Hey guys, first off, I am an audio n00b. I've searched on here and as well as on mp3car.com. Found a few threads of previous 4th/5th gen guys with carputer setups. I would like some feedback from you guys on my plans.

Basically, the general idea is a enclosed carPC to a 7" touchscreen monitor in a GXE dash kit. No headunit elsewhere, audio straight from the PC.

Specifics:

Dash and Bose Integration:
-OEM GXE Dash Kit (DaveB) = ~$120 (haven't called him yet, but price based lower than CourtesyParts)
-PAC AAI-NIS2 (mp3car.com) = $85.00
-Lilliput 7" VGA 629GL-70NP Touchscreen (eBay) = $239.99 shipped

carPC
- "Basics Plus" (mp3car.com) = $399.99 shipped
-Jetway C7 1.5Ghz Mini-ITX Mobo
-M1-ATX DC-DC Car Power Supply
-VoomPC Ampie Enclosure
-512 MB RAM (will be swapped for 1GB)
-80GB SATA 2.5" HDD (will be swapped for larger drive)
-Mounted in rear trunk

- Slot-loading DVD+-R/RW drive in external USB enclosure (for relocation to dash) =~$100
- Linksys Wi-fi and BLOOTOOF dongles

-*Sound Card undecided (internal PCI if applicable or external USB)
-*In future, GPS and XM modules.

Software
- Win XP Professional
- RoadRunner frontend software = $Free
- AutoEnginuity w/ Enhanced Nissan and OBDII Interface = already own.

The dongles, HDD, RAM and optical drive are all variable in price as I work for a computer retail chain, so I can get a discount.

For the sound output, this image gives a rough idea:


Instead of the amplifier for the Front/Rear, would be the PAC AAI-NIS unit providing RCA outputs to the Bose speakers, which have their own amplifiers IIRC.

This method with the PAC unit is temporary as I would like to upgrade the speakers with an amplifier, and I do have my eyes set on those Rainbow components, which I will be contacting Pearl96Max (Don) for in the future.

Gurus, please chime in. Suggestions, corrections, you know the deal.

 

Everything seems good. A couple of suggestions though.
If you're going to place everything into the trunk (the computer) i'd suggest you scrap the jetway. Here is why, for the same price you can get a much more powerful systems with a microatx that isnt that much bigger. Don't get my wrong, but 1.5ghz is ok for carputer, but it could be so much better. I run on my old car with a 2ghz celeron, but it just wasn't as smooth as i liked. Now i'm running a full 2.4ghz P4, and 1gb ram, with a ATI 7500 AIW card. I find it so much faster, smoother. Another reason i don't prefer the jetway is the support isn't as good as the mainstream motherboard. I'm running with a shuttle case so its quite small, and the maxima has so much trunk space so i did not noticed any difference at all. For me, it was important to have an actual volume ****, so i decided to get a 5.1 digital receiver from panasonic which gave really nice sound. Finally, your screen, i'd definitely recommend dash-kit from scosche for the 5.5 gen, because its color matched and it fits the screen almost perfectly! As for the lilliput, if you're on a budget then they're quite nice, but if you have bit extra cash, i'd suggest getting a xenarc, the quality is uncomparable. If you really insist getting a lilliput and you want one for cheap, i can hook you up with one.
I hope that help you somewhat, if you have any question, give me a shout as i have the a carputer in my 5.5 Gen as well.

 

This was put on hold due to some other mods I am taking care of, which I am glad.
Punky, I am taking what you said to consideration, and am looking at the Shuttle KPC. If you guys haven't heard about it, at CES 08, Shuttle is releasing a basic 1.5GHz unit, no optical drive, 512 MB, 80 GB, etc.. for $199... or a $99 barebones with option of a Core2Duo. The Core2Duo is what I will be looking at and adding the slim USB optical drive.

This also gives me some ability for customization of the case for the trunk. I drew up a basic chop of what I want the case to look like:

Before:


After:


I got bored at work, haha .

 

oops edit, accidentally double posted

 

Well here are my specs so that you could fall back to if you need.
Plus, its a fully working flawless system right now.
Here are my part lists
Qpack Case


Pentium 4 CPU
512 MB of ram
ATI AIW 7500
DSATX 220W
Xenarc TSV
foxconn SIS661GX

And most important of all the parts is the motherboard, and in my experience the best two i've worked with are ASROCK and FOXCONN. Why? because they're highly customizable, cheap, and available in uATX. The reason why it's important to choose ur motherboard properly is because a certain motherboard would allow your computer to start from hibernation very quickly (foxconn can resume from hibernations in about 5s while other motherboard could take up to 30 - 60s). My foxconn boots up in about 4s.
let me know how that works out for you.
Here are some pics of my install. (notice the vent is not fully pushed down when i took the pic, because i wasn't completely done the installation at the time)

 

^ Holy huge pic batman!

 

whats the *** for?

 

since i hid my headunit, i dont have an analog volume ****, just touchscreen. I still prefer analog one, so i made one out of a scroller of a mouse.

 

Get an audio card that already has RCA outs. Those cheap adapters are a very weak link.