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59 Comments
- TomP, on 10/12/2007, -7/+48Under $400 = $399
God that annoys the hell out of me its still $400 god damnit! - mugdecoffee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13$400 is just for the barebones kit. You still need ram, a hard drive, and a video card.
- zenerdiode, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13"tested to work in extreme cold temps?" Baloney!
Sure you can get the MB and PS to work under -40 deg F cause there aren't any moving parts. In fact, the chipset on the MB loves the cold.
What about the 2.5" hard drive though? You know...the only type this enclosure can handle? Well those particular kind of hard drives have FLUID dynamic bearings, not mechanical bearing like your typical desktop hard drive. So what happens when the temperature approaches +32 deg F? The hard drive slows down cause the viscosity of the FLUID increases as it gets close to freezing (somewhere a little below water freezing temp). Presto, your carputer becomes unusable even if your Mobo and PS are humming along.
Guess they forgot to mention that though eh?
/has carputer with 2.5" drive that takes 10 minutes to warm up during Tahoe winters. - nypix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11I'm really happy for x.264 and whatever vids not working. People drive horribly enough without watching Clara Morgane porn while driving.
- negativefx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8the pc isn't the problem....installing the screen is. however, this is nice:
"The VoomPC-2 has been tested to work in extreme cold temperatures. The motherboard and power supply used in the VoomPC-2 is capable to cold starting at temperatures as low as -40C and continuous operation in environments as high as 55C."
big time bonus - MrPlug, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8the case freakin rules, very clean looking almost like an amp
- negativefx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6yeah, no *****... i built mine for $620 and it had everything i needed including wiring
- Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"The world's less expensive"?
What's that supposed to mean? - nbhagwat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Now if someone can integrate Homer Simpson's toilet+seat into a car, I will no longer need an apartment!!
- evandude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4RAM and hard drive, yes, video card, no.
But don't forget about a slim optical drive, and a proper screen... - bobdolePENAR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Um, thats just the CASE ....
- DrDigg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Anyone know how fast these things start back up once they fully shut down? Article doesn't say, although I would imagine it would depend on the OS. Perhaps flash drive would be faster and less power drain.
- d00by, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Check out mp3car.com, it is the site where all of us Car-PC enthusiests go. You can build that same thing for around $300-$250 if you know where to look.
- freonchill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3$40 shipping for something the size of a shoe box?
i better get it SAME DAY - seuaniu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4***** the $400 price tag, how about features? The "article" gives a few hardware specs, but not much else. Here's what I want, and I'll pay $1500 for it:
GPS
Touchscreen
wifi
MythTV
AM/FM/satellite tuner
A nice pc or home-server software stack that will let me check off which content from my drive I want sent over (wifi), so I never have to think about how to get content from my home to my car.
The technology is all there with mythtv and a caching database and rsync. All anybody needs to do with it is create a turn-key package that is easy for anybody to use, and you've got a nice niche business with upper-middle-class folks who want all the toys in their cars. Hell, if you could put multiple video/sound cards in the thing, you could have the kids in the back watching barney while you are following the map on the dash, while there's some zeppelin playing on the radio. - NetJoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2try noscript as well, you don't need java on every last website.
- cbergeron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@z0iid: You can easily use a carputer startup/shutdown controller to handle things like that in a car environment.
ex. http://www.dashwerks.com/dw_dssc.php
Just an FYI - there are lots of DIYers in this area. - z0iid, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5...probably do a lot more THAN the 1.5...
sorry for being a grammar nazi.
The bonus for this, is heat dissipation and the power management. Buy the mac....do you want to manually turn it off each time you park? Or do you want it to be shut down hard every time you turn your key to OFF? And do you want to wait for it to boot up each time you turn on your car?
But sure, go ahead and tell me how you could do it better....for even TWICE the cost. - 350Zed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@vcleniuk
How about READING THE ARTICLE before you ask such a stupid question? Geez - ScarHawk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As someone who has worked with mini-itx stuff before, this is capable but not impressive in the least. Its a mini-itx board in a cool case and a little power regulator. At least their not pricing it too high....
I want to build a system that has car-specific functions... GPS with google earth, car radar....hostile target tracking.... - clyde2801, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2BUT...what if my car costs over $400??
- cTower, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The bigger market for this type of low power consumption PC is RV, Marine and Remote Industry applications. They already make 12volt Flat Screens. Heck, I've got a portable DVD with a video-in port that would work.
Run it all off of one 2x4 Photovoltaic with no inverter. I'd buy one over a laptop with with car adapter. - gettarat, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1Now if someone can integrate Homer Simpson's toilet+seat into a car, I will no longer need an apartment!!
http://nextargps.org/ - en7ropia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"capable to cold starting at temperatures as low as -40C and continuous operation in environments as high as 55C."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is 55c going to cut it? - seuaniu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1thanks for the links. Its an interesting kit, but I think that people will want more features by default before they go and tear up their dashboard for the screen. Cars nowadays come with bluetooth kits for speakerphones, ipod docks, etc. A car pc is gonna have to integrate with or replace all of that if its going to succeed.
Come to think of it, this might be a fun project to start. If the people at "pimp my ride" can hook this stuff up, I know I can for sure. Get the stack stable, then start advertising. ???, profit, etc. - cybertrip, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ zener i dunno id have to go look and im too cold too i could let ya know tomorrow lol
- hiscity, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The kits are interesting, not cheap, but interesting....
http://www.short-circuit.com/manuals/voompc_man.pdf
http://www.short-circuit.com/manuals/cases/VoomPC_assembly.pdf
http://www.short-circuit.com/categories/boards.html - shotgunefx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Switch07: You can get automotive grade drives (like Hitachi Endurostars), they are a bit slow and expensive in comparison though. I have a couple and they work fine in freezing temps.
- brokenwatch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2get filterset.g for adblock, as well as the filterset.g automatic updater. blocks text ads
- imontoya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1... and finally flash drives are probably the ultimate carPC solution as they get bigger and cheaper. These are currently at 32GB and maybe there's a 64GB out soon but I haven't heard about it yet.
Sandisk:
http://digg.com/hardware/SanDisk_introduces_32GB_Flash_based_notebook_drive
Ritek and Samsung have announced 16GB and 32GB models that will be priced less than Sandisk. Unfortunately, a single flash disk can cost as much as your average $400-$500 carPC. So it's not an economical solution at the moment.
- jarjarbinks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1who cares you still need a screen. which for a touchscreen you can add another 400.
- Tranman79, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Well, I use a modded Xbox with Xbox Media Center installed in my Lexus (through the stock nav screen and two headrest monitors)...for movies, music, and games :-)
- ajft, on 10/12/2007, -0/+155C sounds kind of low, some parts of cars can get up around 70C or more when parked in the sun on a 30+ day.
Automotive electronics are hellish places, I hope their power supply is well built and well filtered; the 12V rail usually isn't 12V (anywhere from 8-15), and the odd -70V spike destroys many well intentioned systems. - Nells, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wonder how you can plug anything into these usb ports.
- postaldave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1is there plugin for firefox to block "word link ads" god i hate that crap your pointer end up setting off a landmine of popup crap.
i have Adblock but that doesn't seem to stop it. - imontoya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@zenerdiode:
"What about the 2.5" hard drive though? [...] those particular kind of hard drives have FLUID dynamic bearings, not mechanical bearing like your typical desktop hard drive. [...] as it gets close to freezing [...] your carputer becomes unusable even if your Mobo and PS are humming along."
I don't know about this product in particular, but it would be possible to add a localized electric heating element onto the hard disk case at the center bearing to "warm it up" before starting. The system could be designed to apply this heat hot enough and long enough before powering on the rest of the circuitry. If I was designing this system to work at below freezing temperatures, this would be one of the design obstacles to overcome in engineering, and localized heating of the bearing is what I would attempt first to overcome it. The heater would only need to be on until the fluid bearing was warm enough to operate and then it would make its own heat after that. - digndong, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4i'm a little meh about this thing potentially struggling with things like h.264 vids and gps->googleearth performance, but i'll usually always support progress in the aftermarket side of car pcs. (especially when someone's touting advances in the power subsystem, which can be an _absolute nightmare_ when putting a full car pc together...)
- ascott9, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2my carpc setup is for sale: http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthread.php?t=32991
- zenerdiode, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0cybertrip,
nah, it doesn't freeze at 32 deg F...it's not water after all. but the viscosity does increase enough to slow down the spin rate of the hd, making it unusable. So far, it's happened with a seagate and a fujitsu...what brand are you using? perhaps I should switch to that.
imontoya,
that's way overcomplicated for a simple carpc. you'd have to worry about keeping the heating element powered sufficiently which will drain your battery. in cold weather, you need all the cold cranking amps you can get. - chiapet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@ negativefx the pc isn't the problem....installing the screen is. this will fix that!
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GL701-NPCT&cat=CON - rsd212, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I have an older VoomPC case with similar specs. Point 1: CHECK THE WARRANTY. Those M1-ATXs burn out for no good reason. Point 2: Software is a biatch. Will take you many a night to research it all, or another $100+ to buy prebuilt software (search Streetdeck).
The new case looks neat, but this isnt really Digg material. Could be cheaper/more interesting if you DIY. As stated perviously, mp3car.com is your god now. - rewen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Man where are you going to find the PSU that will power your MAC. These CarPC PSUs are made for the energy efficient CarPCs they won't power a Mac. And even if they did where are you going to put it, it would need an enclosure for itself. Sure you can try using an inverter and the Mac PSU but that's just more crap in your car and it still doesn't shut off nicely with the car. I bet your MAC will just love having the plug pulled on it all the time. I also believe that CarPCs PSUs will set the PC into sleep or hibernation mode instead of fully powering it off, so that you aren't waiting for it to boot up again later.
CarPCs also have heat dissipating cases and well, they're the size of a stereo deck. There's more reasons not to use a Mac in this situation but I think you get the point. - Malizzle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Datalogging, tuning......doesn't mean you're driving while you're monitoring or changing it...
- imontoya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@zenerdiode:
You mis-read me. I said "The heater would only need to be on until the fluid bearing was warm enough to operate and then it would make its own heat after that."
This sentence was referring to "at power-on time", and my intention was to apply power to the small heater and warm up the bearing for some time before allowing the rest of the PC to fully power-up. Kinda like a glow-plug for your hard-disk. This would allow the hard drive to function better at power-on.
Definitely not intended to keep the HDD warm and cozy during a Tahoe winter. :) - mkarakas0690, on 11/25/2009, -0/+0http://www.yukle.in
- sentai, on 09/09/2008, -0/+0http://www.p72.info congratulations mate for this good written article, there is good info in it
- richous05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Looks really nice.
- scelter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Why don't they call it the "vRoompC"?
- edmcguirk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0On the racetrack, I don't want distractions but I'd still want this.
Dashboard touchscreen.
Recording accel/decel, location, and environment data in my race car.
How about in-car video recording on the racetrack?
On the street. I'd still want most of the same things.
GPS, Music, and maybe some video recording to document who hit me. (encrypted to prevent self-incrimination of course) - andrewpmk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Why would you want a PC in your car? Keep your eyes on the road!
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