An Audiophile Computer in the making: frankmehta's Fiesta S

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Even the purpose-built 2DIN HUs (not the WinCE based CarPCs like Caska) are functional within 3sec of power on. 10-15sec is an eternity.

As Frank mentioned, most Alpines will take about 10-15 seconds from the time the power button is pressed till the time audio is output from a USB source.

[jinu_joseph]

Hi Frank, in your pics i dont see the PC, where have you hidden that.

[DerAlte]

Navin and I were talking about the boot time - time taken till it reaches a point where it will be functional as an equipment. Yes, USB reading takes time, since it is picking up from where it left off. FM comes on faster, then CD. For the same functionality, a PC will take longer obviously.

[gotzuk]

Originally Posted by frankmehta

The same amount of time as a fullly loaded head unit like the Alpine and Kenwood double dins.
10-15 seconds. The most time it took was 40-45 seconds when I hadn't restarted the PC for days. A simple restart solved it.

Is that a cold boot time?
How much more time does your system take to start CF and start playing the music?
I am also in foothills of a carpc install and I am currently testing Win7 (64bit)/ Centrafuse 3.1 on a MSI E350IA E45 MoBo, and it takes around 40 seconds for the system to (cold)boot up, fire up CF and start playing music. Resuming from Sleep mode is near instantaneous though (less than 3 seconds) and that mode is what I would be using on a daily basis.

BTW, are you using the 32bit OS?

[frankmehta]

Originally Posted by gotzuk

Is that a cold boot time?
How much more time does your system take to start CF and start playing the music?
I am also in foothills of a carpc install and I am currently testing Win7 (64bit)/ Centrafuse 3.1 on a MSI E350IA E45 MoBo, and it takes around 40 seconds for the system to (cold)boot up, fire up CF and start playing music. Resuming from Sleep mode is near instantaneous though (less than 3 seconds) and that mode is what I would be using on a daily basis.

BTW, are you using the 32bit OS?

Hi mate. Cold boot time is less than 40 seconds since I am using the 32 bit OS and a very clean Windows 7 Ultimate install on a Core i3 H55M Gigabyte motherboard with 2 gb RAM.
Every time I turn the key to shut the car off, the computer hibernates within 2-3 seconds.
The moment I start the car, the bios window shows up for about 2-3 seconds, then the Windows (resuming) logo for 2-3 seconds and straight to the Windows desktop. Centrafuse is always running, since I had shut the car down with Centrafuse already running. Simple as that. 10 seconds and we are good to go mate!!
Please note that Centrafuse has to load 20000 + songs in it's database onto the screen within seconds. The weakest link here is that, and that is what takes about 10 seconds to display the window from where we can operate it.

It's very simple, guys. For those that think that it takes a long time for a carputer to start up, you should come in for a demo to my car

[frankmehta]

Originally Posted by ariesonu

Hi Frank, I'm SPEECHLESS but all ears.
If I ever get to step into your car, I may end up spending hell of my time fiddling different options on that sweet touchscreen & you may break few of my teeth in frsutration.
It must be amusing to see faces of novices seeing your CARPUTER booting up to WIN-7.

Would highly appreciate WIP photos. It'll give us idea about proper installations of CPU & other equipments.
I have a FUJITSU laptop whose screen is damaged but rest is working just fine. I have now connected it externally to a monitior & use it as PC.
Do you think I can do something with that?

Raab Rakha.

Thanks a lot. It sound heavenly. That's a given. It can be tuned in a 1000 possible ways with plugins to do EVERYTHING under the sun. Also, I doubt I'd ever have to set the gains on the amps (after doing it, say once) with the range of tuning this thing gives!
I have very few WIP photos since it was a very very fragmented job, done in bits and parts. Will try putting up a few if I do have them. For any queries, you don't need photos, just ask me or B&T.

Originally Posted by navin

Frank, very neat job! I was expecting to see a crow's nest of wires and a screen hanging on for dear life but this is superb. Any buzzes and rattles?

Thank you. Really. But you know how Shafiq and his team works. Ajay's guys are neat and their work shows. No buzzes and rattles except one from the door, since I think the last time we put in the Dynaudios. Some damping might have come lose and might be allowing something to rattle.

[yajaman99]

@Frank - this looks awesome , more videos please.

[gotzuk]

Originally Posted by frankmehta

Hi mate. Cold boot time is less than 40 seconds since I am using the 32 bit OS and a very clean Windows 7 Ultimate install on a Core i3 H55M Gigabyte motherboard with 2 gb RAM.
Every time I turn the key to shut the car off, the computer hibernates within 2-3 seconds.
The moment I start the car, the bios window shows up for about 2-3 seconds, then the Windows (resuming) logo for 2-3 seconds and straight to the Windows desktop. Centrafuse is always running, since I had shut the car down with Centrafuse already running. Simple as that. 10 seconds and we are good to go mate!!

Ha! I thought the 10-15 second time was for a cold boot and said "@*&^, thats quick!"
Let me pick your mind; Have you tried using the Win7/CF to run CF as shell on startup?

[frankmehta]

Let's end the confusion. I went down specially to take this video so everyone can see it. There are 3 videos.


One where I boot up from hibernate (like I do everyday)

YouTube - ‪Fiesta CAR PC: Startup from hibernation‬‏

One where I restart the PC to see how much time it takes for a cold start

YouTube - ‪Fiesta CarPC: Cold Start‬‏

One is a fun video with lots of stuff happening, mostly with Centrafuse and lots of other stuff. This video has a great soundtrack (music playing in the car) so you guys will enjoy it :-)

YouTube - ‪Fiesta Car PC: Playing around‬‏

[moralfibre]

Frank, do you have an item wise costing of your car PC? Pardon me if you have put it up before.

[ariesonu]

Originally Posted by frankmehta

Let's end the confusion. I went down specially to take this video so everyone can see it. There are 3 videos.

Now after watching these three videos, My jaw has started paining due to prolongingly hanging from its lower socket, Doc pls prescribe some medicine urgently.

Awesome, had never tried diffentiating between bootup timings of SSD & HDD but this is pure porn. IMO The USB driven HU's takes almost same time between reading & playing music, atleast mine does. This is BLISS.

Raab Rakha.

[Pr_007]

Frank, how do you feel is the overall sound signature from the carputer? Do you get the same bass from the midbass and the lows from the Subwoofer when compared from the Eclipse CD7200 MKII???

Any sacrifices that you are making in the SQ part??

[frankmehta]

Hey there. Let me put it this way!
If the Eclipse was an 8 in terms of sound quality and tweakability, then the PC is a straight 10.
The sound quality and the imaging, along with instrument seperation and really accurate time alignment (alongwith active crossover tweaking of ANY SPEAKER, ANY FREQUENCY, ANY CURVE, whatever I want!) just cannot be achieved in the Eclipse.
Let's say, the Eclipse was already 'Eclipsed' a long time ago, even before I started time alignment.
I dunno if you read my post about this elsewhere, but the preout voltage from the Asus soundcard is definitely better than that of the Eclipse, which had good high and mid preout voltage but sub preout voltage was definitely feeble. I had to turn down all the gains totally to accommodate the car PC.
Installation of horns still remains and so does final tweaking.
Best part is that there is so much to tweak that one can even get away with NOT going to the boot to adjust the amps for the first few days of listening.

[laxmanrk]

Hey Frank

Lovely install and detailed notes on the other thread about TA and settings, really very well written and must commend your patience.

I have just 1 question: Does your Carputer have bluetooth to receive/ make calls/ stream music. If yes, then please give info on location of the microphone etc and the setup process similar to your TA thread for Carputers.

Now you will tell me off for asking about something that 'The Audiophile' usually does not care about.

But, much recently I have started putting flacs on my phone and I must say with decent A2DP streaming over BT2.0, it does give good bitrates and the music quality is good. (I am sure people will jump on me about the drop in quality etc etc, please go ahead)

Also I have found the convenience of BT has grown on me. I no longer put music on a USB/ CD.

[gotzuk]

Frank,
You had a bought a M4-ATX DC-DC PSU?
What happened to that? Fried?

Cheers