CarPC rebuild

[wintertidenz]

Got sick of where the current CarPC was sitting, and the little niggling issues that kept popping up, so I decided to do a complete teardown and rebuild.

Sorry don't have many pictures up until now - I spent about 4 hours last night getting it all up and running.

I found at my old job an old security alarm case that was perfect for my needs - strong, good size, and above all - tamper proof when a suitable lock is installed. So I cut up the old case, and used the floor of it for the motherboard to sit on.

I had previously ran up a copy of Windows XP on my main computer as a virtual machine for a CarPC build - it was half finished, so I exported it across to a spare HDD I had lying around and fired that up, then started installing drivers and front-ends.

Currently the PC looks like this on my "office" floor:




Specs of CarPC are:
Gigabyte GA-GC230D motherboard with Intel Atom 230 CPU overclocked slightly to 1.8GHz.
1GB RAM
80GB SATA HDD
Creative Live! 5.1 with EMU10k1 chipset
External CD/DVD writer

The reason I went back to XP on this build was because Windows 7 didn't play so nicely with my touchscreen, or the kX audio driver I had installed.
I prefer to use the kX audio drivers because I can tweak crossovers, time alignment, EQs and a lot more and have it all processed directly from the soundcard with minimal CPU overhead.

[exevoowner]

Were did you buy your motherboard from and price if you dont mind me asking ?

[wintertidenz]

The board is a few years old now - I got it when the Atoms first came out. It's a Gigabyte GA-GC230D in Mini-ITX form with 1 PCI slot and 1 RAM slot.

It's not the highest spec board around, but it does the job well - and when I was running Win 7 it handed that surprisingly well.

[wintertidenz]

Thread revival from the dead...

I still haven't got this back in the car yet, as my touchscreen died on me (kept going bright white and once let off some smoke).

So, its replacement finally arrived today...



The CarPC will now be running the front speakers, as I found an issue with my Phoenix Gold crossover - with the amount of wiring nearby I was getting really bad alternator whine. When the audio cables were disconnected from the crossover, everything was OK.
So now the onboard sound is doing the rear speakers, as well as the subs - it's a complicated setup now...

[menno3x8g]

Maybe stupid question: why don't you use tablet + amplifier? It's just plug and play.

[LudviG]

Nice project. I have bern thinking of making a carputer from a Rasperry pi. I already have 2 of them running as mediacenters at home. A great piece of hardware!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Nick Mann]

Maybe stupid question: why don't you use tablet + amplifier? It's just plug and play.

For me it's the lack of support for evoscan and ecuflash.

[menno3x8g]

Nice project. I have bern thinking of making a carputer from a Rasperry pi. I already have 2 of them running as mediacenters at home. A great piece of hardware!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Though evoscan runs on Android too.

[wintertidenz]

Maybe stupid question: why don't you use tablet + amplifier? It's just plug and play.

For me, it's the lack of multiple audio outputs (I have 3-way active fronts, a set of rears and a sub) - I require at least five outputs, and one input for the Bluetooth program that I run.
It's also the lack of time alignment, a full EQ and crossover abilities that require me to have a CarPC.

I used to run a Pioneer DEH-P80RS but I sold this in favour of the CarPC because it didn't allow me enough control.