I know I want to put a computer in my car but I don't know which way to go?

Question

I don't know if I should buy a computer or build it myself. Yes I know how to build computers. I have never done this before so I was wondering which way you think is better. Keep in mind that I have a Volvo stereo so there is no way of swapping out the stereo to an aftermarket one. I know I want a touchscreen LCD. Does anyone know where I can either buy a small system or the parts for a small computer. I have never done this before so I need to know which way to go is better and why. I was also considering a Solid State Drive as opposed to a hard drive.

Answer 1

I think you should build it yourself, Purchase a car monitor, you can find pretty good deals on ebay for these, and then build the rest of the computer and I would mount it in your glove box if you have room. Some good brands of LCD monitiors for cars are Clairon, Kenwood, Alpine.

Answer 2

A lot of guys are using micro ITX boards for setups like that. You can also look for an embeded board, but there will be limits to what you can do with an embeded solution. Most embeded boards are pentium (original pentium not P4) or via based. They don't have the processing power of your desktop pc. They would however be more than enough to play some MP3's and basic pc functions. Many mini ITX are based on Pentium M's or other decent cpu's. You're probably talking more money than you could build a desktop for. Keep in mind too that you'll need a power supply that can run off 12V. They're not cheap.

Remember though, there's no rule that you can't use a full sized mini ATX board in your car. You could also use a power inverter and standard ATX PSU. Power efficiency might be something to consider in your choice b/c the larger the inverter, the more it will cost. Old school cpu's use a lot less power than the latest and greatest. Look at mobile based desktop solutions too. There is a 35w turion that will fit a socket 754 as well as many desktop boards based around the pentium M. You could even use an old pIII mobile etc. A 200mhz pentium will play MP3's no problem. You just need to find software that will run on that.

Answer 3

One idea is to have a "non-hard drive" based computer (as you say) that runs standalone Windows XP from a Bootable USB drive that runs the music player of your choice using plugins.

Your MP3's are stored on another USB drive that can be removed for editing.

This all ties into your sound system (amp subs/speakers).

No hard drive means nothing will crash (nearly). A touch screen display is really the only other peice of equipment needed that can be custom mounted in your dash as you say.

Look up BartPE and Sherpya. These two guys found a way to run the full GUI of Windows XP on a USB drive (under 600 Mb).

A shuttle style computer is all you need for the computer.

For power, you can use an inverter rated to run the computer. A 500 watt inverter should do the trick.

Answer 4

Building a desktop-type computer into your car sounds like a good idea but there is a major problem to overcome, the power. The voltage on a car can vary between 10 and about 15 volts. This does not provide enough electrical stability to use a desktop computer inside of a car. You could either use a laptop and hardwire the charger into the car's electrical system or buy a computer that's specifically designed for vehicle use. They have a battery system that helps filter out the voltage spikes and valleys that would normally cause a computer to not run properly.

Answer 5

Either buy a laptop and just cram it in, that way you arent stuck with a permanent computer in your car, or you can buy some components, cut some wires from a power supply and wire them up using the car's electrical system. yellow power supply wires are 12v, red are 5v, and black are ground. I know there is one more, the 3.3v, but i dont know what color that is. Also keep in mind there are the - rails. There are probably guides online on how to do this, so just look around.

Tiger direct is an awesome place to buy parts, its where I got the parts for my first computer. They have a few solid state harddrives, but they only go up to 8GB for now and are damn expensive.

Answer 6

Check out mp3car.com. They have more information there than I could even mention. There's some great all in one kits available, though you pay premiums for them.