Which Zotac board?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Which Zotac board?

floydie

474 posts

Ultimate Geek

#64180 9-Jul-2010 15:06

i want to put a PC in my car and am leaning towards a mini itx zotac board but i am totally lost as to which one to use...

I require :Wifi
             :the ability to play HD content
             :wake on usb
              : run of a M2 atx or similar vehicle power supply
              : The ability to easily convert Video and audio into RCA outputs to feed into the nav screen
i dont need any extra PCI slots as it will just be for playing audio and video into the factory 7" screen.

The zotac boards with the DC supply looked ok but there are conflicting reports as to whether or not i can use the atx power INSTEAD of the 19V DC plug...some say yes some say no....

PLEASE can someone recomend a suitable board to use based on my basic requirements...i have looked elsewhere but people are just saying "get a zotac ion board" with out being model specific.

so far this looks to be the best one?????

zotac ion atx-f ???

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=53#ION-ITX-F

[Moderator (LC): Edited title to lower case. As per FUG please do not SHOUT]

vinnieg

2260 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#349559 9-Jul-2010 15:42

Hmmm

The M2ATX is a bit crappy, I'd probably go a bit higher maybe an M3ATX or even a Pico 150w

The Zotac boards with the build in adapter cannot use the ATX Power as most I've seen don't have ATX soldered onto the board, in saying that, what about a 19v DC laptop adapter? There must be a few around that would work well:

I have the IONITX-A-U at home in my media box, started off well, the fan I'd recommend, without it, it started slowing down and freezing(possibly due to overheating) I'd recommend 2GB of ram at least as well, my 1GB stick is a bit slow

Another option, which would be a bit better for speed/navigation/processing music etc without lagging(Atoms lag) would be the:
ZOTAC H55-ITX $249
i3 530 2.93ghz $177 which would be say $50-80 more than a dual core atom board all up, but have more power and should be fine off the 250w Pico or M4ATX :)

http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=10270

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

vinnieg

2260 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#349562 9-Jul-2010 15:44

Forgot to mention, the atom board that I have uses about 35w max, idles about 20w with the 90w DC adapter

The H55-ITX would use roughly about 35w idle, maybe 70-80w full load, so well within the PSU specs and would be very nice for a CarPC/Navigation

are you planning on using WinXP/7 with Roadrunner or similar? Or maybe LinuxIce with a custom interface?

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349569 9-Jul-2010 15:57

I have a Zotac IONITX D which I think is the same board you're looking at, but takes a standard PSU. Cheaper too. So just figure out what your power supply will be and go from there.

I run it in a custom case with only the PSU fan. Intake is directly over the heatsink - stays nice and cool and practically silent (PSU fan is 120mm on about 5v).

What video out will you use to put into 'RCA'? (assume you mean composite?)

One thing to watch on these boards: early editions did not support wake on USB for some weird reason. Check carefully.

8d52797c436

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#349580 9-Jul-2010 16:26

I know that you are asking for advice on a board but if you were looking for something a little less DIY then take a look at http://store.mp3car.com/Car_Computer_Systems_s/25.htm

If they dont have anything you are after then they also have a good blog and a lot of information on putting a computer in a car. And they deliver to NZ too.

floydie

474 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349581 9-Jul-2010 16:27

thanks for the quick replies.

i dont want to use the 19 volt power as i want it to startup/shut down properly hence the need to run from a M2 or pico power supply that starts/shuts properly.

i want it to play HD even though i dont have much HD stuff at the moment. most of the video i have shrunk to AVI and i have about 120 gigs of MP3's

i am not too sure which board would be ok for RCA conversion. i need to have a (yellow) rca video plug to get into the stereo. could probably use the audio header to put 2 channel audio into the audio rca's.

At the moment i am not too sure about front end software...probably windows 7 but .....i like XBMC but touch screen compatability is a bit of an issue. I have a toyota with AVC lan so was maybe going to use a lan interface to "see" the factory touchscreen then maybe script a keymap into eventghost or similar. Road runner also looks ok.

floydie

474 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349666 9-Jul-2010 21:16

i could possibly use the old analogue RGB inputs that the nav video used (NTSC) but im not sure how i would sync it.

heres a link in russian on what i am trying to acheive.
paste the link into google translate for a reasonable translation. he made a sync circuit.

http://www.compcar.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=1441.