Hard drive and CD-ROM on diagonal

[lordofduct]

If I set a cd-rom and a HD at a strange angle (as apposed to horizontal like in most cases, or vertical like in some cases) how much extra wear and tear would it cause to the drives?

If your wondering why I am asking... Just as I am always doing, I am on yet another lordy project that may or may not get completed. I don't know why I do this to myself, but when I do finish one of these projects I am so happy with myself!!!

The project this time is I am going to remove my glove box and put all the components for a PC in it (probably a flex-atx board cd burner/dvd-rom combo and 80 gig HD). Then send a VGA cable to a touch screen mounted where my radio is at the moment. Then I am going to put a dolby sound card on the bitch and make my car true dolby surround. (of course the sound out will go to amps in my trunk.) Then when done put the glove box back into the car so that way I can open and close it. This way when I'm not using it no one would notice anything is even there, I just close the glove box! This is why I am asking, the HD and CD-rom will be at a strange angle.

 

[Drenholm]

Originally posted by lordofduct@Sun, 2005-01-30 @ 10:28 AM

The project this time is I am going to remove my glove box and put all the components for a PC in it (probably a flex-atx board cd burner/dvd-rom combo and 80 gig HD). Then send a VGA cable to a touch screen mounted where my radio is at the moment. Then I am going to put a dolby sound card on the bitch and make my car true dolby surround. (of course the sound out will go to amps in my trunk.) Then when done put the glove box back into the car so that way I can open and close it. This way when I'm not using it no one would notice anything is even there, I just close the glove box!

[post=128631]Quoted post[/post]​

That sounds really cool!

But I'm afraid I can't offer any advice about the positioning of the drives.

Here's hoping it will be okay though; this sounds like a fantastic project and it would be great to have in your car!

 

[Malakai]

I was pondering putting an xbox in my car at one point in time, but after hearing about all of the hard drive problems, as well as some room issues, I decided against it.

From what I've read, you need to mount the hard drive with something that will absorb bumps and impacts from driving and such.

I've seen a few ways they mount hard drives, like putting what appears to be a bunch of black rubber bands holding the hard drive, from all directions, keeping the hard drive from bouncing around and hitting anything that could cause damage to it.

 

[mal]

I've been thinking of doing much the same thing with a mini itx board, but not bothering with surround...

Anyway, if you can afford it go with a laptop HD. I reckon that one of those could probably take more punishment,

 

[lordofduct]

Yeah, thats what I am going with... also a slim DVDrom for the same reason.

Heres what I am looking at

Car Power Kit for mini-ITX motherboards 80W - Morex

http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.ph...products_id/228

$80

----------------------------------------------------------------

VIA EPIA M10000 Specifications

• VIA C3/EDEN 1Ghz EBGA Processor

• VIA CLE266 North Bridge & VT8235 South Bridge

• 1 DDR266 DIMM memory socket, up to 1GB memory size

• Integrated VIA CastleRock AGP graphics with MPEG-2 decoder

• 1 PCI Expansion Slot

• 2 UltraDMA 133/100/66 onboard IDE connectors

• 1 onboard FDD Connector

• VIA VT6103 10/100 Base-T Ethernet PHY onboard LAN

• VIA VT1622 onboard TV Out

• VIA VT6307S IEEE 1394 Firewire

• Onboard I/O: 1 USB connector for 2 additional USB 2.0 ports, 2 1394

connectors for 2 1394 ports, Front-panel audio connectors (Mic and

Line Out), CD Audio-in connector, SIR connector, CIR connector,

Wake-on-LAN, Wake-on-Ring, CPU/Sys FAN/Fan 3, System intrusion

connector, 1 I2C connector, Serial port connector for second com port

• Back Panel I/O: 1 PS2 mouse port, 1 PS2 keyboard port, 1 Parallel, 1

RJ-45 LAN port, 1 Serial port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 VGA port, 1 RCA port

(SPDIF or TV out), 1 S-Video port, 3 Audio jacks: line-out, line-in

and mic-in; can be switched to 6 channel output

• Application - VIA FliteDeck Luxurious Utility

- MissionControl-H/W Monitoring, Remote SNMP management

- FlashPort-Live BIOS Flash

- SysProbe-Live DMI Browser

• Mini-ITX Form Factor 17 cm x 17 cm (6.7" x 6.7")

http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.ph.../products_id/32

$160

---------------------------------------------------------------

Notebook 2.5" Hard Drive 60GB Samsung 5400rpm

http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.ph...products_id/294

$125

Actually I found these much cheaper at newegg.

---------------------------------------------------------------

CD burner/DVD rom combo 80-120

----------------------------------------------------------

512MB DDR 226/133 60-80

 

[lordofduct]

If anyone happens to have the parts spare lieing around and what to sell... i am definately interested in purchasing. (I mean like in the slim CD-ROM or some DDR or 2.5" HDD. I highly doubt anyone has mini-itx boards just lieing about there house.)

I am also going to need.

Slim CD-rom IDE to EIDE converter.

2.5" mini-IDE to EIDE converter.

1 or 2 port horizontal over mobo riser card

 

[Curtis]

I know most HD manufacturers do not recommend placing an HD on any angle other than straight up, or horizontally. I don't know why, but I'd guess it has to do with uneven load on bearings/spindles. I'm not sure about notebook drives either.

 

[lordofduct]

Its no longer going in my Glove box...

Its like this. I have a 7 1/2" X 4" opening for the stereo. Inside of the opening is plenty of space to fit everything in it. I will jam everything in there (yey, the AC duct is right about it too... extra cooling. and im in FL so no worry about me turning on the heater). Now, to the left of the stereo is my cig lighter plug thing... well just remove it all together and thats where I will put a little stand and have the USB ports and Power switch on. (easy access from my stearing wheel, its literally just inches away) THEN in front of all the comp stuff ill put the LCD screen on a track that allows it to slide up and down. I have it up for when Im using it, and I slide it down to gain access to the DVD tray. Everything is now on a horizontal angle... and I don't have to buy a slim drive, I have plenty of extra 3.5" laying about my closet!!!

 

[Curtis]

If you've got plenty of room, you might like to try mounting the HD with a homebrew shock-mount. Have a look at this example (designed for silencing, but serves a similar purpose. Adapt to suit.)

I don't think HDs will take too kindly to being bounced around alot...

 

[lordofduct]

I do not see how that would decrease shock on the HD... it seems as if it would move around a bit more. Also, my car has very very good suspension. I can drive over a speed bump at 60 and not even notice. (why im going 60 in a parking lot with speed bumps is beyond me... i get drunk sometimes)

i figure with the suspension I have in my car and using a 2.5" HDD (which must take a pretty good beating, because people don't treat laptops all to well) should work fine. Especially now that it is on a horizontal angle.

 

[ExCyber]

I do not see how that would decrease shock on the HD... it seems as if it would move around a bit more.

I could be wrong (I'm no physics major), but here's how I understand it:

Force = Mass x Acceleration. Reducing the acceleration (really, the deceleration in this case) reduces the intensity of the shock, even if the drive moves around more. This is basically the same reason that cars have "crumple zones", and seatbelts stretch under load; even if you don't go through the windshield, going from, say, 50mph to a dead stop will injure you just from the sheer force of stopping in such a short amount of time, unless there is something to reduce the deceleration. Think of it as the difference between having a bungie cord and not having one.

 

[RitualOfTheTrout]

What about heat problems?? Not so much heat generated from the components.. but the heat that builds up in the car on hot summer days, Temps can easily be well over 140 degrees.. That may greatly reduce the life of the components and I dont think any ordinary LCD screens are made to hold up under extreme temps.

It would be similar to running your pc in an oven.

 

[lordofduct]

Ummm, well I don't think Ill be using it at such high temperatures. I will be using it when my vehicle is turned on and I have the AC on.

 

[lordofduct]

movies... ripping on the run... say im at a friends and he just got a game I really want, well I can just go out to the car and rip it out. YEY! also on top of movies and ripping. I have a HUGE CD collection. Only 1/4 of which is ripped out. It would take me for ever to rip it all out. And I hardly have the time or patience to rip it.

 

[RitualOfTheTrout]

Yes I was refering to the temperatures that occur when the car is parked in the sun on a hot summer day.

From what I understand this is going to be a permenant attachment to the car, so you couldnt exactly remove it if things got to hot, or to cold for that matter but I doubt you would run into the cold prob in florida.

Dont get me wrong, I think it would be an awesome idea, but this would be my concern.

 

[schi0249]

I've been curious about LCD's in cars. They have been adding those in mini vans and cars so much lately. I was curious what kind of life span they would have; especially in the extreme zones (cold north and hot south).