Rep Power: 257

I just bought most of my components for a car pc today. I am excited to start the build. I am going to be going with air cooled for now...but if it doesn't cut it with the az heat ill try out liquid cooled. I will add more stuff when I buy it. I should be purchasing the power supply tomorrow...which is actually the most expensive part of the build coming in at $200.

the components purchased so far are as follows:

pre molded 7"Lilliput touch screen...and the buttons light up blue to match the rest of my dash! (thx sl33pyriceboi)






Intel Mini-ITX Mobo...measures 6.7"x6.7"(super small)



Intel Core 2 Duo E8400- 3GHz dual core with 1333MHz front side bus



4GB Kingston DDR2-800 HyperX Ram



Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme True 120 CPU Heatsink


Bgears B-cool Fan w/ Temp/RPM Display- 120mm



500GB Western Digital Green Power SATA Hard Drive- uses less power

 
Rep Power: 352

HAHAHA......... i look at the screen, and was like. WTF, THATS MY SCREEN!

(well, urs now but yea, good stuff. good luck with teh build)

 
Rep Power: 352

omg wtf? ur using a core 2duo E8400.

THAT IS NOT A GOOD CHOICE OF PROCESSOR. i repeat. that is not a good choice of prcessor.

you want somethign that will consume very little wattage. like a laptop cpu.

especially because area is very very hot. this is not a good idea.

 
Rep Power: 352

btw, more ram = slower start up. (fyi)

also you gotta remember that with the carpc, ur really only gonna have it for a navi, movies, and music.

there is no need for a processor that powerful.

my VIA C7 2.0ghz does more than enough.

 
Rep Power: 257

well i wish i would have read that info throughout my research before i bought the components. i guess i will have to make a return once i get them. I am currently using that processor in my home computer and it stays nice and cool.

 
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actually now that i think about it i never actually researched ecu's in regards to what works best for carpc....doh

i could always under volt it to keep temperatures and wattage down. I will be fine on wattage though. I have already investigated that issue.

 
Rep Power: 352

hahaha =] is ur E8400 which is a 775 socket

you want somethign like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819111328

 
Rep Power: 257

yes it is a 775 socket but what are you trying to say...that first part doesnt make sense.

hmmm i would need a diff mobo for that processor you picked out since it has a different socket

 
Rep Power: 352

sorry haha i mistaken ur mobo for another one i was thinking.

btw, i have iguidance v4 ($100)
centrafuse ($125)

which i will include when i ship ur screen, complements of me =]

 
Rep Power: 217

Woah Sniper, this is awesome. I remember I had almost bought this screen from sl33pyriceboi, but realized this wudn't last a day inside my car since we got some professional civic thieves in Houston. No matter how well of a neighborhood ur in, they'll still attack ur ride.

Anyways 500GB HD and 4GB Ram, seems like u'll be putting in lots of Data into this.

Word of Advice. Set up a BIOS password if u can, I'm not familiar with carputers but for any motherboard's BIOS there shud be a password protection followed by the windows password. So in future if someone tries to steal it, ur data will be safe. Even if they part out ur HD, it will not work.

Good Luck. And keep us updated. We love ur vic anyways so this addon will be interesting to see.

 
Rep Power: 243

im not gonna lie this idea is super hott...i love the new dash w/ the touch screen computer...where did u get the dash at...

 
Rep Power: 320

yeah i'm running a 1.4ghz pentium M which runs about 15watts and 512 ddr2 pc3200 with 250gb hdd. The 1.4ghz is more then enough to be carpc unless you plan on running vista which i advise against. What kind of powersupply you gonna run? I think it'll mainly depend on that whether you can run that high of a processor.

My pentium heat sink never gets warm..its faintly warm to the touch after an hr or two of use.

it might actually just be cheaper to run a netbook with a large portable harddrive..maybe in the future something to think about.

 
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Little overkill, 512mb-1gb max. I personally like Garmin Mobile a little better but I think youll like Centrafuse. I use RR and its kinda a pain to set up with the skin you like and everything.

 
Rep Power: 320

i think it'll cause too much of a delay when booting up having to input in all those passwords. This is also assuming he's gonna run a keyboard. a lot of people dont run the key board on a daily basis.

Thing with computers now is that its such a commodity, its not really worth stealing. You wouldnt be able to sell it for much. Sniper's car probably has a higher chance of being stolen cuz of his engine rather then the comp stuff.

 
Rep Power: 320

yeah i learned the hard way, winxp craps out at 3.4gigs unless your running the 64bit version.

 
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im not that computer literate but i was wondering if someone could give me a list of what to get to make this project happen, i love the screen sniper has, this would be greatly appreciated.

 
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www.mp3car.com

 
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basically

7'' touch screen

1- hdd (you can buy 1tb drive for $99 now)
1- 512-2gb ram ( 2gb is $30)
1-cpu preferably low watt like Pentium Centrino
1-motherboard (preferably something with built in sound and video)
1-dc to dc power supply 200watt-250watt

set 3.5mm to rca Y's to connect to your amp.

The initial cost is relatively low. Getting the screen and molding is probably the most expensive. After that, if you can install a amp and speakers your self, the rest is pretty easy.

 
Rep Power: 320

yup, best place to start your research.

 
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this is going to be nice... gotta save up for this

 
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i think what i want to do in the future is just get a netbook with a relatively large ssd drive and just plug it into the screen. Then just use a portable hdd to store my music and videos.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115508

 
Rep Power: 257

I will be buying the opus 360w psu.

im not really worried about it being stolen...I put more money into the motor and more to come with my imminent boost build so that is my biggest worry. I am however about to take out a separate insurance policy out on it. I think it is called a stated value policy. So if all my **** does get jacked I will just get my money back.

true...so maybe ill just use 2gb of what i bought and return the rest

I will be using win xp pro

 
Rep Power: 320

With a 360watt you should be fine. 4gigs doesnt really effect boot time much anyways, its cheap enough not to make it worth returning. I think your setup is fine, just over kill for a car puter.

Good luck.

 
Rep Power: 352

ask you have asked me. yes, watercool it =]

 
Rep Power: 257

im gonna try the air cooling first since it is cheaper. I have already picked out all the components and written down the model numbers for a water cooled system so all I would need to do is buy them.

as it turns out i didnt update the quantity for my ram when i bought them so I am only getting 2gb...so that worked out

 
Rep Power: 388

When is someone going to run an apple carputer.... thatd be pimp w/ the touch screen.

Good luck with this build sniper.

 
Rep Power: 303

Wow, i love the way it looks. I wish I had one built in my ride. Perhaps this will be my future project. Good luck with the rest of the build

 
Rep Power: 320

there already a couple of them on mp3car.com. I believe they just run a mac mini in the glove box.

 
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i dont like apple since I am unfamiliar with it. so I am investing my money in something i know intimately and can troubleshoot and manage myself

 
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what you can do is either partition the hd or just have a second hd just for the OS. that way boot time would practically be cut in half when you have all your media.

apple isn't all that hard to adapt from windows. for me, i prefer apple for anything that has to do with media [music, movies, pics, etc] it runs alot smoother on the mac os system.

plus, mac rarely has the spyware/trojan/registry problems microsoft has, so there's really not much to troubleshoot.