NVIDIA Ion platform - the car PC dream come true

randomgyan · 19th December 2008, 09:40

Hi Guys,

I have been very intrigued by the whole idea of a car PC for a while.
Although, I am not yet at a stage where I want to put one in my car, the iPod does well enough for now :-)

However, I did come across this piece of news and it looks like this will fit into most head unit spaces in a car.
Fits in the palm of your hand and plays back High def movies!

Good luck to all you modders

looking forward to seeing your works of art

AnandTech: NVIDIA's Ion Platform: Bringing High Def to Netbooks

randomgyan · 19th December 2008, 11:50

"Reason: 2 smileys max. Please read the rules before continuing."

Sorry Rehaan, I do know the rules. I just forgot in my excitement

kippu · 31st December 2008, 19:53

too bad intel said they will not give processor without their chipset

DerAlte · 1st January 2009, 13:12

Exciting though it may sound, it will be a while before designs incorporating this NVidia chipset are going to hit the market through the board manufacturers like ASUS etc. There are other picoITX boards available, but only the Intel ones (based on Atom and 945 chipset) are available OTS in India.

sdh · 7th January 2009, 10:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Exciting though it may sound, it will be a while before designs incorporating this NVidia chipset are going to hit the market through the board manufacturers like ASUS etc. There are other picoITX boards available, but only the Intel ones (based on Atom and 945 chipset) are available OTS in India.

Where can you buy Intel Atom Pico ITX boards? Please share details.

DerAlte · 8th January 2009, 10:19

I found it with the Gigabyte guys (retail chain) - check, there must be a store near you. There is one in Vijayanagar - on the left halfway up the road going in from the Adichunchunagiri choultry. They don't stock it - if you call in ahead they will get it the next day.

amitk26 · 8th January 2009, 10:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by DerAlte

I found it with the Gigabyte guys (retail chain) - check, there must be a store near you. There is one in Vijayanagar - on the left halfway up the road going in from the Adichunchunagiri choultry. They don't stock it - if you call in ahead they will get it the next day.

I think NVIDIA Ion is not going to see light of the day due to non corporation by Intel.

DerAlte Can you please provide their number if you have and also if you know which Intel Atom board they are selling ? Is it duel core Atom- D945GCLF2 or older single core ?

Guys I have following 3 configuration in my mind for Car PC please comment , I am posting it here instead of mp3car.com as I prefer to build it using maximum components available in local market due to replacement / service issues if any.

Configuration 1 :

(1) Intel Atom dual Core - D945GCLF2
Peak processor power consumption 8 W and Consumption for full board 40W.
(2) 1 GB DDR 667 RAM
(3) SATA 3.5 inch HDD ( Already available)

(4) I want to run one LCD at the back or 2 head rest LCD screens showing movie for 2nd row passengers and 7 inch touchscreen monitor for Navigation in front , I dont think dual display is possible with D945GCLF2
on board graphics so planning to put
ATI Raedon HD2400 Pro bases card
This is the lowest power Graphics card ( 20 W ) which supports DX10 and is available on Ebay

(5) USB BT Dongle
(6) USB WiFi Dongle
(7) USB - GPS receiver ( any SIRF3 chip set based)
(8) ODBC scanner.

I estimate total power requirement to be around 80 W including 7 inch touchscreen , but considering future upgrades and possibilities to add
more USB devices 160 W DC-DC power supply is planned.

I will be travelling to US for a week this month and planning to pick DC-DC power supply,ODBC connector and 7 inch touch screen from there untill there is a some locally available alternative.

Configuration 2 :

(1) Zotac mini ITX motherboard for AMD
(2) AMD X2 3800+ black ( 35 W peak)
(3) 1 GB DDR 667 RAM.
(5) USB BT Dongle
(6) USB WiFi Dongle
(7) USB - GPS receiver ( any SIRF3 chip set based)
(8) ODBC scanner.

Rest everything from configuration above.

Configuration 3.

(1) Via Nano based MB and processor.
(2) ATI Raedon HD2400 Pro based card
(3) 1 GB DDR 667 RAM.
(5) USB BT Dongle
(6) USB WiFi Dongle
(7) USB - GPS receiver ( any SIRF3 chip set based)
(8) ODBC scanner.

Is there any Via nano mini ITX board available locally in Bangalore.

Regards
Amit

DerAlte · 8th January 2009, 14:22

Four-one-two-seven zero-five-four-three or zero-one-six-five. Ask for Sangam. The shop is on 5th Main, 3rd Cross. GCLF2, dual-core 330 with 533MHz bus.

Via dealer is in Ahmedabad, I think.

ODBC scanner????

amitk26 · 8th January 2009, 14:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Four-one-two-seven zero-five-four-three or zero-one-six-five. Ask for Sangam. The shop is on 5th Main, 3rd Cross. GCLF2, dual-core 330 with 533MHz bus.

Via dealer is in Ahmedabad, I think.

ODBC scanner????

Sorry dude OBD -2 scanner , I don't know what I was thinking when i typed ODBC and copy pasted it again.

nisarg86 · 8th January 2009, 14:56

Amit. Config Number 1 is enough for playing movies,music,and nav. Dont go for power hungry CPUs. dual core is not at all required for carpc.
I have built my rig with 100 watts power supply.
Take a look.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ift-vdi-2.html

smokin · 8th January 2009, 15:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitk26

Sorry dude OBD -2 scanner , I don't know what I was thinking when i typed ODBC and copy pasted it again.

nice project but do check that your ar is compatible to obd2 scanner or not because me and few other members tried it and failed

to get OBD-2 working

By d way which car you drive?

amitk26 · 8th January 2009, 15:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by smokin

nice project but do check that your ar is compatible to obd2 scanner or not because me and few other members tried it and failed

to get OBD-2 working

By d way which car you drive?

I drive Safari , It is not fully OBD-2 Compliant but DADU has posted eloberate instructions to make Scantool working for Safari , I am going to buy same setup. OBD-2 was used in a generic sense.

VooDoo · 8th January 2009, 15:40

Why not Mini ITX, Intel Atom based systems? Quite small (17cmx17cm) and low power requirement will make it ideal fo rin car system. UK eBuyer has a few in stock

Motherboards Intel - mini-ITX - Ebuyer

amitk26 · 8th January 2009, 17:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by VooDoo

Why not Mini ITX, Intel Atom based systems? Quite small (17cmx17cm) and low power requirement will make it ideal fo rin car system. UK eBuyer has a few in stock

Motherboards Intel - mini-ITX - Ebuyer

D945GCLF2 I mentioned in option 1 is mini ITX intel Atom dual core.
Intel has tied quite a few restrictions on mother board vendors so almost all
Intel ATOM boards are same. The main problems I see with this board are.

- Limited on board graphics capability not sure if 2 displays with Video on one
and navigation on another can be supported.
- Solution is to Install PCI ATI Raedon HD2400 Pro based graphics card which is least power hungry decent graphics card available ( Around 20 W)

There is only one PCI slot on Intel ATOM based boards and no PCI-E so installing PCI graphics card means no further expension and rest everything has to be external USB devices.

- 3 Output pins for Audio so HD surround sound is not possible using this board but should be good enough for providing input to Aux-in of your car audio system.

There are few good mini ITX boards from ZOTAC but I am not sure about
thier availability in India.

(2) Another option is ZOTAC mini ITX 630 i mother board

Zotac Mini-ITX board has Nvidia graphics, Wi-Fi - The Tech Report

This has Wifi and nVIDIA gForce7100 graphics on board with decent sound capability , DVI and VGA output , 6 USB , 2 SATA etc.
Coupled with a low powered celron we can build a decent system consuming around 100W I guess.

(3) ZOTAC has an AM2 board with nVidia GForce8200 with quite good capabilities.

Newegg.com - ZOTAC GF8200-C-E AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 Mini ITX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

Coupling this with AMD X2 3800+ black ( 35W) processor will also make a
decent car PC with around 100W power consumption.

Comrade · 11th January 2009, 11:58

there is a S-Video port on GCLF2. I think you can feed two backrest LCDs by splitting this S-video signal. connect touchscreen to VGA.

For audio, there is an internal S/PDIF header which you can connect to a DAC using coaxial. or convert to optical.

I believe GCLF2 is quite competent board will enough juice for a carPC.

19th December 2008, 09:40	#1
randomgyan BHPian Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Mumbai Posts: 32 Thanked: 0 Times	NVIDIA Ion platform - the car PC dream come true Hi Guys, I have been very intrigued by the whole idea of a car PC for a while. Although, I am not yet at a stage where I want to put one in my car, the iPod does well enough for now :-) However, I did come across this piece of news and it looks like this will fit into most head unit spaces in a car. Fits in the palm of your hand and plays back High def movies! Good luck to all you modders looking forward to seeing your works of art AnandTech: NVIDIA's Ion Platform: Bringing High Def to Netbooks Last edited by Rehaan : 19th December 2008 at 11:32. Reason: 2 smileys max. Please read the rules before continuing.
	() Thanks

19th December 2008, 11:50	#2
randomgyan BHPian Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Mumbai Posts: 32 Thanked: 0 Times	"Reason: 2 smileys max. Please read the rules before continuing." Sorry Rehaan, I do know the rules. I just forgot in my excitement
	() Thanks

31st December 2008, 19:53	#3
kippu BHPian Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Cyberabad / hyderabad Posts: 146 Thanked: 58 Times	too bad intel said they will not give processor without their chipset
	() Thanks

1st January 2009, 13:12	#4
DerAlte Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 8,069 Thanked: 2,919 Times	Exciting though it may sound, it will be a while before designs incorporating this NVidia chipset are going to hit the market through the board manufacturers like ASUS etc. There are other picoITX boards available, but only the Intel ones (based on Atom and 945 chipset) are available OTS in India.
	() Thanks

8th January 2009, 10:19	#6
DerAlte Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 8,069 Thanked: 2,919 Times	I found it with the Gigabyte guys (retail chain) - check, there must be a store near you. There is one in Vijayanagar - on the left halfway up the road going in from the Adichunchunagiri choultry. They don't stock it - if you call in ahead they will get it the next day.
	() Thanks

8th January 2009, 14:22	#8
DerAlte Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 8,069 Thanked: 2,919 Times	Four-one-two-seven zero-five-four-three or zero-one-six-five. Ask for Sangam. The shop is on 5th Main, 3rd Cross. GCLF2, dual-core 330 with 533MHz bus. Via dealer is in Ahmedabad, I think. ODBC scanner????
	() Thanks

8th January 2009, 14:56	#10
nisarg86 BHPian Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Ahmedabad Posts: 392 Thanked: 13 Times View My Garage	Amit. Config Number 1 is enough for playing movies,music,and nav. Dont go for power hungry CPUs. dual core is not at all required for carpc. I have built my rig with 100 watts power supply. Take a look. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ift-vdi-2.html
	() Thanks

8th January 2009, 15:40	#13
VooDoo BHPian Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: CA, US Posts: 59 Thanked: 0 Times	Why not Mini ITX, Intel Atom based systems? Quite small (17cmx17cm) and low power requirement will make it ideal fo rin car system. UK eBuyer has a few in stock Motherboards Intel - mini-ITX - Ebuyer
	() Thanks

11th January 2009, 11:58	#15
Comrade BHPian Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: HYD Posts: 543 Thanked: 1,203 Times	there is a S-Video port on GCLF2. I think you can feed two backrest LCDs by splitting this S-video signal. connect touchscreen to VGA. For audio, there is an internal S/PDIF header which you can connect to a DAC using coaxial. or convert to optical. I believe GCLF2 is quite competent board will enough juice for a carPC.
	() Thanks