In-car-pc

[Captain Starlet]

Hi after sitting for a very long time desiding on double din units etc which are neva quite good enuff for what you want when you own about 20-30gb of mp3's i decided to return to the idea i had a while ago of a incar pc but themain problem i kept thinking of was power ,mainly starting up an shutting down ,i mean who wants to sit while they shut down their pc ,but now ive located a opus power supply unit which manages your incar pcs power,im moving forward with the idea,im goin for a 7" Touch screen mounted where the headunit normally is an incorparting a pc in my boot build.

Just wondered if any new any pointers as to how to mount the screen in the double din space,and if any one had any suitable specs for me

I was thinkin around ..

1800xp

256-512 2100ddr (not sure which would be best)

60-80gb 7200 HDD

Running "Media Engine 2"

JBL 755.6 running my components & 6x9 (4ch) and the sub (5ch)

1.5Farrad Power Cap

Any ideas/input welcome

[riko666]

how bout the drivesoft incar pc?? they used it on " pimp my ride " and looks quite sweet, check it out

[El_Galliano]

with your incar pc you wanna go and get your self a barebones box, cus they usually run on about 200W power supply as well as saving ******* loads of space, this also means you can go for about 2800 chip and agp slot for descent graphic card. this also means that your can buy a cheaper 12V inverter with about 500W output and hookit up straight to Battery and have seperate swith so you can leave pc running when your engine isn't. and as long as your not kane the power you should be alright to run the pc about half hour or so and still start up engine fine. some people say you can run it for hours and still get the car started afterwards but im not gonna risk it myself.

The thouch screen sounds expensive how much you getting yours for? Never thought to go down that route. i was thinking more miniture keyboard and tracker ball setup and then PS2 controllers for the game playing.

And everything on pimp my ride is very expensive.

[El_Galliano]

also you might wanna rethink your sound system aswell, especially amp and subs, all that and pc might be strain espicially on the little Battery in a starlet.

the screen is prolly gonna need some knida bracket for it but if your any good at fibreglass you could make summin up pretty easy, if you wanna go further you could custom built a whole new instrument panal, for the heater and everything, fibre glass or brushed aluminum isnt that hard to work work and can give great looking results if done well.

They might even do brackets for tv screen for you car but i've jusat givin up looking for stuuf like that

[Captain Starlet]

the touchscreen is on eBay the liliput one ,140ish an ive allready uprated the Battery to one that shud easily cope with it all,ive located a a opus 150w power supply which atomatically shuts down the comp on/off on ignition as well as other features,shud i go for a epia933on board cpu mother board or maybe an nforce 2,what you think??

do you think my ice shud be enuff with the 5ch JBL an only sub,ive got 2 at the min an the JBL 75.4 so id b swapin my amp an loosin a sub,but boot space is really an issue as i dnt av much space at all...as its a starlet :s

thanks for the help so far ppl ...ne more ideas welcome :D

[El_Galliano]

it all depends on the sound you want, with a PC you open yourself upto some very intelligent sorround sound systems with are %$(in fanastic for everything, and then set up a 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1, system and actually use a verygood soundblaster sound card and summin like a Creative DDTS-100 Decoder, shown in link below scroll down the items a bit

overclockers.co.uk

and then from that set your Speakers, tweeters, and subs, and then get rid of the amp. though you might not get as much sub thumping as you go down the street, you will get a very impressive sound output, and really great quality, and proper sorroud sound.

This should save you ****loads of space, and is you spare wheel a full size or spacesaver, if not already you can get a spacesaver wheel and and with a with a small bare bones system you could fit the whole thing in the glovebox if you get rid of the box bit and just the glovebox lid to open to see pc, get to your dvd-drive and usb and all that *******.

I must say that I hating the fact that you came up with this 'cus i was hoping to impress you all in a couple of months with my new interior, ice setup and my serious engine performance upgrade. and you come along and say your doing the same thing, but oh well at least its not another 'seo yet.

And one of those touchscreens would be pretty smart i suppose, i'm still going just going for a standard 7", but go for it man let me know how it turns out, might be good for my van

[Captain Starlet]

nice,i think ill go for a epia with on cpu as then its only 17cm to go in a mdf custom encloure under my seat,they offer a 5.1 onboard sound,but im still considering a bigger board so i can have a 5.1live or audigy card not sure,as for the touch screen id recomend it m8 as i dnt think they cost that much more an then you can do away with the keyboard an mouse

Ill keep u updateded,an sorry for cumin up with the idea lol,

10days till payday:D

[El_Galliano]

audigy cards are the way to go man, they're %$(in awsome and you can fit to most motherboards on barebones systems and for the games you want nvidia 2 chipset and well good and cheap idea for game playing is the usb to ps2 controller they sell on play.com means you get all the full effects of ps2 controllers and just makes gameplay on pc ****loads better, and cus they're all on your hdd no disc loading. and it feels well weird driving along in a car and pplaying need for speed undergound, with the sound blasting its awsome and when driving around people are just confused if you really pump the volume, they hear ****loads of engine noises and yoou drive past at 20mph. My mate has a ps2 setup and is %$(in awsome

[El_Galliano]

and i think i mate actually go for the ol' touch screen actually, will be ****eloads cooler innit, lol. could always have a cheap infa red keyboard in boot if needed i suppose

[Captain Starlet]

yer i think ill jus plug in a keyboard wen needed or buy a cheapcordless k_mouse set,but touch will totally complete the effect man,dnt skimp for the end result,

But the thing is i wanted mine to fit under my seat so the hieght of the soundcard could be an issue as the case cant be too high :s but would be worth it as it would put alot less stress on the machine an sound a 100 times better

[El_Galliano]

thats it man im gonna order one of them touchscreens, way to go with finding them, found out about them and they're pretty cool. and cant believe they're only 150.

[Captain Starlet]

yer i saw them awhile ago,and ive noticed a few people have em over at incar-mpe.com i think it is ,there meant to be really good quality too :) cant wait to get mine sorted