Hi guys,



i am thinking to put install carputer in my 03 Euro, here is my carputer specs:

1. Voom PC car aluminium case

2. Vista C7 1.5 GHz DDR Sata mini ITX motherboard

3. M2- ATX Car PC 160 W DC-DC automotive power supply

4. Liliput 7" VGA touch screen

5. External DVD drive



going to get

1. 512 DDR2 Ram

2. SATA external Hard Disk (not sure which size to go)



is this enough? or i need something else?

And what is Frond End, i have been doing research for a while, and still cant get clear idea, is it basically a way to play music, movie, and gps without booting your PC? Pls Correct me if i'm wrong, and where to get it? 1 of my friend told me, if i use carputer along with amps, there will be noise,is this true? i doubt this idea coz i saw lots of people using carpc and amps and havent seen any complain





Now, my main concern, how to maximize the sound quality bit



i have few options on my carputer setup.

1. Use Carputer, get an external sound card, and connect it to my amps

Concern : I am thinking to use Behringer UCA-202 (As suggested on other forum by Pulse R), my question is this sound card only has 2 outputs, how do i connect F, R, sub from this sound card?



2. Connect my carputer to AUX input of my head unit. I have Audio Control EQS, which is 30 Bands Processor, so is it idea to use this in between my stock head unit and amps?



I'am currently using Alpine 9835, so i can i expect by doing 1 of this options, i could get at least similar quality?



any info will be appreciated



cheers



Adi

I think a good way is to get a sound card with digital output and run it to an external processor such as the Alpine PXA-h701 , which can use a din-size controller for volume and control all the x-over, eq etc.

yea



but i kinda short on money to buy processor, maybe in the future,



so yea for the moment i want to try maximising the stuffs i mentioned before



thanks for the info



cheers



adi

I would use a bit of option 1 and option 2. Use the Behringer UCA-202 sound card and connect that to the aux connection on your headunit. This way you've got more control over the sound with your alpine headunit, and with the usb soundcard the quality will be way better then the crappy onboard soundcard.

The Via Epia 15000G Mini Itx Mobo has Optical out, component Video & dual DVI

I've not found a favourable review on it yet, but most reviews are based on it being used as a HTPC.

For CarPC duties it should kick a**.

I agree with Evan's suggestion. run the UCA-202 into the head unit via AUX input, and then when you can afford the processor, just connect the optical for the UCA direct to the processor.

Frontend is a generic name for a custom shell to give you all the controls you need at your fingertips, ie GPS, MP3's, DVD's, PhoneControl, to name but a few.

The most popular out there is Centrafuse (from fluxmedia) and a free one, called Roadrunner.

You will find lot's of information on both over at mp3car.com,as both the developers are active there.

I have studied the best solutions for Carputers for a while now, and for the money, nothing can beat a nice Apple MacMini 1.83gig CoreDuo setup.

Try and get a Seagate Momentus 7200rpm Sata Laptop Harddrive for your setup, whichever way you go. Very fast, and designed with carputers in mind.

Have fun, keep us posted.