Glovebox
Part 3
This view shows
the hard drive in place with a shock absorbing foam under
it. You can also see the plexiglass platform where the VIA
EPIA M mainboard will be mounted. The hole in the back of
the glovebox is for routing cables and wiring out of the box.
There is about a one eighth inch clearance between the hard
drive and the plexiglass platform. This should be plenty since
the hard drive will be anchored securely with nylon straps.
Note
the holes drilled at the corners of the plexiglass that match-up
with the mount holes in the motherboard. Corresponding holes
are also drilled in the aluminum chassis, as well as the glovebox.
Nylon
spacers were then used between the mainboard and the platform
to prevent the mainboard from actually contacting the bare
plexiglass. Rubber grommets were placed under the plexiglass
to act as spacers and additional cushioning between the mainboard
and the glovebox. This step is probably not necessary, but
I believe in overdoing it a little when it comes to vibration
protection in a high vibration environment like a car.
Some
people recommend against using full size hard drives for car-pc's
due to the vibration element. They instead recommend using
notebook drives since they are intrinsically tougher than
3.5" drives. That may be so, but I am running a full
size hard drive in the Dakota and it hasn't missed a beat.
I have also known several other people who are doing the same
with no ill effects as of yet. It's true that notebook drives
are more vibration and jolt resistant, but In my opinion the
jury is still out on that one as long as you take precautions
to cushion your hard drive when you install it. I do however,
recommend keeping a backup hard drive or some other type of
backup of your thousands of music files just in case. That
goes for notebook drives as well.
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