itx system for expedition vehicle

[mymorph]

hi, im looking for help in buying/building a system for use in our expedition/overland camper.

requirements:

low energy consumption 12v (solar panel charging whilst at rest)
reliabilty in extreme enviroments (ie solid state drives) -30 to 50c
GPS capabilty (inbuilt/wired/bluetooth)
win 7 os
rear view camera link
weather station software/hardwear
vehicle sensors/perfomance, maybe obdII/hotwire /megasquirt.
2 screen output, 1x small screen for driver (GPS, auxillary cameras , reversing etc) 1x large screen for usual pc work, entertainment movies/music, web browsing, etc - low power consumption essential.


its quite a lot to ask, compromises will be difficult. reliability essential. trans sahara to artic conditions - incuding vibration and off road travel.

i go by the KISS theory - keep it simple sexy

 

[kerrgreg]

Any of the higher spec Atom boards should cover most of that however i guess the restriction will be computing performance depending on how much juice the weather station requires.

A D510 on some motherboards has enough usb wireless and a pcie 16x lane to get must have your bits hooked up.

 

[JonJ678]

I feel I should mention that there are laptops explicitly designed for this

 

[zebedeee]

if you're wanting a motherboard that can take the stress of all envoirements then the aser sabertooth is the 1 u want, however i really don't think you'll have 1 of those sytems work on 12v i couldn't tell you what the smallest amount of power they can use but i definately think you'd need a battery up your sleave bigger than 12v....

Tho there is 1 thing you could try looking into, the power backup systems you can get... you can get ones that can keep your machine sustained for a few hours, they are generally used for businesses in order to back-up their systems during power failures until normal power is resumed... I'm not sure if there are any of those that can function off a 12v power source either but i'd be looking for 1 of those if i was going on an expedition to extremely hot and cold enviorements... the acer sabertooth is the motherboard you want tho for them extreme weathers... it's comprised of military grade components built with all that stuff in mind.

Maybe, just maybe it would be easier having a laptop instead, not saying it would last long on an expedition, depends what sort of expedition u r talking about going on.

 

[mymorph]

i did think laptop as its easy & portable and will probably take one anyway, but ill still need a small system in the vehicle to run gps,rear view camera and to store the entertainment ie movies/music & run other apps, also to drive a larger screen in the 'living' area. the 'sabertooth' whilst lookd ideal looks a tobe standard atx size?

thks

 

[wakayoda]

Atx with i3, go for a SSD as the main drive.

 

[zebedeee]

yh the sabertooth is standard atx but can withstand a lot more in terms of varience in tempretures etc

definately want an SSD tho.

you should look into the power backup devices that are on the relative cheap side, if you can get 1 that delivers the power you need whilest still been capable of charging up using a 12v source then thats what i advise if you're wanting a main base setup for any peripheral laptops to just hook upto for transfers etc

 

[JonJ678]

Perhaps it's unfair, but I'm fairly certain the sabertooth boards are a gimmick. Actually using them in a demanding environment may be pushing your luck somewhat.

A cheap option is a netbook with an ssd, but if you fill it with dust it'll die. If you build an atx system, then shake it violently and fill it with dust, that'll die too.

Varying the voltage isn't so bad as car batteries do much the same thing, look at wide voltage pico psu. I would personally want a sealed case (so dust / water etc absolutely cannot get in), which is available in laptop form. Otherwise you may need to do some customising of a mini-itx box. I suppose a lot of it depends on how bad the system failing would be, and what budget you're working to.,

 

[zebedeee]

i think personally a chassis with a pretty good grill filter ( a home made filter may be the better option) will be prefferable to a sealed chassis if you're roaming desert lands

 

[Remko]

http://www.hpsindustrial.nl/minipcs/155/2075/ruggedized_-_fanless/Lexcom-NEMO-IP67-mini-PC

12v and ruggedized.

http://www.hpsindustrial.nl/minipcs/155/1943/ruggedized---fanless/Arbor-Rigid-310