Dude with a couple of questions

TomCap · 04-23-2005, 01:00 PM

Hey guys, im a relative newb (to cars anyway) and I have a few questions, hopefully you guys can help me out!

1) power supply: is a 150watt opus really gonna be enough to power a mobo(plus cpu and ram), hdd, cd/dvd drive, and maybe a pci card or two?

2) how is my battery gonna handel the constant load while im driving? should i get a bigger alternator?

3) i cant have a dvd on and drive at the same time can i? wont the vibration make it almost impossible to read?

Thanks, and sorry if these questions have been asked before(im sure they have)

Scouse Monkey · 04-23-2005, 01:08 PM

1. some people quite happily run of 60W supplies it depends what you plan to run.

(read up on some completed projects and see what people run and also read the STICKIES) Some people even run P4 computers off a 150W Opus.

2. Alternator will be fine unless you also plan on using a lot of hight powered audio amps etc. 150W PSU (for example) is like running your headlights. It's only 12A and look how many 10 and 15A fuses are in your cars fusebox.

(i suggest you do a search on 'alternator' and 'load' etc)

3. Discussed a lot - a PC can read CDs that my home stereo can't, why? because off error corection and reading in advance and caching stuff. How many DVD players are there out for rear passengers? Loads! and they are not even based on PCs. Think about it!
Oh and it is illegal for you to watch DVDs when driving anyway.

Bugbyte · 04-23-2005, 01:17 PM

Search using terms "Power calculators". You'll find links to calculators that will let you put in your system and estimate the power usage.

There's also a thread running on powering your carputer for newbies.

mattress · 04-23-2005, 01:30 PM

yeah, the OPUS 150w is supposed to be a very hearty PSU from what I was told. I plan on running my p4 2.0ghz, 512mb ram, hdd, dvd, gps, etc...

I'll let you know how it goes, i'm in the final stages of building now . . .

EsKALad · 04-23-2005, 01:37 PM

im running minit itx via p4 with 1.7 p4 mobile chip. gps mouse. laptop hdd 512 ram and slotload dvd cdrw combo all off the opus 150 and its excellent..i first used a 200 gig 7200 rpm west digital 3.5 hdd and that have me problems starting up and shutting down. when i went to the laptop hdd i was fine.. i even ran a fullsize dvd rom drive off of it with no problems..hopefully this helps!

TomCap · 04-23-2005, 01:48 PM

thanx guys. number 3 was actaully meant more for cdroms, as i want to be able to play cds as i drive, aswell as mp3s.

Scouse Monkey · 04-23-2005, 01:53 PM

CDs are easy to play.

Best way though is to have you cell-phone linked up as a bluetooth modem (or on a wire) then when you put a CD in set it to automatically rip to your HDD and access the CDDB database for track info through your phone.

sweet eh?

TomCap · 04-23-2005, 01:57 PM

they really dont skip?