In car PC advice?

[pundit]

I was thinking about fitting a cd to my car. In the meantime I've been using a portable Sony Minidisc with a cassette adapter for a while. However I'm now considering an 'in car' PC using low power VIA EPI ITX (http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.101/.f) mini motherboard with the associated hardware, touch screen, power supply, case etc. I'm thinking of running the O.S. on a bootable USB flash drive with a 2.5" laptop HDD for data storage. I might even consider Linux as an option. I want to use the SPDIF out to feed a digital crossover and then the amps.

I believe Jon K has an in car PC. Does anyway else also have one and, if so, what are their feelings? I'm mainly interested in playing music and maybe a navigation option. Games are not on the agenda! - Cheers

[wingman]

What about ipod for music?

[genphreak]

I was thinking about fitting a cd to my car. In the meantime I've been using a portable Sony Minidisc with a cassette adapter for a while. However I'm now considering an 'in car' PC using low power VIA EPI ITX (http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.101/.f) mini motherboard with the associated hardware, touch screen, power supply, case etc. I'm thinking of running the O.S. on a bootable USB flash drive with a 2.5" laptop HDD for data storage. I might even consider Linux as an option. I want to use the SPDIF out to feed a digital crossover and then the amps.

I believe Jon K has an in car PC. Does anyway else also have one and, if so, what are their feelings? I'm mainly interested in playing music and maybe a navigation option. Games are not on the agenda! - CheersI have the same screen Jon K has got, look slike I won't get round to fitting it as I'm far too busy atm. It also needs some shade to be visible during bright Aussie sun-soaked days- beware on that count. I have a VIA EPIA board in a fanless minicase (tha board is made especially for this mini-case), she has 10/100 and 802.11g for auto synchronising- was going to run Windows in order to run iTunes (the synching is ****-hot). The trouble is that Windows requires a HDD (and I need music space anyway), so it is running an 60G 2.5" HDD which does me. The on-board sound works nicely via the line output direct to the amp, and I was thinking of controlling the amp on/off with the PC, but I haven't got round to such niceties yet.

Make sure you get a regulated power supply or you wil blow the board when your car runs up to 13.8VDC instead of 12. THe regulators aren't hard to get.

You can run a local web-server so the PC boots to a main intranet page that allows you top run iTunes/Winamp, video and even GPS map softwarez... (you need the touchscreen monitor) I guess that is what Jon K is doing. It sure looks pretty shmick!

An iPod in the dash seems an equally good idea to me tho... until it gets stolen perhaps... so it'd have to come out :) Nick

[pundit]

I have the same screen Jon K has got, look slike I won't get round to fitting it as I'm far too busy atm. It also needs some shade to be visible during bright Aussie sun-soaked days- beware on that count. I have a VIA EPIA board in a fanless minicase (tha board is made especially for this mini-case), she has 10/100 and 802.11g for auto synchronising- was going to run Windows in order to run iTunes (the synching is ****-hot). The trouble is that Windows requires a HDD (and I need music space anyway), so it is running an 60G 2.5" HDD which does me. The on-board sound works nicely via the line output direct to the amp, and I was thinking of controlling the amp on/off with the PC, but I haven't got round to such niceties yet.

Make sure you get a regulated power supply or you wil blow the board when your car runs up to 13.8VDC instead of 12. THe regulators aren't hard to get.

You can run a local web-server so the PC boots to a main intranet page that allows you top run iTunes/Winamp, video and even GPS map softwarez... (you need the touchscreen monitor) I guess that is what Jon K is doing. It sure looks pretty shmick!

An iPod in the dash seems an equally good idea to me tho... until it gets stolen perhaps... so it'd have to come out :) Nick

Thanks. I definately want to use SPDIF out from the PC. I'm fitting a digital crossover/processor with a digital in. Most players, iPod etc don't have direct digital outputs and the general quality of PC analog outputs are, in the main, pretty average. A PC is not a good environment for low level analog signals. The DA converison will be done by the crossover/processor before being sent to the amps. I'm aware of the power supply issues.

Which model VIA board do you have, where did you get it and how much?
Can you please give me more info re. the auto synchronising?

BTW does the VIA mobo allow you to boot the O.S. directly from a USB flash drive?

Cheers! :)

[Qube]

Perhaps grab an Aopen Mini PC :) You get DVI, but unfortunately the onboard sound is extremely lacking.

http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/29/sfftech-reviews-and-pans-the-aopen-mini-pc/

[grave77]

I think most new hardware can support the USB OS booting .. but it would be slow and unreliable ... u can use the OS on a hardrive ... especially that any OS would use a swap file that requires R/W from the media and USB cannot be the good choice. I have used a USB harddrive before and it wasn't good. IDE interface is way much better. S-ATA r a good choice if found I don't know yet if they supported this on car motherboards yet.