boot times, since Windows isn't really the quickest to boot "out of the box"

For an in-dash, I've been looking at this one:

http://www.lilliputweb.net/ts701.html

Comes in ~$300, but has some of the "all in one" you were looking for

FusionFanatic

I'm happy to help


first off, I wouldn't recommend using that adapter because it forces you to connect your HDD via USB. USB adapters are fine for transferring/backup up data, but it's not a good solution for a permanent HDD (windows XP does not like to boot from USB )

a 2.5" to 3.5" PATA adapter can be bought for only a few dollars (it's just pin spacing, there are no electronics in the adapter) and will allow you to connect your 2.5" laptop HDD to the motherboard's 3.5" HDD connector/ribbon cable.

I don't think anything is labelled wrong. I have seen those "IDE / SATA to USB" adapters before. they allow you to hook up either PATA or SATA with the same adapter (one side of the HDD connector is PATA, the other is SATA). I didn't mean to confuse you earlier with the PATA/SATA/IDE comments. basically, IDE is not a connector/interface; it refers to the drive controller being built into the HDD; which applies to both PATA and SATA HDDs, therefore they are both IDE drives; when you see IDE written, the person who wrote it is usually referring to a PATA drive. if you feel so inclined, you can read about it in greater deatil at sites like this


yes there are many differences between RAM sticks. there are different standards, speeds, sizes, pin counts, etc. the Intel "little valley" mini-ITX boards use 240-pin [desktop] DDR2 RAM sticks. (DDR2 laptops use a much smaller 200-pin SODIMM RAM stick). one thing is certain, no memory stick from either of your old laptops is usable in an Intel little valley board.


you don't need a sound card to have a functional carPC. almost all motherboards have on-board sound which is sufficient for all non-audiophiles. while a dedicated [quality] sound card will have better sound than on-board sound, it probably will not be noticeable unless you have higher-end audio equipment (higher-end speakers, amps, etc) to take advantage of it. if you're using stock speakers or mid-range aftermarket speakers with a cheap amp than you can save your money and use on-board sound instead.


shop around and it is certainly feasible to keep your project under $700 personally, I buy almost everything off eBay but you can find good deals other places as well. as an example; I bought my current base system from mo-co-so which included an intel D201GLY2A, M2-ATX, 512MB DDR2 RAM all pre-installed in a nice quality aluminum case for $239. I already had a monitor and HDD so I didn't have to buy anything else for it. you already have 2 HDDs you can use, all you would really need is a monitor to have a functional carPC. so far that would probably cost you about $350-$400 total, which leaves you another $300~$350 for your add-ons/accessories. wifi USB adapters are cheap, GPS can vary depending on what hardware & software you prefer (I use a GlobalSAT BU-353 and iGuidance4 and can recommend both). bottom line is; YES, you can keep your project under $700


there are FM tuners available for PCs (both PCI and USB) that will work, but I have read that the reception is very poor when compared to a car head unit. I have no experience with any of them to verify this first-hand, since I use a HU with my carPC system anyways (both for AM/FM radio and speaker amplification).

__________________
current carPC setup
previous carPC setup

FusionFanatic

the 1.2GHz "core"-based Celeron in the D201GLY2A is more powerful than the 1.5GHz C7 in that Jetway board. I use that little valley board and would recommend it any day. it seems to offer the best bang-for-the-buck of any mini-ITX board right now

__________________
current carPC setup
previous carPC setup

Ryze

Hmm this seems like a good option for me also, it keeps things simple for me, and seems to offer almost everything i need (besides what i have already) for a basic system and work up from there.

I think i'm going to go with this option as of now, as building my own carpc seems a little out of my league right now.

Thanks again for the help

one more question, is wiring these power supples such as the m2-atx as easy as power ground, and 12v ignition source? or is it a little bit more complicated than that?