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Hey guys, found this good article on setting up for a carputer on digg.com. Just thought i'd shar it for anyone planning on installing a carputer.
It covers everything from motherboard choice to LCDs and OS.

link:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1858835,00.asp

 
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Wow. Wish I'd had this when I started building mine.

 
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yEs good stuff...

Hey Will hows everything comming along? My opus has been working flawlessly since the system upgrade, and a new case custom welded out of sheet metal on floating springs from an old CD changer.

 
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I also have a carpc in my 04 civic, are there a lot of people on this site with carpc's?

 
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Besides the obvious uses of a carputer, like movies and mp3s. What other functions do you guys user a carputer for? and how often does it come in handy?

 
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Hey bud, mine's working great right now, but I think I was overloading it before, every once in a while one of my USB devices just dies on me, usually either the touchscreen or the keyboard. I pulled the power from my DVD burner for now, my vid is skipping less and the system pops into and out of standby a little more promptly now.
I'm watching the development of a new 220W DC-DC on mp3car right now, and will likely order it after the next big gig or bonus. I'm mapping out some fiber work up front, want to get a USB hub and card reader up there, plus maybe a webcam (tee hee) and an ipod dock so my wifey can transfer tracks over as we drive.

flip114, while vid and mp3's are the big selling points of a carputer, basically with the right knowledge and some careful planning you can do anything in your car that you can do on a home PC, or at least a laptop. Here are some things that are very feasible, impractical though they may be:
- burn CD's and DVD's
- Word, Excel, Powerpoint
- Music editing (a la Sound Forge)
- Internet, email, instant messaging
- GPS navigation
- record your driving (webcam required, still working on this one)
- camera dock, so you can download and burn meet pics right at the meet!
- use a relay card to switch accessories off and on, like neons, strobes, stuff like that
- run your heater, a/c, etc using custom harnesses, relay card, etc
- OBDII monitoring; if an OBD reader can decode it, you can view it on the screen

I can't live without my carputer. In fact I've forgotten how to use the radio and CD player. Also if I'm going somewhere I'm not familiar with, instead of asking for directions I can just say "gimme the address and I'll find it". Never a problem getting anywhere when you have GPS. It's saved my azz basically every time I'm out in Markham or Richmond Hill, cause I don't know those areas at all, yet I get a lot of products from stores round there.

Again, if it can be done on a home PC or laptop, it can definitely be done on a carputer, depending of course on your power supply, which tends to be the greatest limiting factor in a carputer setup. Honestly I haven't seen a single SUCCESSFUL carputer user yet who wasn't both a car DIY buff and a computer nerd. It takes a good knowledge of both to keep from either building a slow/underpowered PC or killing car batteries daily.

 
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Great.. come out tonight, I'll be at the meet.

 
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Sorry man, couldn't make it, I was making hot asian girls dance around for me on Mink's main floor, then I went upstairs to pick them up on the patio, he he.

 
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Thanks Tell for the info, as a computer nerd, i find the GPS navagation option to be very appealing, never have to stop for directions ever again.
Looking at the setup your planning with the usb hub, card reader and ipod dock, looks like its going to be a crazy setup.

 
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Yea flip that was my main motivation too, ... GPS.
Not only will you never ask for directions, you'll never have a problem finding a restaurant, casino, bank machine, shopping mall, ect... because major points of interest are built into the software. You'll eventually get tired of the chick's voice constantly telling you "turn left" "turn right". B:itch shut up!



Bottom line: when shopping retail for a GPS DVD combo, you're paying more and getting less. If you decide to build it yourself, PM me. My supplier is a VIA distributor, so I help you save money on parts, and set you up with the neccessary software.

 
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Hey 909, have you looked into any of the other front ends out there? I pretty much gave up on RoadRunner, and I'm getting tired of Mediacar's inability to shuffle video files (but it can with MP3's grrr). I was looking at Centrafuse but there's so much behind-the-scenes-ini-file editing and I don't want to have to do that in my freakin car. Plus since I don't have a garage it's a pain having to lug the carputer inside then reconnect everything if I want to do some intensive work on it. Damn I need a house.

 
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USE FRODO!!!!
USE FRODO!!!!
USE FRODO!!!!

Honestly I made the switch, it's the least buggy dude.


Yea, mine does that sometimes too, but instead of the touchscreen I have the GPS COM3 drop on me. I have it connected to a USB to serial virtual com port thingy, which sucks because USB has a mind of its own sometimes and doesnt recognize after hibernation. I'm trying to figure out if my motherboard has an extra com port header, so I won't have this issue anymore, and avoid USB all together.

A friend of mine said they have a sale at tiger direct for a stand alone 5" monitor and an IR nightvision camera for about $100 bucks.. He has a pathfinder, so he has the room, but where would we mount another screen on the dash without it looking like ***?

 
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Nowhere really, unless you were willing to take apart one of your visors.