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New toy... thinking car PC...

S

StratocasterMaster

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 23, 2000
Messages
4,577
I picked up this Dell GX240 at work today, not a bad little box, not sure what to do with it but I was thinking its a good canidate for my CarPC plans or maybe an HTPC.

dell1.jpg


dell2.jpg


dell3.jpg


Specs:
Pentium4 2.0GHz
Intel i845 chipset
256mb PC133 SDR (WTF, I thought P4 arch. came in only RAMBUS and DDR flavors)
Intel 10/100 LAN
On-board Sound
Intel AGP half-height video card
Slim CD-ROM (I have a slim CD-RW somewhere)

If I use it in my car I will most likely dump the casing but keep the mobotray/IOPpanel as its fully removable and would be easy to adapt to any setup I prefer... the ATX psu is pretty small so I can get creative with that too.. fiancee' calling so more to write in the morning.

~Kris
 
That's a cool little unit...ahh the benefits of having a job ;)
 
OHG, i use one of these at work, and its the worst computer i have ever used, i refuse to use it now, and just use my laptop.
 
That's a decent little guy. It'll get the job done. I can def. see some good possibilites for that case.
 
Yea its kinda crappy, Dell isnt the best IMO... dont ask about how many GX270/280's I've replaced due to faulty caps.... However it was free and has ample power for MP3/DIVX/DVD playback, especially with more memory behind it.

I may change the video card if I can find something better, havent looked around but I'm hoping there are some half height GeForce/Radeon cards out there, if not AGP riser time. :)

I may reuse the current PSU but I know its output is low so going to a quality DC/DC PSU would be optimal.

~Kris
 
That looks like what I use in school, for my CCNA class. They work well enough for browsing and stuff. I feel bad for the kids who use photoshop in our digital photography class, cause 256MB+photoshop=lag.
 
Just curious... When you say "picked it up at work" d'you mean STOLE it? lol I was half tempted to take one home when I worked at a call center, but the performance was so mediocre that I didn't bother. Probably would work fine for a carpc. Does the current case fit under the driver's seat? Cause being able to hit the eject and swap CD/DVDs without leaving your seat would be a bonus.

Oh, be certain that the power supply has a standard pinout before you try swapping in a different one... Dell has a really bad habit of altering the pinout of their powersupplies, and thus causing major damage to both the motherboard and powersupply if a non-dell one is used.
 
Logan321 said:
Just curious... When you say "picked it up at work" d'you mean STOLE it? lol I was half tempted to take one home when I worked at a call center, but the performance was so mediocre that I didn't bother. Probably would work fine for a carpc. Does the current case fit under the driver's seat? Cause being able to hit the eject and swap CD/DVDs without leaving your seat would be a bonus.

Oh, be certain that the power supply has a standard pinout before you try swapping in a different one... Dell has a really bad habit of altering the pinout of their powersupplies, and thus causing major damage to both the motherboard and powersupply if a non-dell one is used.
Click to expand...

I legitimately took it home as per my manager's approval. I even told him of my evil plot to turn it into a carPC or a HTPC at worse.

I didnt get to see if the current encloser fits however it will most likely not stay in this incloser, instead I plan to pillage the mobo tray and bottom plate to form a easy-access removable panel for maintenance.

Not sure as to the location but it will either fit in the rear bin behind the driver seat or possibly behind the dash as there is a LOT of room once the radio and AC stuff is relocated. I will be replacing the A/C knobs with guages and relocating the a/c controls to the middle console OR completely replacing them with digital control via an electrical solenoid rack and serial output from the PC. I plan to mold in the LCD to the dash and extend the CD-cable (if needed) to mount it underneath the LCD in the dash.... man a slim slot-load would be nice....

Power-wise from Dell's site the pinout is standard but I will varify before making changes (as I know the GX1/110 series are differant) as I wouldnt want to risk good hardware.

Here is a view of the bins behind the seats, lots of space to play with there. (not my car)
interiorbinsk.jpg


Here is the same image with the seperater for the hatch in. (my car)
rx7_4.jpg


Here is someone else's Lulliput install in their dash, came out pretty nice and the buttons go well with the rest of the dash.
lcdrx7.jpg


I cant find the image of the relocated A/C controls but I'll post later if I find them.

~Kris
 
I have one of those and if you remove the psu there is like one or two more pci slots. For some reason it didnt detect any other hard drive i put in it, prob sumthin dumb i did back in the day. Nice little computers though... goodluck with that psu
 
Yeah, flex-atx has 3 slots (1agp, 2pci) and micro-atx has 4 slots (1agp, 3pci) usually.

That screen idea looks swell. Are you getting a touchscreen, or mounting buttons somewhere? I'd lose the horn buttons and mount a gamepad buttons and d-pad in their place... hehe. Depends on how ambitious you are, of course.
 
Logan321 said:
Yeah, flex-atx has 3 slots (1agp, 2pci) and micro-atx has 4 slots (1agp, 3pci) usually.

That screen idea looks swell. Are you getting a touchscreen, or mounting buttons somewhere? I'd lose the horn buttons and mount a gamepad buttons and d-pad in their place... hehe. Depends on how ambitious you are, of course.
Click to expand...

I'll be going touchscreen (Lullipiut 7" identical to the example above)

I have considered swapping the steering wheel from a newer Mazda model as I feel its one of the few dated portions of the interior I'd like to change.

I was thinking of the 99-04 Miata wheel however the RX-8 wheel is just as sporty looking while offering additional buttons I could manipulate to whatver function I wish.

http://us1.webpublications.com.au/static/images/articles/i1011/101161_10mg.jpg

EDIT: varified PSU as 160w, the PW200 is only 49$ + a few bucks in misc parts so I may get that little guy as it'd save a LOT of space. I need to take the mobo tray and test fit it inside the din area behind the dash or suffer with LONG cables for drive routing... possibly go with a usb unit. :/

~Kris
 
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