Computer Build For A Car

tirefire

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Jul 16, 2006
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A friend of mine is paying me a few bucks for a special computer build. The "special" part of this is that he wants it to be micro-ATX sized or smaller so he can fit it in his car - he plans to put the tower between the two front seats in his Scion TC. Also, he would like the case to emit a lot of red light so the interior would be bathed in red.

What would be the best way to do this? LEDs, maybe? I've done plenty of computer builds before but they've never had LEDs or UV motherboards or anything.
 

apt403

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Oct 14, 2006
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leds are awesome, there cheap to you can get like a hundred for like 50 bucks online, not sure if there the red ones though. id say 50 would be enough but if you wanted to go really overboard you should get 200+. they dont use alot of power but i have no idea how you would wire that up. im pretty sure you would have to go with a seprate power supply to drive all of them, not because the PSU wouldnt be able to handle them but because would probablly have to get the wire cutters and silver solder out to connect them all i wouldnt want to risk frying something. cold cathodes would most likely be easier to install since you just plug em in and go but id go with the leds for bragging rights as for the PC ill leave that to someone else.
 
Whats your budget for that system? Does the system need to be running/operating while the car is being driven? Whats your idea of the ideal video screen? Keyboard & touchscreen?
 

tirefire

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Jul 16, 2006
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The guy says the lighting system is not essential but he would like it. I figure a budget of maybe $50 for the lighting system alone is about right. Also I thought I could get LED fans and replace the 80mm PSU fan with one, use one for rear exhaust, one on the side panel, and one on the front, though that might get a little noisy. A micro-ATX case with a clear side panel would be great, though I can't seem to find one.

And yes, the system would be running while the car moves. I don't know how he plans to power it (cigarette adapter?) but he said he'd take care of it, so I figure as long as I keep the power requirements low (<250 W) he'll be okay. As for video, he already has an LCD screen mounted on the passenger-side dash with a DVI input. Pretty slick, actually.

Basically he just wants a Micro-ATX tower with aluminum trim on the front and red lights if possible, enough to illuminate his car a little.

The budget for the other components is around $400 but I already have everything picked out (parts like the CPU and RAM are just old parts I have in my closet anyway) except the case. Budget for the case is maybe $45 or less (with power supply - he doesn't need much since it's an A64 3200+ and integrated video).
 

UA_Iron

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Oct 23, 2006
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At my work I have a bunch of touchscreen/computer combos laying around ready to get junked. I think they're a 700mhz pentium processor with like 256-512megs of ram all bundled into a box about 4" deep and attached is a ~15" touchscreen. They run off 24V, sounds like a perfect application for something like that.