I recently got and old IBM think pad from a friend of mine. Since its utterly useless, I dismantled the whole thing for fun. I was wondering if it is possible to use the LCD screen from the laptop and put it in my max. Its about 12.1" large, so if its possible I'll find someplace to mount it.

 

You would need to buy a very expensive controller card.

 

I looked into it with an extra IBM Thinkpad 760 12.1" screen once, and found out it would be way too difficult to do, not to mention the cost would be insane.

 

So I guess I'll just shell out like $150 for a 4" screen.

 

www.partsexpress. You can get the 4" ones for around $100

 

Well. if you plan to pay that much you can probaly get the controller card for $199 maybe a little less... but not much. You need to figure the Panel Number though and the maker. Also you would need to put a computer in your car. It would be very difficult to hook this up to a head unit, nearly impossilbe I think, but maybe not. If you were to buy the controller though you could probaly get the other needed parts for under 120 depending upon your Head Unit. Once you got all this stuff though the possiblities are fairly cheap and limitless. DVD. GPS. MP3's, Wireless Internet, CD Burning in the Car, Music Videos instead of just songs all sorts of stuff. If you get the right equipment. A rough estimate to get you up with a basic setup lets see.

Controller + inverter pci Card $199
Motherboard + Power supply 35
Proccesor $20
Ram @10
DC AC inverter 20
DVD Drive 27
6 gig hard drive 30
Wiring 10
Sound card with RCA out 35
or Line out to rca converters $10

Roughly $400 Dollars for a very cool, very possible, setup. Alot of people have spent a lot more and gotten a lot less. There some things I left out but thats the basis. Plus I rounded up on the $400 to cover wireless keyboard and stuff. Anyway thats just a guess. If you dont plan to do all that, and you dont know how to build a basic computer then it would probaly just be best to buy a screen off of ebay for like 120 for about 5.6 Inchs or less. I just sold a 5.7inch screen for only 102.50.


then you could up

 

I think I'll just get a small screen later on. I just thought that all LCD's were pretty much the same and could do the same sort of stuff.