Alpine Carputer - Part 05

I am originally posting this project on the Overclockers Australia (OCAU) forums) in this thread:
Specific Hardware Topics > Modding > Alpine Caputer. This is post #37. Some things in this post may not make sense without viewing comments left in OCAU forum thread.


I'm not really impressed with the work done inside the caddy so far and springs or any other suspension idea is looking like it will be fairly space-consuming. I think I'll be taking the performance hit and going the memory card route.

I'll run through the parts I'm looking at getting for this build and get back to the storage issue.

AClick any of the links for images. I'm recording the pics so if this project is ever looked back on, even if the links are gone, they'll still be veiwable to some extent.

Gigabyte GA-PCV2
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=270218846393 (pic)
-Mini ITX size (17cm x 17cm)
-VIA C3 1.0GHz CPU
-1x DIMM DDR266 slot (1Gb max)
-2x IDE ports (seems like it's only 1 device per channel though)
Seems like a good price, should perform well at 1.0Ghz, lacks TV out but I'm sure VGA will give me higher quality. That might narrow down my options on screens later though.

1Gb DDR400 RAM
-Just something cheap but not necessarily generic (Corsair Value RAM or something probably)

M2 ATX power supply
http://www.short-circuit.com/product/M2-ATX.html (pic)

I saw this a few weeks back:
http://beta.ivancover.com/wiki/index.php/Eee_PC_Internal_Upgrades (pic)

I haven't decided what exact parts to get yet but I might try to do something like that. If I have space inside the case then I'll just put a USB hub as a whole unit. I'll have to do some testing with signal range for the devices that transmit though (Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi).

Now, back to deciding about storage. Like I said, I think I'll be going with a memory card system instead of a hard drive. I might look at getting another caddy that has the drive mounted securely without the need for padding.

So, from the memory card side of things, these are the parts I'm considering:

CF to IDE Adapter (DMA Support)
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.9304 (pic)
This should fit into any 2.5" drive casings which will be handy. It won't matter as much if it rattles around so I can use the existing caddy casing for that. I've also read that DMA support is important for both the card and converter to have so that's a big reason why I picked that particular adapter.

8Gb SanDisk high speed Compact Flash card
I'll probably be buying this one off eBay. I haven't picked one out just yet though.

2.5in to 3.5in Harddisk Convertor
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2246(pic)
If you've been following closely, the motherboard has normal desktop style IDE connectors but the adapter has a laptop style IDE connector so one of these is needed. Oh, also, I can't find most of these parts much cheaper than what DealExtreme are offering them for so I've just been browsing them to find parts. I'm not sure what sort of power this takes but it should either be the hard drive or floppy drive power connectors. The PSU I'm looking at only has the hard drive power connectors but I've got a few of those to floppy power connectors so that should be fine.

SD Card to IDE Hard Drive Converter (Secure Digital)
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10889 (pic)
Now, you may be wondering why I want one of these if I've already got the CF adapter. Well, I may or may not have mentioned this before, but at this stage I'm planning to use Windows XP. I've read that the page file is one of the main factors in killing memory cards used for booting. CF cards aren't so cheap to replace at about $90 a pop for 8Gb. Give or take depending on speeds and where you buy it from but the one I'm looking at is about that. SD cards however cost about $14 for a standard 2Gb card which should give enough space to hold the page file... I hope... People who have bought the device seem to think that the device supports SDHC cards too so I can go upward of 2Gb if they're right... I hope they're right :Paranoid:

From the hard drive side of things, I'll still be using the 2.5" to 3.5" adapter but getting a new caddy to gut. Most likely this one:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.669 (pic)
It looks like it will be held securely enough which is the main thing I'm going for. Apart from that, I've picked it based on the look seeing as they're all going to be pretty much the same. Nobody is really going to see it when it's finished though...

So, who knows? I might come back to the drive suspension system but for now I'm favouring memory cards. Both of them are going to fail at one point or another but I'm thinking that memory cards will hold out just a little bit longer than hard drives. They will also be much easier to work with.

So after all that... any thoughts? Do you guys think memory cards will be fine or am I kidding myself? Any other thoughts on suspension systems or shock protection systems if you think I should stick with hard drives? Keep in mind that I want it INSIDE the amp housing!

Thanks again to everyone who is posting in this thead :) You're all helping to keep me motivated!