Project... - Page 2

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Re: Project...

Reply #15 – June 01, 2005, 12:22:15 PM

Quote from: EricCoolCats

I've got a Matshiznita DVD-R UJ-816 in my Apple Powerbook and it's slot loading. This drive will burn a DVD as well as a CD, and plays just about anything. Any Apple Powerbook has a slot-loading optical drive, and so does the Mac mini since it uses all laptop components. There should be a driver for XP to use one of those drives...I don't see an issue there. The only thing you have to remember with a slot-loading drive is that you cannot put smaller or irregular-sized discs in or you will ruin the drive. You can only put CD's and DVD's in there, blank or recorded.

All of Haystack's other comments are very true. You can buy some fairly quick laptop drives now (some are spinning at 7200) but most are stuck in the 4800-5400 rpm ranges. That drags out your access time. It's not really that big of a hassle for normal things (playing music, etc.). However, faster drives are always better...and you will pay dearly for having a fast laptop drive.

will mac things switch over to a standard pc? I know I have an older mac monitor with the same plugs and everything, But with a minimum of 1024x768 that works on a pc

Re: Project...

Reply #16 – June 01, 2005, 12:38:57 PM

Quote from: Haystack

will mac things switch over to a standard pc? I know I have an older mac monitor with the same plugs and everything, But with a minimum of 1024x768 that works on a pc

Generally, yes...any major Mac drive component made from 1997-98 to today will basically work in a PC. That includes any ATA hard drive, optical drive, internal Zip drive, what have you. Sometimes even memory will swap out. The power supplies are specific to each Mac model though, as well as the motherboard. Video cards are usually Mac specific. Monitors generally interchange perfectly, especially those with standard VGA or DVI connections. I've seen many people use Apple monitors on PC's before with no problems. They make a great monitor. The G3/G4 towers and PC towers are very similar in construction and components...you'd be amazed at what you can swap out between them.

Re: Project...

Reply #17 – June 01, 2005, 02:55:49 PM

Wow I had no idea. maybe I wont be skipping over all of the mac stuff on ebay when I do searches.

Re: Project...

Reply #18 – June 02, 2005, 12:40:37 PM

Thanks for all the replys , guys ! all the info could gave me a better vision of the project.

Well, since the laptop has better components , i decided that i will buy a laptop and i will disasemble it. The sunday i will go to the flea market.

I need a fast booting machine. What processor is good ?

Or better yet, what specifications i need to get a decent laptop for this project ?

Re: Project...

Reply #19 – June 03, 2005, 04:28:32 AM

I wouldnt worry about speed too much. I wouldnt go with an actual laptop, there are converters and stuff letting you use a laptop drive easilly. It would be worth it to use just a regular computer motherboard with laptop components.
Also where do you plan to put the carputer? The trunk, the dashboard, glove box(may not be possible) Under the passenger seat?where the stereo goes? It depends more or less where you want to put it.
As far as the processor speed,..... I would go for around 500 mhz or faster. THat way it is cheap, but will still play full screen pictures. FIrst you want to find what you want for a display.
A good video card with a screen resolution of 640x480 would play full screen video at pretty much any mhz speed. If you want to play dvd's, I would go for at least 1.0 ghz. Also see if you can steer clear of celerons. Although they use less power, they use more ram and arent as fast at transfering information.
Also you can get pretty much any computer to play dvd's. You can get a 200mhz computer to play full screen dvd's by using a dvd decoder card. The newer (ie 1.0 ghz) computers use software rendering rather then ahrdware. In my opinion hardware is better. Hardware, it uses no extra cpu usage(Your computer will idel around 5 to 10% cpu capacity) while playing full screen dvd's. ANd you can get any computer 200mhz and up to play it. Meaning cheaper motherboard, better performance(less skipage and alot less cpu usage and slightly better stability because you are not depending on software to work perfectly)
As far as an operating system, I would go with windows 2000(or a mac. each unto his own) The reason for that, is it dosent crash as much as XP, any XP driver/software will work, and I have about 25 second boot up time on my own 300mhz computer with nly 64 (for now) megs or ram.
so if I was you, And you were going to put it in the trunk of your car I would get the following
-500mhz or faster motherboard/cpu
-laptop hard drive and cdrom drive with converter to use with above motherboard
-screen! You need to find one that will work, but not be to big to get around(heater/ac and to see) but still small enough to see from possibly the back seat.
-windows 2000. THis makes fast load up times, and dosent crash as much as xp
-power supply. You can use a standard power supply with 250 watts or so with a power inverter.

Also it may be worth it to put a remote usb/firewire cable to the front of the car. If you put the computer in the trunk, it will be a nightmare getting wires and things all of the way to the front.(especially with the cd/dvd drives). If you were to put it under the passenger seat, It wouldnt be so bad. Just a few modifications and wireing. BUt I think that you could hack away enough room under/in the dash to put it in the glove box, or maybe even where the stereo goes. But I would look at a small motherboard/cpu, hopefully with no fan(ventalation to under the seat/in the dash? what a pain) a fanless cpu(once again ventalation) in the dash there would be no reason for more/special wires, and you could do away with your stereo(or use one of the 2 or 3 empty slots). Basically there are alot of ways to do it, and almost anyway that you can figure should work. If it makes sense, it should be done fairly easily. The whole trunk thing would be a pain to get cd drives to the front of the car. So it pretty much wouldnt be worth it in my opinion. And dont forget about electrical. We would be adding an easy 200 watts(continusly) to your cars electrical. I would recomend a 3g altenator and 2 batteries, or one high storgae/spiffy one. Sorry its 4 am, I am buzzed and half asleep. Sorry for the long post. Hopefully this will help you more then confuse you.

*edit* also look into getting a battery back up ment for an inhome pc. THis way the computer can live through the voltage surges/draws when starting the car or when it dies/ if the power converter gets maxed out. there are systems that will auto matically turn the computer on when you start the car. This would work great with a remote start/car alarm. Just a couple of more things to look into. Once again, any specific questions, I am prolly your go to guy(not that anyone is dumb or anything) but I have been looking into doing this extensivly and have researched alot and learned along the way. I am just yet to do it. I have done everything but.

Re: Project...

Reply #20 – June 03, 2005, 07:51:02 AM

Haystack, If you remove the fans aren't you essentially removing the cooling of the computer. Computers need to stay cool for optimum performance. What's your solution for keeping the thing cool? Personally, I have an idea.. which is to stick a small CPU in the glove box, and/or radio panel.. then take one of the airconditioning vents and route it to point towards the Computer.

Re: Project...

Reply #21 – June 03, 2005, 12:35:13 PM

Well, my original plans were put the MoBo under the dash, but since it was not possible, the trunk is the best place. I have planned to put at least 2 fans continously,(three with the procesor fan) because the weather here is very hot, and is relatively easy to fry a CPU.

The original MoBo for my project was an AMD sempr0n 2200+ with 128 ram. And i was going to use Windows Me (hey, i dont have another operative system...) because i had other three computers and they boot really fast (nearly 25 secs). Like i said, if its necessary, i can use a Radeon 9250.

Well, if the project needs to be changed, its a good time to hear opinions. My car battery it is not good, but ill give a try anyway....

Re: Project...

Reply #22 – June 05, 2005, 12:09:04 AM

Quote from: baXo

Haystack, If you remove the fans aren't you essentially removing the cooling of the computer. Computers need to stay cool for optimum performance. What's your solution for keeping the thing cool? Personally, I have an idea.. which is to stick a small CPU in the glove box, and/or radio panel.. then take one of the airconditioning vents and route it to point towards the Computer.

that could work, But I was talking about a mini -itx motherboard that is designed to work without any ventalation. If I used a regular pc motherboard, I would design my own fan system and let air in and out through the firewall to make it as quiet as possible. Seems like alot of trouble, But I dont even want anyone to know that it is a computer.

Re: Project...

Reply #23 – June 11, 2005, 03:48:58 AM

sounds cool hope it works for you

Re: Project...

Reply #24 – June 11, 2005, 09:20:45 AM

Hey I got that motherboard. It will take till next monday(not in two days but like 10 days). I am going to take pics and share any info along the way. It was $153 us with shipping all the way from canada. I will post pics asap.

Re: Project...

Reply #25 – June 18, 2005, 01:14:23 PM

Well any updates? I have gotten a new 87 v-6 cougar to work on so it will take me a while to get mine going. I am planning on swapping engines from the car in my avitar or what ever because we have 1 too many to fit in the driveway. So I got my mini itx motherboard. I just learned that it dosent have tv-out. First quick look says that it does. Look closely and it says that it dosent. So I have to figure something out for a video card with tv-out that will fit in a din sized hole(Which the motherboard does pretty easily), Or I have to get a $200-$300 monitor. I saw a flexable pci riser that would be perfect. It is a good 12 inches or so. Makeing it so I can put the outputs to the video anywhere easily. Also I have to buy a extra usb bracket thingy so that I can mound the usb right to the left of the glove box. I am also going to put one in the glove box for flash drives and ipods and stuff like that. I have a regular cd drive (around 24x) and a 4 gig hard drive from a laptop. As soon as I get some connectors I will test to make sure that they work. But when I got the motherboard, It is just giveing me a solid beep with no post. It also started smokeing. I dont know what to think. It wasent shorted out or anthing. I am going to call up the guy, or likely email. He is in canada so yeah. Wish me luck.