DarquePervert

Possibly.
The bigger reason not to use a CPU with a high power draw in a vehicle is heat. The more power the CPU draws, the more heat it will generate.
As I'm certain you're aware, heat is the enemy of electronics.
In the car, temperatures can get warm, especially if you locate the PC in the trunk (or boot, if you prefer) where there is no climate control.


If your alternator can't keep up, then it's probably faulty.
A PC that requires a high power draw requires a PSU that can power it, which costs more. A DC-DC PSU, which is the ideal for in-car use, will get pricey.
Also, a high-pwer draw CPU leaves you with fewer options for peripherals, because you're using so much of your power allotment for the CPU itself. You could potentially paint yourself into a corner, forcing you to choose more expensive comonents to accomodate the more powerful CPU.

You could use an inverter (generally nt recommended), but powerful inverters get pricey as well as take up a lot of space.


Must be nice to have high-end hardware simply 'lying around'.
And it's overkill simply because the typical tasks required of a vehicle PC do not require the latest and greatest CPU and all the computing horsepower it requires.

If you're building on a budget, then by all means, use hat you've got. You certainly wouldn't be the first.
But you may want to consider alternatives to accomodate your budget, your needs, your space requirements, etc.

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strikeback03

Personally, I'd recommend seeing what you can get for that processor on Ebay and buy something lower power, rather that worry about cooling and powering a 125W TDP chip.

For reference though, by desktop system at work is a Q6600 @ 3GHz, the whole tower draws 100W at idle and ~180 at load from the wall out of a 650W Enermax PSU. P35 chipset, 3 sticks RAM, 1 HDD, 1 optical, 1 7300GT.

eigenVector

You're right, for the current phase of this build, I'm have very basic computational needs, and it's more than over-kill. However my plans for the future of this project do require much more.


Thanks for the advice. However at this point in the game, most components are ready to go with the exception of the cooling. I would absolutely love to make use of the full power of this CPU in the long run, which is why I'm sticking with this particular layout for the present time. I will more than likely down clock this system pretty drastically for the first few phases of this project. (I know AMD has disabled a core and named chips X3s instead of X4, maybe there's a way I can disable one or two, to help get me with the heat challenges)

I understand I'm out on a limb here. From a practical standpoint I understand you guys are correct, and it's not worth the effort attempting such a power consuming build, but I'm not looking for changes to the underlying system unless it's simply can not be done.

Bottom line is, and I know I'm crazy, but I want to make this happen.

All options are on the table still. Even if it means I need to purchase a fridge to house the unit.

Thanks!

HiJackZX1

You will have to upgrade your alternator. Im updating mine to a 220 AMP Alternator and a Deep Cycle Battery. This should also work on your setup too.

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SpecialEd

Then buy a fridge.

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eigenVector

I don't think I'll require a deep cycle battery, as I'm not planning on ever really using the system with the car off. 99.99% of all usage should be with the engine running, so it should all be running off of the alternator. The purpose for this phase of the project is for 'data collecting' and 'monitoring' as well as a source for audio. It will only be used on my 30-45 minute drive to/from work.

When I install this, I'll do some tests (for temps and power usage) to make sure under load (vehicle electrical+CarPC) that I'm not discharging the battery and that it's running completely off of the alternator. If I see it's discharging the battery, I'll look into a higher amperage alternator. I've got a bluetooth ElmScan OBD-II device that I've played with on my mobile phone that I will migrate over to the carpc to help monitor voltage. The 360W Opus should also auto-shut down to prevent complete discharge of the battery too, right?


It may come to that; You'll be the first to know if it does.

eigenVector

So I'm expecting the Opus 360W DC-DC PSU to arrive this week, and I want to make sure I've got everything figured out before I start putting everything together.

Last week I had my car stereo installed (just a receiver), and while I had it installed I had the guy go ahead and run a dedicated power cable to the trunk (I think 8-10 gauge, whatever goes with a 30A fuse) from the battery, a ground cable to the chassis, an RCA cable that goes into the receiver's auxiliary input, and a on/off cable.

Anyways my question comes down to how the power gets from the battery to the PSU that sits inside of the mo-co-so case. The case came with one cable that was split by a 6-slot connector. I assume my main +12V/Ground/on-off cable gets connected to this cable, and the other end of the cable gets connected to the 10-slot 'J1 Input Power Connector' provided by the powersupply (Page 2 of the user guide). This 'J1 Input Power Connector' requires 3x +12V and 3x Ground. Where and with what do i split my +12V and ground lines? Does the opus come with a cable that connects to the 10-slot connector so that I can simply combine (w electrical tape?) the one +12V from the case cable with the 3+12V lines from the supplied connector, (and repeat with the ground)?

The 6-slot connector cable supplied with the mocoso case is pretty then, should I worry about the gauge of this since it's length is about 1ft long?

Thanks!

HiJackZX1

I'm Running a DUAL CORE system with 4gb of RAM and a pretty powerful graphics card. My setup also runs 5 amps, small ones, 9 screens, but only 4 of them installed. Even though I never leave the car without the engine off while using the PC, the battery still runs low. So when I start the car the PC doesn't turn on until the alternator charges the battery enough. I can image you system will eat up about as much power. In the beginning it will work ok, but over time the battery and alternator will start to drain.


As long as you design a good case, cooling shouldn't be an issue. It took me 3 times to finally come up with mine and it cools very very good. I designed the case so that it is long and thin, one end sucks in air, the back sucks air out. It doesn't give the system anytime to heat up. Also all fans including the processor fan are connected to a relay and hooked up to direct 12V power, this causes them to run at full speed, also causing extreme cooling. Also, I do not drive a car, I drive an SUV, so the PC is in the cabin. Infact I built it into the second row seats and I'm in the process of making a cover for it.

Yes the 360 does have battery protection. I use on, but alot of times it will not turn on the PC because my battery is to low. Upgrading the alternator and battery should fix this though. Also when you calculate the power, you have to take all devices into effect. I had to many, about 19 USB devices, and all the screens. I decided to run the screens from direct 12V power since they all have regulation, then alot of the devices are on powered hubs that are powered via a second PSU (OPUS 15W).

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strikeback03

How powerful a video card? Here at work we have a system using a C2D processor and a G80-based 8800GTS 640, the video card consumes half the power in that system.

Here is a test using an 8800GT, which isn't all that power-hungry: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=3272&p=13

From my reading, Phenom can't shut down individual cores, though if the OS is good at keeping threads to a minimum number of cores it the processor can keep some of the cores at lower power while throttling others up as needed.

kross

I'm arriving a little late to this thread. But a 125W quad core? Have you looked at how much a PSU is going to cost? Any automotive PSU's, such as the Opus, that have enough power are going to cost a LOT. For example, the DSATX 220w, which is the smallest PSU I'd recommend for that setup, is $160, but an Opus 320w would be better, at $230. You can get a AMD X2 4050e 2.1GHz dual-core 45w CPU for $40, plus an M2-ATX for $60. Buying new is cheaper than keeping your current CPU!

Then you have to think about cooling. 45w CPU's run cool, can use tiny, low-profile heat sinks and fans, and fit fine in small cases, like the MoCoSo. A 125w, quad core will need a big heat sink/fan, and will need a bigger case to fit it, probably with more fans in the case to move the hot air out. This makes for a noisy computer. Quiet, small, and cool is what you want.

Save that quad core for a different computer, like for transcoding DVD rips for viewing on a HTPC. It won't go to waste!

-- Kevin

eigenVector

Thanks for the input kevin. Yea those opus are expensive, and I went ahead and purchased the 360W Opus for $188 from opussolutions.net It arrived today, but I haven't had a chance to start hooking everything up.

For now I'm going to operate in the mo-co-so case, so it will be tight, but I plan on adding a good low-profile cpu cooler, and a lot of fans to the unit. Since this is sitting in the trunk I've been thinking about how get cool air from the interior of the car into the case with some ducts or something, but I haven't ironed that obstacle out yet. I don't really have much room anywhere else for the unit to go.

Eventually I'll probably design my own custom case. I like a couple of water cooled setups that I've seen around the forums too, but it will probably be 12+months away.

My home box serves as my HTPC box, it's a 3.0Ghz Phenom 940 thats operating at 3.6Ghz at the moment. That's why I've decided to go ahead and put this 9850 into a car pc.

Again, thanks!

eigenVector

Added design layout diagram to thread:

eigenVector

So I've got the carpc built and installed now, only I'm having trouble with the 'sleep/resume' functionality of the computer. Right now the bios has the sleep mode set to S3 (not S1+S3) and when I have hybrid sleep disabled in windows (currently running Windows 7 RC1) and tell the computer to sleep, it seems to sleep successfully. However it doesn't appear to resume from sleep correctly. Here's what I'm seeing:

Tell windows to enter sleep mode
Within under 2 seconds, the computer enters sleep mode and the fans and led lights are turned off.
After leaving idle for about 15-30 seconds I press the power button to start the pc back up.
The LED lights turn on and the fans start spinning for a good 2 seconds and then cut off again.
I press the power button a second time, the system posts, and windows boots into a new windows session (not a resumed session).

When I put hybrid mode, everything is the same, except on the second power button press it starts 'resuming windows' as if from hibernation mode.

I'm seeing this same exact result when I'm using both the desktop PC PSU and the Opus DC-DC 360W PSU.

I've searched around the web without many promising results, but I'm not exactly sure what this situation is called, and so don't really know what to look for. I've messed around with many bios options (and upgraded to the latest zotac bios) and windows settings, but can't come up with a solution.

Any thoughts?

eigenVector

So I found someone to trade the 9850 125W quad core for one of the new AMD X2 7850 dual core 95W... It's still gonna be warm, but that's still 30W I don't have to worry about.

My first round of testing with the 9850 125W CPU resulted in great temps on my 45 minute morning commute... (Temps ranged from 30C to 45C averaging right at 42C) The afternoon runs on a sunny 75F day and after sitting in the sun all day brought the temp up to 62C after boot and about 5 minutes of idling when I decided to just cut it off.

As a result of this testing, I'm certain the 95W will still be running pretty hot, so I've spoke to a friend about some options to provide cooler air into the trunk for better circulation as well. I may look into some water cooling options as well. When I come to a conclusion, I'll report.

Any other thoughts?
Thanks!

kross

You're using the mo-co-so case? Those don't have great airflow. You can drill a bunch of holes directly over the CPU fan, to let some cool air in. Use some black Rustoleum spray paint so you don't see the holes as much after drilling.

Also, try running with the cover off of the case. This will tell you if the trunk is too hot, or just the air inside the case.

-- Kevin

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