(Build) Carputer for my FC
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(Build) Carputer for my FC
I have been wanting to build a decent Car worthy rig for a while now. I plan on using it for music/movies/navigation/car data. When I bought my car my laptop died soon afterward. I had built the laptop 3 years prior so I managed to salvage a few things.
Turion 64bit ML - 40 2.2ghz
100 Gb 7200 rpm HD 2.5"
Dvd-rw Drive Slimline
After taking an inventory I bought a few things
A briefcase to rip apart and house components
400 watt PSU
PCchips socket 754 motherboard
two adaptors for my 2.5" components
1 gig of ddr 3200 Ram
15" Elo touchscreen
I had to wait a couple months to start because of shipping and the first Motherboard I bought was Doa.
Pics of what I started tonight
The Nvidia 6800xt will be taken out unless I decide to buy a right angle adapter for it
Here is the Screen I bought
The briefcase I get to rip apart
Anyways So far this is what I have done I will post more later any thoughts suggestions are welcome
Turion 64bit ML - 40 2.2ghz
100 Gb 7200 rpm HD 2.5"
Dvd-rw Drive Slimline
After taking an inventory I bought a few things
A briefcase to rip apart and house components
400 watt PSU
PCchips socket 754 motherboard
two adaptors for my 2.5" components
1 gig of ddr 3200 Ram
15" Elo touchscreen
I had to wait a couple months to start because of shipping and the first Motherboard I bought was Doa.
Pics of what I started tonight
The Nvidia 6800xt will be taken out unless I decide to buy a right angle adapter for it
Here is the Screen I bought
The briefcase I get to rip apart
Anyways So far this is what I have done I will post more later any thoughts suggestions are welcome
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Made some progress from last night
Ripped all the crap out of the briefcase
Here is a pic of the empty briefcase
Made a rough test fit of the components in the case
After much cursing sweating and chipping away I finally got the motherboard plate to fit snug in the case.
Next I will be the making of the mounting brackets for the motherboard, the hard drive, and the dvd drive.
Ripped all the crap out of the briefcase
Here is a pic of the empty briefcase
Made a rough test fit of the components in the case
After much cursing sweating and chipping away I finally got the motherboard plate to fit snug in the case.
Next I will be the making of the mounting brackets for the motherboard, the hard drive, and the dvd drive.
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your stuff is going to die even if you shock mount it.
my friend had a carputer in his impreza the he built him self and in the 2 years he had to rebuild it 3 or 4 times.
my friend had a carputer in his impreza the he built him self and in the 2 years he had to rebuild it 3 or 4 times.
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Laptop parts or Desktop parts? Laptop parts can stand alot more abuse than most desktop parts can.
I am also quite sure the mp3 player Aaroncakes has in his car has been working longer than 2 years.
The only time he replaced anything was when he was rear ended.
I am also quite sure the mp3 player Aaroncakes has in his car has been working longer than 2 years.
The only time he replaced anything was when he was rear ended.
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#9
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Board is now secured in this photo
The only thing I was worried about was the clearance of this hinge, it clears just barely though
The dvd drive was mounted upside down so I only needed one IDE cable The hard drive is underneath.
Here is the final product I had to remove most of the power supply casing in order for the lid to close properly.
There is a hole cut into the side for the cable just big enough for the cable but small enough so the plug doesn't come out.
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Great project, I have been wanting to build a carputer myself. I want to go a little further and see if I can get it to control some other things. Anyway, one question: why did you decide to build a custom case as to buying a purpose built CPU? What are the benefits, etc...
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are you going to run a power inverter from 12v to 110v then have the psu run 110v to 12v? basically, my question is would it be possible to pick up a 12v cpu power supply? and then connect to the car's power directly? ive wanted to do something like this ever since i built my first comp.
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Crap, I meant to say basically is that 400W max powersupply should be fine. Make sure you check on that power supply periodically, I have seen a couple crap ones actually catch on fire.
#13
Yes it is possible. I used to work at a company that makes the only drop in double din car pc... Well they used to at least I dont know if anyone else has done it yet. In that application we used the 12v ignition and power from the radio to power and control boots. Was a decent unit but found a lot of flaws with the design... I did like the power control though, power up to windows in about 7 seconds vista sleep and when you cut power it would give you an option to shut down or keep it on, so if you didnt answer it would shut off in 1 minute... so no making sure you shut down or worries of cold resetting, you could actually drive it like a car.
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are you going to run a power inverter from 12v to 110v then have the psu run 110v to 12v? basically, my question is would it be possible to pick up a 12v cpu power supply? and then connect to the car's power directly? ive wanted to do something like this ever since i built my first comp.
originally it wasn't what I had in mind but I had the parts ready to go so I went for it.
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There is a hole on the other side of the Psu for a vent and a hole on the top of the case around the cpu cooler for intake. I post some pictures sometime for reference. I cut it out after I took those pictures that's why you don't see any.
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Another question; have you thought about maybe going with a solid state drive instead of a conventional disk drive? Solid state drives have a better physical resilience to vibration, shock and extreme temperature fluctuations. The only downside is a higher cost per megabyte of storage.
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^ Of course a solid state drive would be better, the cost is not what I was looking for.
I was looking for a budget build that would do what I needed to and a laptop drive will stand up fairly well to abuse.
I might later put more money into it but for now it works so why mess with a good thing.
I was looking for a budget build that would do what I needed to and a laptop drive will stand up fairly well to abuse.
I might later put more money into it but for now it works so why mess with a good thing.
#25
Another question; have you thought about maybe going with a solid state drive instead of a conventional disk drive? Solid state drives have a better physical resilience to vibration, shock and extreme temperature fluctuations. The only downside is a higher cost per megabyte of storage.