New Shuttle Mini system in car???

[KRS62]

Hello all,

I know there has been a few posts on putting systems in cars on this board, but I wanted to see if anyone has....or is considering putting the new little Shuttle Spacewalker system in thier ride? That's such a awesome little system! I am curious though if it can take the heat of being in a trunk in Florida. I would like that to be my MP3 and DVD player. DVD players are just WAY too expensive for cars still. Any suggestions or comments?

KRS

 

[Jizzler]

Hey neighbor!

With such little cooling in one of those Shuttle cases, I wouldn't want to chance it in the trunk.

Time to mod your car Maybe fit the system in your dash and run an A/C vent to it . Will run cool plus you'll have access to the DVD drive!

Under the seat would work... Maybe a 1U installed in the back of your seat?

 

[Crucial]

WTF do you need a DVD drive in your car for?

 

[S13SilviaK]

I answered this in another thread on a car forum, because there were ignorant SOB's like yourself there as well. First of all I take trips with my girlfriend and it's nice to have a DVD for other people to enjoy, second when I'm chilling between classes and don't feel like going all the way home I can go over to my car and watch a dvd or play some video games while I wait, thirdly it sounds kick ass with the two audio DVD's I have which will be the near future of music outside of Super Audio CD's.

I'm sure KRS's reason are similiar but nonetheless he was asking advice not your opinion on if he should get a system at all.

By the way KRS if you can figure out a cheaper solution go for it, I ended up spending almost 2500 in the end and i think it was worth it but if I had it to do again i could have modded an indash CPU with a hge 17-19" LCD for half that price, it wouldn't have been as nice but I could have either paid someone to do a good mod job with the extra 1K or I could have bought better all around speakers. What kind of a car do you have? If its on the small side you can pick up bare LCD's pretty cheap (200-300) and have them installed in dash or have 2 installed in your visors. Your not going to be watching while driving so you don't need it to be positioned right in your face. Also you might want to consider splitting your budget between a dedicated MP3 player and a cpu dvd, you could then go with a lower quality CPU but use a DVD decoder card (ala Hollywood +) and you might even be able to get away with a very small case and very little fan cooling if any at all if you take the previous advice and hook AC up to it.

Either way good luck.

Mark

 

[xXgambitXx]

yeah csaddict, you shouldn't make fun of Ricers. Computer and Car Ricers should stick together, they have their chromish like plated trim and you have your memory cooling and "L337 rIg" window applique. you're all on the same wagon

 

[S13SilviaK]

Multimedia in a car is Rice? Tell that to the new Benz/Beamer owners who have navigation and Idrive built-in. I should know my 328is is the one I put my DVD player into.

 

[KRS62]

All:

Thanks to everyone (well, almost everyone!) for thier reply.

I would like a computer system in my car for 4 reasons:
1) MP3 Player (although the Alpine deck I have picked out plays MP3s)
2) DVD player
3) Navigation system. I have Microsoft Mappoint and a portable GPS and use it quite often with my laptop when I travel for work. It would be nice to have it in my personal ride. (FYI - In case you are wondering...my laptop does not have a DVD player.)
4) Cool factor. I just think it would be cool to have a computer in my car. Eventually, this will probably be common place & all cars will come with them. Why wait?

I have a '94 Honda Civic. I've got a stock stereo, 6CD Alpine Changer and Boston Pro Series/Rally speakers. New Alpine head unit, XM service and PPI amps are coming soon. I am sticking with my little Honda until gas prices are a little more stable!

I guess it would be better to install it in the cabin....vs. the trunk. I guess I just need to decide whether to use 1U, micro atx or the shuttle.

Hey silvia...any pics?

KRS

 

[Crucial]

KRS thanks for the polite reply. I guess all of us "ignorant SOB's" aren't hip to scene.

As for the other ass that replied go fsck yourself. That comment was completely uncalled for. Where do you see my opinion stated about what he should do with his car. I asked why you need a DVD drive in your car? that isn't telling him what to do with it.

 

[S13SilviaK]

<< WTF do you need a DVD drive in your car for? >>



No you didn't ask, you said WTF do you need a DVD for? That doesn't sound like a question that sounds like your trying to thread crap and that you are in fact ignorant because that's two short answers from you both needing the F word to express yourself.

 

[S13SilviaK]

KRS no pics, sorry I have no digi cam.

With eveything your putting into your car wouldn't be easier to upgrade to the DVD/CD/Navigation changer Alpine offers and then add one of their screens to go in dash with your new Alpine headunit?

You would accomplish everything you want to do and it would look like a pro job since the civic's have double din dash's right?

A computer would give you bragging rights but realistically it's not like your going tobe able to surf the net in car well if you have the cash you could but then you wouldn't be worried about gas $$$ either

The civ's have large dash's though on the passenger side right? I mean there's suppost to be an airbag there but you could take that out and recess a monitor there, you could even have it angled toward you, that would be the slickest way to do it.

 

[Crucial]

You going to keep insutling me because it makes you feel better? I am not the one who started personally attacking someone. If you feel the need to attack other people to justify how much money you blew on your car than I can't help that I guess.

Is that a good enough fword less post?

 

[Crucial]

S13SilviaK


<< Date Posted: May/03/2002 4:36 PM
If you noticed I'm trying to help while you keep pirating the post.

Also, insulting you is fun because it's easy. I also got my car for 12K that's a 98 BMW 328is clean title, it pays to have a lot of friends and even more friends with a whole lot of money.

If you have anythign to say to me here's my address:
XXXX XXXXX
XX XXXXXXXX XX.
XXXXX, XX XXXXXX

Say it to my face you coward. >>



So instead of insulting me in front of everybody you do it by pesonal message instead. Who's the coward.

Do the threats come next?

 

[S13SilviaK]

You moron I said it via PM so that KRS's thread could continue without anymore of your posts.

 

[Crucial]

Like I said let the personal attacks continue. I am not the one who crapped all over this post.

 

[xXgambitXx]

a computer in the car would be pretty cool for the MP3 storage space. i've seen some MP3 compatable in-dash CD players, but i've heard that the sound quality kind of blows, does anyone have experience with these ? oh yeah, i don't know much about this stuff, are you saying that you could run a DVD off of the computer in the trunk and feed it to a LCD screen in the front ? that would be wicked.

 

[marat]

Hey - a friend of mine has an Alpine Navigation System from Mercedes ML320 he doesn't need (It doesn't work in his area). If you want it - you can negotiate pretty sweet deal with him. What do you think.

 

[S13SilviaK]

Hey I've been checkingit out, apparently the nav system uses DVD so it should be able to play reagular DVD's as well not positive on that though since the website is being pretty useless.

Also, you would have to then use a seperate monitor which could be difficult to place somewhere.

 

[Jizzler]

<< a computer in the car would be pretty cool for the MP3 storage space. i've seen some MP3 compatable in-dash CD players, but i've heard that the sound quality kind of blows, does anyone have experience with these ? oh yeah, i don't know much about this stuff, are you saying that you could run a DVD off of the computer in the trunk and feed it to a LCD screen in the front ? that would be wicked. >>



I installed one for a friend, sounds pretty good, but he also owns all the CD's and rips them at 320Kbps Not a single 128K MP3.

Now instead of hauling 300 CD's around, he just has a booklet with 80 or so.

 

[KRS62]

Marat,

No thanks on the used Alpine offer. I appreciate it though.

All:

I thought about the Alpine DVD options but it seems too expensive still. We are talking around $1200 at least for a player and then you have to screen (in dash, seperate, whatever.) I figured I could put a little mini system together for around $700. I haven't made up my mind yet, but if I install the mini PC, I will post my results.

thanks,

KRS

 

[EskimoPie76]

I assume you're familiar with the site http://www.mp3car.com they have some really good forums on this subject over there... I'm thinking of doing this myself in my truck... I should be able to fit a nice 10.4" LCD in the dash where the stock stereo and AC controlls are... As for the people who ask why not use an Alpine unit or something of the sort, simple expandability... with a PC the possibilites are endless. Stash a microphone somewhere and use some voice recognition software for voice commands... use Autotap or some other OBDII software so you have car diagnostics always at your fingertips... GIGS of storage for MP3's, DIVX, whatever... WiFi so you can just park out front of your house and transfer files back and forth or even go driving around sniffing for open access points... I plan on eventually getting a blue tooth phone so I'll just get an access point for my truck and have internet and e-mail whenever I need it... how many times have you been driving around and wished that you had access to the net for some reason at that point... All of this for a fraction of the price you would pay for some fancy dancy aftermarket unit that did half the stuff...

Oh yeah, and back to the original topic... I think I'll probably be using one of those new shuttle systems, although like you I really worry about heat being a problem (especially in southern Arizona) so instead of using the SS50 (the new P4 one) I'll probably get the SS40 which is meant for Athalons... but I'll probably throw a Duron 700-900 in it to help it run cooler but it will still have plenty of power for MP3/DVD decoding... I'll just use the integrated video going to a VGA LCD screen, but probably throw an Audigy into one of the PCI slots for better sound quality. I'll get a small HD to run the OS off, and use a large firewire HD for storage so I can transfer large quantities of files quicker... I'll probably just get the mobo itself instead of their whole case though because I'm going to install under my center console.

 

[MoFunk]

Pardon my ignorance on this subject, but what would happen to the hard drive if you are accessing an MP3 while driving and you smack a pothole? Would that not cause your drive to crash?

 

[Spac3d]

<< Pardon my ignorance on this subject, but what would happen to the hard drive if you are accessing an MP3 while driving and you smack a pothole? Would that not cause your drive to crash? >>



haha, I didnt even think of that happening. I am thinking of putting a computer into my car... hrmm... anyone have any experience with driving on bumpy roads with a computer in your car?

Spac3d

 

[S13SilviaK]

Use a laptop drive, with plenty of padding/rubber mounts and you should be ok.

 

[EskimoPie76]

Modern hard drives are rated to withstand 30 g's, some up to 50 g's... you reach those in your car you've got bigger problems than your hard drive not working... many people install their hard drives on their side so any g loads experienced aren't in the direction that would cause the heads to hit the platters, but many people think this is unnecessary. Some people have used laptop drives with adaptors, but the large majority of people just use normal desktop drives. I've seen MANY people who have just mounted their HD's normally in their case which is hard mounted to a surface in the car and haven't ever had any problems. In fact, I've been researching this for a while now and haven't seen a single person say they've had a hard drive fail from bumps... one guy was even in a head-on collision and scanned his hard drive afterwards... not even a single bad sector. Bottom line, HD's are tougher than we think.

 

[MoFunk]

<< Modern hard drives are rated to withstand 30 g's, some up to 50 g's... you reach those in your car you've got bigger problems than your hard drive not working... many people install their hard drives on their side so any g loads experienced aren't in the direction that would cause the heads to hit the platters, but many people think this is unnecessary. Some people have used laptop drives with adaptors, but the large majority of people just use normal desktop drives. I've seen MANY people who have just mounted their HD's normally in their case which is hard mounted to a surface in the car and haven't ever had any problems. In fact, I've been researching this for a while now and haven't seen a single person say they've had a hard drive fail from bumps... one guy was even in a head-on collision and scanned his hard drive afterwards... not even a single bad sector. Bottom line, HD's are tougher than we think. >>



This is good information to know. Thanks.

edit- I saw this article some time ago to help reduce HD vibration. This could be another way of a little extra added shock protection for those that are still a little scepticle of putting a moving HD in their car.
linky-about half way down the page