Xbox/PC trunk mount with subs

[Devedander]

I am more a computer guy than a car guy so I was hoping someone can give me some input on this issue.

I would like to put either a pc or an xbox in the trunk of my car so I can access music and movies off the internal HD. Problem is I know HD's don't like to be vibrated a lot and sitting it in with some big subs seems to me likes it's just asking for trouble...

What are experiences or advice on this?

Do people tend to mound their PCs and Xboxs in the cabin or what?

Thanks.

[CivicSpoon]

I don't have first hand knowledge about this type of thing, but I have ready quite a bit about it. One of the things I've read was that even driving over big bumps or potholes can harm your PC HD. I've seen a lot of people using laptop HD's in cars, because they can withstand more of a shock without getting into trouble. And personally I've never seen pics of the PC mounted in the trunk with subs, always in the cabin. But with the xbox, I've seen it right near subs; on Pimp My Ride lol. Now as to what they did to have it not be effected by the bass, I don't know. But obviously it can be done. Personally I'd mount it either under a seat or fit it in the glove box. But that's just my opinion. Hopefully someone who has first hand knowledge will be able to help you better than I have. But if you do a google search I'm sure you can find info on the PC idea.

[Geeko]

it's better to keep gaming systems and computers in the cabin area, in terms of climate control, ease of power, and protection against foreign particles (ie dust). How long your HDD is going to survive in a car depends on how it is mounted, how bumpy your daily ride is, the make and model of the drive, etc. Typically, larger drives have higher vibration-caused failure rates, due to a higher density of platters and read heads.

[Devedander]

Ack... Laptop drives are so expensive... I guess it would make mounting easier though as it would take less space.

I wonder if mounting the HD in the cabin somewhere and trying to insulate it against shock could help reduce damage due to shock.

I am thinking installed vertically (so that vertical shock does not drive the heads into the platter) and mounted on something with a dampening effect could help a lot... but I guess after all that a lappy HD might not be so bad an idea.

I just fancied the idea of 250GB of games and movies and being able to dump the optical drive all together.

[KoHC]

I've been thinking of doing the same thing for a while now. Here are the information I have so far:

1. For PC, it'll be easier to use laptop than normal desktop. If you're just using it for movie/mp3... etc. A slower Centrino is a good choice. It consumes less power compare to Pentium 4 / AMD cpus. Which is really important if you want to run it straight from your car battery. If you have LCD screen in your car (or planning to purchase one) you can even search auction sites for laptop with dead LCD screens. Those defective laptops are fairly cheap and will reduce the power require to run the laptop.

2. Placing PC under the seat would give you easy access to the system and also reduce the viberation a bit. You might want to use wireless keyboard with build-in touch pad for mouse.

3. Install hard drive vertically doesn't really help out much. You can try that with your home PC (already tried, and didn't help much).

4. It's actually cheaper using modded xbox for everything.

[killah_xft]

ok... now if you are wanting to install your xbox in your car, you can actually take your Xbox apart and stuff it in the glovebox, or you can actually tear into your center console and install the Xbox drive into the console below your radio.. and hide the HD, and control board somewhere below the console..

[Devedander]

Thanks for the input, I will keep all that in mind