Hello All.

I'm in the process of starting to put together a carputer.

I decided to go with a 7" touchscreen from mp3car.com (i have to customize the dash just a little bit in the 4th gen)

I'm looking for some ideas on how i should set up the pc.

I'm thinking of a 1ghz processor; 512mb ram; 60gb hd; bluetooth (for navigation purposes).

Does anyone have any experience with carputers? Any problems?
What software is necessary and what software is good to have?

- Jay

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

 

Thanks! never knew you could search like this.

 

BourneJ,

You definatley need to do some research on the case you plan on using. I went from building a PC to putting in a laptop, which IMO is better suited for the car environment.

I'm on mp3car.com as well as some others from here.

 

yeah, i just found that forum today. I'm looking at the FAQ right now & trying to find some ideas.
I definitely don't want to put in a regular PC in the trunk. It's gotta be nicely done. i have all winter to work on this in the evenings (finishing the house during the day).

Thanks for the replies!

- Jay

 

Look at at Epia's (low power CPU/motherboard kits).. they are tiny.. and you can get DC to DC power converts for them, and kits that turn them on and off when you start/stop the car.. DCtoDC = alot less power wasted compared to a ATX power supply with an inverter.

 

I'm have been working on one for awhile now. Project got sidetracked when i bought my 5th gen but im starting to look into it more now. Only thing that sucks is the 5th gen dash is going to be harder to mold the screen into. Im going with an amd mobile athlon 64 with a microatx mobo with nvidia onboard graphics so i can have a custom resolution of 800x480 for the 7" touchscreen. 1 gig of ram and a 200 gig hard drive also. all i need to do is get the screen glassed in. If u need any help just send me a pm and id be more than happy to help out as much as i can. I also have a P3 1ghz cpu/mobo i would sell for cheap if your interested

 

viguera and i have one - can find posts in the 6th gen forum or audio/electronics by us

 

I had one in my car, I currently have it out right now to switch computers and fix up some wiring. Im switching to a mini-itx board w/ laptop hd in a very small mini-itx case. Heres some pics of what I used to have, ill have some new pics of the current setup sometime soon.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=409347

 

I am dying to find some time and money to build one myself.

MP3's, movies, games, navigation.. what else could you want?

I think this is the ultimate entertainment mod for the car.

 

thanks for all the suggestions.

Now i'm really thinking about a laptop.
I found a few on e-bay with broken screens for around $400-$500; it could probably be powered up by 12V since I know my Panasonic Toughbook can be powered up like this.
It might be cheaper to just get a nice laptop.

What software do you guys recommend to install? I've seen a "MediaCar" with a Nissan logo on a couple of you guys screens. Where do I get such software?