in car pc

[exevoowner]

right boys n girls what software do you all use ?

[John TheAntique]

Here you go http://www.centrafuse.com/

[exevoowner]

yea i've got that on it but not over excited by it its got all the bits on it but seams slow to operate and also has windows running in the back ground which i'm not that keen on just want to see what others had

[VR4Kaos]

cenerfuse

[John TheAntique]

Hic!?

[wintertidenz]

RideRunner is also a really good one.

I personally prefer it to Centrafuse - much cheaper and quicker. Also more customization and skins.

[exevoowner]

have had a quick look around and there loads my big problem is that when i brought the pc it already had centrafuse on there and it seams to have a lot of hang ups and seams slow but that could be pc but would of thought a 1 ghz cpu would of run a music system might see if i can do a fresh in stall

[VR4Kaos]

the only problem i have with ceterfuse is uploading my music vidios i can't seem to do it with either vlc player or windows media player may have to try a next format not sure not got round to playing with it yet

[wintertidenz]

I'm running one of the early Atoms with 1GB of RAM on XP Pro and it runs fine. Centrafuse is quite a resource hungry front-end - you may find you are better off with RideRunner.

In saying that, I was running Win 7 and Centrafuse with 1GB of RAM with no issues at all.

What HDD are you running - if any? An SD or CompactFlash card will be damn slow, spend a little bit and get an SSD instead. Room to install stuff and lightning fast speed = win. Don't skimp out and get a standard laptop HDD - a standard HDD isn't so good in a CarPC, I'm running a standard laptop HDD but at the time there were no SSDs on the market without silly money. I haven't had problems with my drive yet, but if it dies I will replace it with an SSD.

[exevoowner]

itd got a 80g drive the main issue is hang ups it seams slow think il invest in some ram n try that also cant seam to get screen res rite either lol

[wintertidenz]

The HDD may be stuffed. I'd suggest running a diagnostic program on it to see if it has any issues.

The screen res is always a problem, I just learned to live with it after fighting with it for months.

[exevoowner]

in windows its fine but when centrafuse starts it seams out and can only see 2/3rds of the screen and some of the buttons are missing will try the diagnostic's through windows and see what that throws up and see if there any drivers for screen

[wintertidenz]

Make sure the res is at least 800x480 or 800x600.

[exevoowner]

have had a play with the res tonite and when i make the screen to wot you say it makes centrafuse larger were as windows appers fine think i'm gona stick my flat panel on it and see if i can figure out whats a miss lol

[apeman69]

There are screen settings within centrafuse version 2, dunno anything about version 3. Set your resolution to 800x600 or 640 through Windows' control panel then 'full screen' or whatever in centrafuse's settings screen. Scrutinise the centrafuse settings and work out what each does as there are a lot of them! You may just have one incorrectly set.
If your screen is widescreen and you can't set the windows resolution to anything higher than 800x480, the 480 being the important bit, then you may have a problem with displaying most things correctly.

Sent from my Huge Brain using MyThumb (TM) :)

[apeman69]

You can't get away from running windows or some other operating system. There could be unnecessary programs running when windows starts that may be slowing your pc down. Your hard disc may benefit from a defrag. All the usual windows speed up/clean up rules apply to a car pc.
Centrafuse, just like the rest of the car pc front end softwares, is simply a windows app so if it's screens are not displaying properly then it should be a user setting within centrafuse that isn't right. It should resize itself to your video chip's screen resolution setting as long as it's told to do so by means of it's own internal settings/options menus.

Sent from my Huge Brain using MyThumb (TM) :)

[exevoowner]

after having issues with programs running on my in car pc it seams i found the problem being the motherboard dieing now its given up totally so i'm looking around and see things have changed some what so looking for a bit advice on what sort of motherboard to go for ????

[wintertidenz]

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=2

I would go with an Atom or AMD Fusion. It depends on what parts you already have, including RAM and power supply.
Personally I would go for the latest Atom with the nVidia graphics, as it will be able to play high-def video content quite easily - http://www.mini-itx.com/store/~JNC98-525

[exevoowner]

have being toying with the idea of i i3 or i5 but think it might be a bit of a over kill for what it will be used for

[apeman69]

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=2

I would go with an Atom or AMD Fusion. It depends on what parts you already have, including RAM and power supply.
Personally I would go for the latest Atom with the nVidia graphics, as it will be able to play high-def video content quite easily - http://www.mini-itx.com/store/~JNC98-525

I like that mobo :) more than enough grunt for the car.

Sent from my Huge Brain using MyThumb (TM) :)

[wintertidenz]

An i3 or i5 would suck far too much power. Remember, you ideally want to be under 100w for a CarPC so it doesn't draw too much current, and also because running a standard power supply with an inverter is a pain/noisy/will not survive cranking/requires custom solutions for shutdown pulsing when car is turned off.

Any parts you choose should be quite low wattage - the i3 and i5's alone draw 65 (i3 2130) to 95w (i5 2400), then you need to add on a motherboard etc etc. Pretty soon you are looking at least a 200w power supply.
Compare that to a mini ITX board that draws 60w all up, add another 20w or so for an HDD - and you have halved the requirements (and price) for your power supply - your old one should be sufficient for a new board, depending on what it is.
I run my setup off an 80w PSU, and it's quite happy even with the extra PCI card and a DVD drive on top of the HDD.

[exevoowner]

mmmm i see what your saying didnt think they were so power hungry
would that be ok 320887128691 ebay

[wintertidenz]

That would work just fine. Although to be honest I would buy new - just for peace of mind.