This is a cross post from a thread I posted on the MP3car forums, but since its about a tC i wanted to post it here as well.

I decided to take the plunge and buy a $175/60gb solid-state drive [ssd] and reformat my carpc with windows 7. I haven't read much about either topic here so I figured I'd share my experience thus far.

Windows 7:

It's only been a few days but so far the experience has been nothing short of great. Windows 7's new update manager concerning drivers/codecs is really smart and can help you find usually any missing drivers/codecs that you may have lost the CDs for. It wont help you find obscure ones like for your touch monitor but most of the motherboard/sound/wifi/ethernet ones it found right away. I did have one issue where it would install an obscure audio driver and would freeze during a reboot, but system restoring to a few minutes earlier, and deselecting that driver to install fixes that problem.

One great thing I've noticed, so far, is that 7 doesnt seem to drop the port number for plugged in USB devices when it resumes from hibernate [ GPS and OBD], so Xport doesn't seem to be necessary and plugging in more than one USB device won't be an issue for some [as it has in the past]. Don't hold me to that, but it hasnt dropped the port # yet in the past few days. Oh and going into resume and coming out of it seems a bit faster too but this may be the SSD helping it.

The speed overall is comparable to XP, that is to say WAY faster than Vista and a lot nicer to look at. I'm actually using the 64bit version on my home PC and all-in-all it's definitely worth getting this OS if you're looking to upgrade from XP and you better do it if you have Vista.

SSD:

On paper, the SSD's, compared to traditional HDD's, are about 50 times faster. [Think 2mbs read time to 100mbs read time] however in practice this will never hold up. With only a few days of testing under my belt, and no real knowledge of how to bench mark, I have to say it is maybe 2-3x as fast as the older HDD's I had [7200 and 10000 rpms] Boot times have definitely been shortened and scanning of the library, moving files, etc is faster. $175 for 60gb faster? I dont know about that- I would wait till the holidays to pick one up, by then the prices will have dropped to be a little more reasonable.

One of the biggest things I am happy about is that, in the Florida heat, mid day, under my trunk liner- this drive wont overheat and freeze the system which would happen almost 100% of the time with the old drive. Thats a HUGE plus for me and almost makes the money sink worth it. The drive itself is extremely light too - almost feels cheap after feeling old heavy clunkers of harddrives all my life.

So that's about all I got so far. For anyone who is wondering the machine itself was one from mo-co-so.com with a Centrafuse frontend. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Another thing that would make solid state good for a car PC is there are no moving parts. So hitting bumps or something won't cause the head to gouge into the drive platters.

Aside from that you might want to doublecheck your MB/s and Mbps... at least to get straight which one you're talking about. Capital B is bytes, lowercase is bits and usually the "p" is included when they're bits and the "/" when they're bytes.

MB/s = Megabytes per second
Mbps = Megabits per second

There's just a huge difference between the two.

That said... you're basically right about the performance differences. They LOOK incredible on paper. And while they're still really good in reality, not quite as how most of them sound. But that's why I included my first point above about moving parts. Sometimes the type of drive will be better for a specific project.

 

Yeah good call about the no moving parts. regular HDD's lifespans are drastically cut short when they are in a moving vehicle ive come to realize. Hopefully these SSDs will last longer.

Yeah I use mb universally as megabytes.. I thought everyone did? I guess I could be clearer next time

 

A lot of people probably do use the "mb" stuff casually... but I'm in IT, so I notice those things a lot more.

 

Also the biggest bonus of 7 is that it is more "finger friendly". I kinda got confused when you were talking about codecs, but realized you ment drivers once you said:

Not a big deal, I was just like "huh?" for a moment lol

Other than that congrats, I have always been thinking of builidng a CarPC, but I am afraid to have a CarPC and then get into an accident and risk damaging all that work and equipment.

 

I've been checking out MP3car forums lately and I think a carputer is in the near future for my car.
SSD drives will definitely a must for performance and no moving parts.

no-tec, care to post pics of your setup?

 

equinox: yeah i have noticed some parts in 7 cater towards touch screens - like multi touch and things like that. but im not sure exactly how or what to use it for. besides, as far as i know, no screens for cars have multi touch anyhow.

oops, yeah i meant to write drivers. ill fix that now.

yeah theres always a risk of an accident but i guess you could say that about any part like a lip kit or some performance part under the hood. just dont get into an accident =)

rocksteady: i will take some photos tonight and try to have them up by this evening.
carputers are only going to get more mainstream in the next few years. i suspect almost all cars to have them in 5-8 years.

there is definitely a learning curve if youre new to electronics. but nothing a long weekend, some experimenting, and forums cant help solve. its really not as complicated as it seems and its a ton of fun to learn and do.

 

here is the screen close up


here is the whole dash



here is the machine under the trunk liner.

the black sleeve carries most of the wires for the screen/power/USB cables and the mess off to the right is the audio cables and gps. its a little messy, especially with the soft cushy casing i had to build on account of ruining the original cubby casing, but its all hidden once the flap is down. im sure it would still make a professional installer queezy.

 

Looks good man. Which screen did you go with?
That sure looks like it belongs there

 

Its one of those generic Lilliput that everyone uses. Thanks man!
I had someone do a custom little mold for me to fit in the dash better.

 

here's my old setup!!

 

Your waterfall opens and closes flawlessly right? Any modification to that of any kind?

 

i had a guy on these forums do a custom molding for me about 2 years ago. its a little frame the fits on the screen and slips into the back of the waterfalls. yeah the door still works.

 

Thats still pretty sweet. I myself am thinking about making my own rather than buying an OEM navi for my Rabbit. There are a few reasons why I want to go OEM though; Looks perfect, and also with the display in the middle of my cluster I can get MP3 info and Navigational directions:

 

yeah that does look nice but....it only does gps. find someone with some molding skills and you can get an indash one done nicely, but you would still be out of the mini one on your cluster area. seems worth it to me if you can get a nice one made.

 

Actually that display provides information on MPG, length of trip (and a second one for how may hours since reset), temp, etc, plus song information (sirius, ipod, MP3 DVD (or CD) etc).

 

SSD drives FTW! I've been running mine for about a year and no problems. I wish I had a bigger one but I have a portable drive to make the difference up.

What software are you running?

 

no-tec, can you help me with how to put a carputer in like your lilliput? Seeing how you designed it and how the HVAC is still a little touchy, I could easily mold it under where the lilliput screen resides and eliminate the cubby hole. I have an idea for my shifter so having that "in the way" isn't much of an issue.