Hey all,
I did my Carputer project several year ago. I think it would be 5 years ago now. I did it the hard way, not knowing this site even existed, and being ignorant enough to think I was the first person who thought to do it. It was only after I had spent a lot of money and time trying to get everything up and running that someone gave me a link to this site via a message board that I posted some progress pics on. Man, I wish I would have found this site earlier, it would have saved me a lot of time, money and frustration. I have been a lurker here for quite some time. I figured I should take the plunge and start posting since I am about to completely revamp my setup.
My project revolves around a Honda civic. Yes, another damned civic. I bought the car in 97 before the compact scene was even around here in MN. I remember the first issue of Super Street when it came out. I was so excited to see that others were into mod'ing these cars. The times have changed a lot since then. Anywho... What I did was go crazy with fiberglass to make all my carputer stuff fit in seamlessly, or atleast that was the goal. Here is what my hardware and stereo equipment now consists of, which is 90% different from what I had the first time around.
Carputer:
- AMD 1700XP w/256 PC100
- WD 80G HDD
- 12" ELO Touchscreen monitor
- Keyspan remote.
- 200w ATX PSU
Stereo:
- (2) Elemental Designs e12K's (flat cones)
- (2) Vifa PL 7" Mid bass drivers
- (2) Image Dynamics Horn Loaded Compression Drivers
- (2) PPI PC2100 Amps (charcoal series 2x100@4ohms)
- (1) PPI PC1400 amp (same series, 1x800@2ohms)
- (1) AudioControl DQS/DXS (still have to purchase)
The attached pictures are kinda embarassing, since it was my first ever project with fiberglass, and it was a slightly overwhelming project. I have learned a lot since then, and make many changes and fixes planned for this round. Also, those were not finsihed pictures. I had a garage a friend and I rented to work on our cars, we had to move out cause the homeowner sold the house, so I had to stop working on the car and leave it where it was at projectwise. Here are a few random pix: (the green was just a can of paint I had and used to show teh contrast )
For this round I have a lot of updates planned. The amp rack will be about the same, but deeper to fit the 3 amps instead of one. Teh sub box area was thrown out and burned very shortly after that picture was taken cause it was so ugly, and will now be made from fiberglass also. The dash gets a lot of fixes, and the console going down to the shifter is getting completely redesigned to nto have such sharp angles. My questions are more aimed towards the sound quality and hardware of the carputer itself...
1.) I have spent a lot of time searching the forums here. From what I can acertain, a Chaintech AV710 seems to be the best bang for the buck for sound card selection for me. The AudioControl DXS/DQS is a line driver and Xover (the Q has EQ functions as well). So as long as I send a clean signal to it, the stereo should have good sound qualitiy right?
2.) I am using a normal ATX power supply right now with a power inverter. I see there are DC-to-DC power supplies out there. What are the advantages of these besides not requiring an inverter? I need one anyways for the monitor. Do I need to consider swapping out my current PSU for a DC-DC one or is it not worth it?
3.) I have my mobo mounted behind the screen in the dash right now. I did this cause I didnt think you could run IDE cables very far. How are you guys that have the mobos mounted in the trunk running the cables to the CD/DVD roms? Where did u get cables that extend that far?
Thanks in advance for any help, and try not too be too mean with the comments on my progress!
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Linear Mode
