Using a SFF tower in car as media center?

[king smp]

I am not sure what forum this falls into so if I made a mistake I apologize.
I have been thinking of taking a HP SFF D530 and using it my car.
The idea is to bolt it on the back of my back seat and use a 300 watt power inverter to power the tower
and a Samsung 17 inch LCD.
I will remove the top cover of the tower and build a plexiglass enclosure with a 120 mm case fan.
I figure 300 watts should be enough power.
I am going to use a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse.
I will run XP Media Center 2005 with the remote.
I will put the LCD on center console facing back seat.
The computer specs are P4 2.8HT with 250gb HD, Radeon 9600 XT 256mb.
It will just play video and audio and kids games.
Anybody try this yet?
Any advice is appreciated.

 

[popatim]

Lots of people do this. Its ecommended to use a solid state drive thou. Regular harddrives take a beating on the vibration end while your driving around.

 

[king smp]

That makes sense.
This is a low budget build so I would have to go with a IDE.
This info helps because I will try to use some sort of spring shock absorbing
mounts for the tower.
I have worked as a Heating and AC tech and I know that they have anti shock setups for compressors and other parts at HVAC parts houses cheap.
Also near the end the IDE drives were built with decent anti shock technology plus they are cheap!
I appreciate the advice.
Thank you.

 

[king smp]

Well it is in the planning stages now.
It still has to get authorization from "Mama Bear".
She just puts up with this kind of thing
If it wasn't for the fact I make money doing this kind of stuff...
I mean c'mon she still doesn't understand the need for a dual monitor set-up.
I just found a Precision T-series with a Q9450,4gb ram,500gb Caviar,9800 GPU for $275 USD
and can you believe she fighting me over getting it!!!
I usually do win out eventually though...
Oh well at least it is always 4:20 somewhere in the world LOL
BTW did you know the anti-marijuana movie "Reefer Madness" which came out in the 1930's and helped lead to the ban in the US in 1937 was primarily sponsored by Dupont which at the time was leading the way in synthetic fiber technology.
It effectively caused hemp not to be used as clothing material and thereby leading to increase sales for polyester and rayon.
Just a piece of history trivia.

 

[king smp]

I got a 6 year old American Bull Staffordshire Terrier female (Molly) we rescued.
She is a trip.
My whole plan is to convince the wifey that I get the Precision (T3400 I think it is) and she can have my Precision 450 Dual Xeon 3.2 P4.
I can then take the HP D530 P4 2.4 and mount in car.
As I see it is a win-win situation.
My daughter gets the system in the car, my wife gets a way faster system.
As you can see I am just thinking of them nudge-nudge wink wink heh-heh.
I did just get the wifey a dell 19inch flat panel ($25 yard sale with dvi cable and a copy of Fear,microsoft wireless multimedia kbd ($10 yard sale) and Logitech MX310 wireless mouse (19.99 on sale at Staples) and now she can be wireless and use the 50 inch projection tv for a monitor in her bed.
SO I think I deserve this.
And I would like to move into this decade tech wise.
I love my old 450 but she is getting on the older side.
It does everything I need it to do but the Q9450 would do it SOOO much faster...
If you live anywhere near New Jersey then I will shoot you the email for system if I cant get it.

 

[king smp]

Are they straight American Bulldogs Purebreed?
Those are literally a rare breed.
Awesome dogs.
Funny thing is Molly's papers list her as a AmerBull/StaffTerr but on google images she looks just like a pure AmerBull.
Amazing dogs. She can jump 8ft nose high,hunts possums,can keep up with a cat (on their tail) through 40ft of backyard dodging through outdoor furniture.
Always in danger of being licked to death LOL.
Back to thread.
I think 300 watts will power tower and LCD easily?
Also I got the D530SFF for free from secondhand store I work for (missing top cover otherwise functional).
In a perfect world I would run a low power amd chip,ssd etc but I got work with what I got.
I figure the mounts for a refrigerator compressor would reduce the shock and a decent fluid bearing later IDE (probably a diamond max 10) would
survive awhile?
Also have a samsung syncmaster with a pretty nice adjustable stand can be adapted to my station wagons center counsole.
The thing is I got my daughet a Dell Vostro 1000 Athlon X 2 1.8 (tk-55) with 1 gig ram and a 5400rpm sata.
She is nine and I hope this laptop will last her until college.
Eventually would upgrade to two gigs ram and 7200 rpm drive when she is closer to high school.
So she can use that in car BUT i worry about sudden braking and the laptop getting spilled on and slamming around.
So I thought this setup which I have most of the parts except powerinverter and mounts laying around would solve problem and
would be pretty cool to do.
A P4 2.4 is Super Weak but just for audio,kids game and playing movies would do the trick.
I love the fact that for under a 100 dollar investment she would have a multimedia 17 flatpanel in car.
What they want for auto specific equipment is crazy and not as versatile.
Sorry for the book.

 

[king smp]

Also have plexiglass laying around and a 120 fan so if figure box it out and use the the 120 as an exhaust?
it also has fan on sapphire ati 9600 and power supply plus cpu fan.
Between AC running and that I think I will be okay cooling wise?

 

[king smp]

Awesome.
When online researching ambull/staff I read up on the ambull and it is a pretty interesting history they have.
From what I understand they are still classified as rare (at least according to wikipedia).
Ambulls and the ambull/staff mix are considered one of the best family/home defense breeds around.
I hate when my neighbors and friend lump her into the generic Pitbull classification since that has such a bad rep.
There are towns in New Jersey that completely ban them and also rental housing that other breeds are ok but "pitbulls are not allowed"
It is how a dog is raised not the breed of the dog.
That would be like banning a race of people from living somewhere because they have a high percentage of population in prison.
How come it is ok to race discriminate against dogs?!
I can understand when they say not over certain size or weight but based on breed!
An improperly raised german shepherd or golden retriever can hurt or kill too.
My "pitbull" is the most loving 80 pound wanna be lapdog around.
Granted if somebody attacked our family she is force to be reckoned with.
She once chewed most of her way thru a 2x4 LOL

 

[king smp]

Seriously a 4 pointer?
Too cool though I hope the meat was put to good use.
There is this squirrel that isn't too bright and likes to tease her.
One slip and he is a gonner.
I have had other breeds (black lab,shepherd,poodle) and none of them hunt like her.