Wilsman00

Hello I am planning my first setup and was origionally going to make a desktop fit into my car until I was shown this forum that let me see the light. So many of the problems I had with my previous idea were solved by the psu alone lol. Anyway here is my plan:

VoomPC Car PC Enclosure
(placed in the glovebox of my miata)
VIA EPIA MII10000
(with IDE riser to 2 IDE ports)
M2-ATX PSU
(plan on buying the atx extendor to cut down on temp/cables for IDE room)
1gig DDR226 Ram
WD 120gig 5400rpm Laptop HD
(need IDE converter to run this HD)
Linksys Wireless G Card (already own, might have to buy new antenna)
Creative Audigy 2 ZS (already own)
LiteOn 16x DVD Drive
(plan on running cables out case and hand/place dvd-rom right near case)
XENARC 700IDT Indash 7" LCD Touchscreen (don't like a big steal me target)
Mouse/Keyboard options are being planned and don't matter much yet

I have 2 remaining questions I could not find on my own.
1. Is there enough room in the case to have the 2 IDE riser and use both those cards??
2. If that all fits is that going to be too hot to run safetly? Just want to know ahead of time if I am going to have to mod case to add a good fan.

So that is the plan I have right now for the computer. Tell me please if I am overlooking anything that I am going to need. This computer just needs to be able to play music while I use navagation (or another carputer tool) without slowdown and run DVD's without slowdown. As far as I have read so far this should be just fine for all that. This carputer will also be hooked up to my stereo of course that will be built at the same time in the trunk.

I look forward to your input, hopefully I did my homework enough before posting this to get past noob questions and ideas.

Chris

MP3Car.com

 

FC3S

as far as i know, the VoomPC case is MUCH too small for a riser..

even if the riser did fit, theres nothing to mount the PCI cards to, so they'd probably break either the mobo/themselves or the riser

RedGTiVR6

how are you going to secure it? do you know for sure that you have enough room? enough room including all cables?


as stated earlier, don't think the voom case can hold a riser...besides that, what do you need two ide ports for?


look around, they exist and are readily avaliable.


is this for the IDE ports? I don't believe it would fit in the case, let alone does that case have room on the back side of it for the cables and antenna to exit from?


how do you plan on going from this card to your stereo?


how are you going to secure this? is this a full size drive or a slim laptop drive? if it's a slim drive, do you have a converter for the cables? are you running an external case? do you have room for this, all of the cables, and the motherboard in the glove box?


installed properly, just about everything can be hidden and well integrated. Do you know for sure that you have the depth that this unit would require behind your dash?

Welcome to the boards. It looks like you have done a good deal of research and have thought out yoru plans. The points I have mentioned are points that most people overlook in their planning.

Let us know if you hae any questions!

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Wilsman00

Thanks for all the good info/questions.

There is plenty of room in the glovebox for the case + cables.

Most likely I will mount the cse upside down to the room of the glovebox area either with screws or industrial velcro.

The 2 ide ports were for sound/wireless card. But if it is too high then I'll have to get another type. Would a usb style one be my best bet? The kind with a antenna I could move around?

The card to the stereo is the same as the example I found on these forums. Plan on running the mini stereo cable from the card back into my trunk where it will split up into the needed cables. Or have it split to rca's and then go back into trunk, I haven't decided which order would be better yet.

There should be room for the dvd-rom in the dash. If not I can get a little creative. Origionally I wanted the Touchscreen in the bottom of my 2 available slots on my dash and the dvd-rom on the one above. But I wasn't sure if I could find a power cable that was long enough to get that far. Found several round ribbon cables that were fine distance wise but the power cables that come on that psu are so short I am not sure how I would power it. That is why I decided on in the glovebox as well.

I need to goout and measure the depth I have for the screen, good point I forgot about that one. It should be ok but we shall see.

Thanks Again
Chris

RedGTiVR6

have you researched how poor the sound quality is when you split the signal like you are planning to?

as for power cables, extend them. It's something you're going to be doing a lot of with this project, so prepare yourself.

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guizai

Here's a really good write-up on putting everything into a VoomPC. From the pics you can see just how little space there is in it. Hope this helps.

http://www.cartft.com/support/doku/m..._M2-ATX_en.pdf

Wilsman00

Ooh thanks for the pictures that is great!

As for the sound quality I was very concearned with that. But since it was on here as a sticky I thought it would suffice. What other options do I really have? The sound car I have has normal stereo outputs and 1 coaxial if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the help.

Wilsman00

By those pictures it doesn't even look like I can use a PSI card in that case. Am I not going to be able to use the sound card? Cause I doubt the sound quality of the on-board will be what I need. But then again maybe the cables wont be either.

Sound quality is huge to me so I need to find a solution to this before I buy anything. I am willing to change options as long as the quality is top notch.

Thanks Again
Chris

MP3Car.com

 

1stclasso

this may only hold true to Amps, so correct me if im wrong, but its probley not a good idea to mount it upside down because heat rises and even with a fan the circuit board will take on more heat, possibly too much in some cases...

im a audio man, so feel free to correct me

Eternalodyssey

You might look into using a Creative Labs MP3+ external USB sound card. That was what I opted for and it seems like the sound is quite acceptable. I have my Creative connected to my VIA Mobo and then going to my head unit Aux input. From there, I have the head unit outputting RCAs to the four channels on my amp and then my sub channels. I haven't heard the system fully functional yet but I have noticed how well the MP3+ cleans up my songs. For less then $50 it was a decent investment.

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Dragonknell911

Just wondering if anyone else noticied that only one person in this thread properly called a PCI slot a PCI slot?

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REBUILDING!!

Eternalodyssey

Wow, that was an odd post in a forum. Without some kind of website, I don't think that very many people will be much interested in hearing about what you are selling. With that said its rather rude to try and hi-jack someone's thread to throw out a plug to sell your product to people who might not be interested. Perhaps in the future it would be beneficial to yourself as well as everyone else to simply post your ad in the "classified" section where people would be expected to sell things. This post is about someone's car pc and they are trying to discuss their project with others. Please respect the people participating in this forum and follow proper etiquette.

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Wilsman00

Threadjacking aside I am finding a lot of threads here about audio that are making me feel stupid again lol. I never thought about voltage output of the source and all that jazz. Is the Audigy 2 ZS going to put out enough juice? I don't want to max out the gain on my amp to even get any sound out of it, I want to use as little as needed of course.

RedGTiVR6

Wilsman - you say that sound quality is the most important to you?

How important, and how much are you willing to spend on this?

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Wilsman00

Well in terms of competition size budgets no it's not worth tons to me. It is what I care about first, but I am definetly more of a bang for buck kind of guy. Here is my setup that I am planning, I think they are very high quality components without breaking the bank. I can't link directly to the products so you will just have to go to them.:

Amp: DLS CA-51 http://www.dls.se/english/index.htm

I'll be running the amp bridged for 2 channel to these components:

DLS Ultimate Iridium 6.2i (2-way)

Sub: DAYTON RSS265HF-4 10" HIGH FIDELITY SUBWOOFER
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=295-460

I have the 12" of this for my home theatre and I am extremely happy with it in terms of quality for it's cheap price.

So there is my version of a kickass system, well what I hope to be atleast . If you add everything up all that stuff will end up being like $1100 and I was trying to stay near 1k. It's not hardcore money but I think it's good for a 2.1 system.

Give me your thoughts, I appreciate them.

MP3Car.com