Hey guys.

Im going to put a PC in my car to use with my stereo, have it as a DVD player etc etc.

I have a few issues though. I would like to put it (the tower) in my boot and make it a feature of my boot install... however it needs to be cooled somehow so that it doesnt overheat. Does anybody have any ideas? ... like cold air induction for my PC :P

i have also thought of putting the tower on the front passenger floor.... right at the front....however i would prefer it in the boot.

thanks

Hey guys.

Im going to put a PC in my car to use with my stereo, have it as a DVD player etc etc.

I have a few issues though. I would like to put it (the tower) in my boot and make it a feature of my boot install... however it needs to be cooled somehow so that it doesnt overheat. Does anybody have any ideas? ... like cold air induction for my PC :P

i have also thought of putting the tower on the front passenger floor.... right at the front....however i would prefer it in the boot.

thanks

just use a few pc cooling fans, i use 2 of them to cool my amps in my boot install and it gets pretty cold in my boot even on a warm day

where does the hot air go though?

read ALOT about thios subject good site for questions is mp3car.com

one thing to say is it will be 2x more than what you think, it is great though. Really needa sopecially made computer because invertors just dont cut it, well they do but only just. Cooling maybe a custome perspex case with lotsa fans in it? Or a barebone PC if you have the funds.

read ALOT about thios subject good site for questions is mp3car.com

one thing to say is it will be 2x more than what you think, it is great though. Really needa sopecially made computer because invertors just dont cut it, well they do but only just. Cooling maybe a custome perspex case with lotsa fans in it? Or a barebone PC if you have the funds.


ill prob spend like $2,000 on it perhaps...

buy a mac mini and stick it in your glove box there *** tiny, about $900 and then get a 7inch touchscreen .

*shakes head* NO! not a mini mac, serious go windows OS all the way, im not married to windows but size isnt the issue here, all the features you need are windows. Theres lots of things to consider. What do you want out of it? head over to mp3car.com and read it helps alot, im not exopert but i read alot out of it so iuf you want a hand just pm me or add me to msn

if u just want music liek stacks and stacks of mp3s why not mod an xbox console, that what i am doing, putting in a progam called media center, so i can hook it up to my i tunes and it will export all the music from my computer to my xbox and then play that in the car, hehe.

*shakes head* NO! not a mini mac, serious go windows OS all the way, im not married to windows but size isnt the issue here, all the features you need are windows. Theres lots of things to consider. What do you want out of it? head over to mp3car.com and read it helps alot, im not exopert but i read alot out of it so iuf you want a hand just pm me or add me to msn

lol i dont think u use MACs enough or u would know u can do anything on a MAC when it comes to playing MP3s, DVDs, DiVxs, or anything else u want to and it would be far more reliable than a puting a massive tower in ur car.

mac minis going to be the only computer going into my car if i bother... its tiny... its cheap... its perfect.

whats the audio quality like though on the mac mini?

if your going computer based definately go mac mini, keep things simple, who wants to update their cars antivirus? a more car friendly interface would be achieved with a modded xbox. you'd truly be amazed at how professional and functional xbox media centre is. will play ANYTHING you throw at it. you'll need to control this all somehow anyway and the controller will be perfect.

buy an xbox, get it chipped, not sure of current prices, but my guess would be 300ish. put a 200gig harddrive in, another 200ish. get it power and all that how ever you were planning on doing it, and voila, in car media centre. this thing will play CDs, DVDs, divx, mpeg, every single other media file, xbox games, n64 games and everything that came before it. if you hook it up to a network (somehow), you then have streamable music videos, etc.

but you canrt have gps....

Ok, i was going to do the EXACT same thing as you mate. Problem for me was funding.

Now, first things first, don't get a mac. I personally own 2 macs so i'm certainly not biased. But when it comes to doing a custom job like this, you really don't want to be fiddling with macs, they do odd things and there isn't much support for them (as in not many ppl play with them). Plus they really have no advantage over any other OS. Their media capabilities are null in this sort of situation. All you need is Windows XP and Winamp 5.

Secondly, ditch the PC tower idea, you should really look into using a laptop. You will run into problems a mile long with a tower, here are a few:
- The PSU (Power Supply) runs on 240v, so you'll have to somehow get it to work in a 12v car. Its possible, but you'll be doing a lot of work.
- Lots of parts in a big metal case with *ZERO* shock protection. Seriously, you'll need to do some heavy case modding before you'll want to put $2,000 worth of PC parts in a car. I've had parts fall apart in my computer and all i do is sit it on the back seat and take it to LANs.
- Cooling could be a problem, depends on a lot of things though.
- Where are you going to put the fat assed keyboard? Or more importantly, where are you going to place the mouse?

Now, a few selling points of the laptop:
- Their A LOT smaller.
- They actually have concern for power usage.
- You could adapt your laptop AC power adapter into your car system very easily.
- You won't have to buy your own LCD screen (you could even rip the lappy one right off and place it somewhere if you wanted to get creative).
- Cooling won't be such a big problem.
- Keyboard and mouse in one handy little plate. (which can actually be pulled right out and put somewhere else in your car)

Laptops can be a fair amount more expensive, but for 2k you should be able to get one with a decent amount of HDD space, which is really the most important part of your system. Or you could get a cheapo laptop and buy a nice external HDD.
Their also a little more fiddly, but its small size will be doing wonders for you.

If your getting a laptop then you could just store it under the drivers/passengers seat. Make SURE all its air ducts are unblocked and its fans are running (they can and will die after some time). Thats all you'll really need to do for cooling. Depending on what CPU you get, you may even be getting free heating with it. (Some laptops can pump out some SERIOUS heat)

I don't know what your planning to do to set it all up, so if you could get it little more specific then i could help you some more.

first of all, nothing wrong with macs..

have u thought about building a pc into your glovebox? (if your glovebox is removable this would be handy for the construction process). Mini ITX boards are easily obtained and are mighty small. some have even tried putting them inside a gamecube :P have a think about :thumbsup:

if your going computer based definately go mac mini, keep things simple, who wants to update their cars antivirus? a more car friendly interface would be achieved with a modded xbox. you'd truly be amazed at how professional and functional xbox media centre is. will play ANYTHING you throw at it. you'll need to control this all somehow anyway and the controller will be perfect.

buy an xbox, get it chipped, not sure of current prices, but my guess would be 300ish. put a 200gig harddrive in, another 200ish. get it power and all that how ever you were planning on doing it, and voila, in car media centre. this thing will play CDs, DVDs, divx, mpeg, every single other media file, xbox games, n64 games and everything that came before it. if you hook it up to a network (somehow), you then have streamable music videos, etc.
haha. Yeah actually scrub all that crap i just said. Modding an xbox would be the go for sure, atleast for a simple media centre.
Go buy a 2nd hand xbox for $200ish, take it to a place to get chipped (look in the trading post or google for aussie sites about it). Usually you can get a package for your xbox to get chipped and they'll put a bigger HDD in.
Great idea.
But, if you went the laptop idea you could, if you really wanted to, get it connected to the net via wireless and have streaming music and media.

I'm backing Helloyo up and saying that the Xbox is the way to go, hands down, if you want a simple media centre. If you want to go all out, and spend a lot of time on it, then the laptop way would be ideal, options are endless with a laptop.

dj doomsdays right there r a fewthings i disagree with, rollup keyboard u can use for your keyboard, but with touchscreen its realy unnecessary. Power for ur pc is easy...just use and invetor but hes right, laptops r better for power. and finally laptops r shielded better for bumping around...think aboiut it....


XBOX'S ARE NOT EXPANDABLE! THEY ARE HARD TO USE AND NAVIGATE AND A PAIN TO USE! but sure go for it, laptop would be better, carputas done properly even better!

If you go a computer instead of an xbox go wireless that way youcan transfer files to your car alot easier or even an external hdd that way you can just hook the hdd to the computer in your house

Secondly, ditch the PC tower idea, you should really look into using a laptop. You will run into problems a mile long with a tower, here are a few:
- The PSU (Power Supply) runs on 240v, so you'll have to somehow get it to work in a 12v car. Its possible, but you'll be doing a lot of work.
- Lots of parts in a big metal case with *ZERO* shock protection. Seriously, you'll need to do some heavy case modding before you'll want to put $2,000 worth of PC parts in a car. I've had parts fall apart in my computer and all i do is sit it on the back seat and take it to LANs.
- Cooling could be a problem, depends on a lot of things though.
- Where are you going to put the fat assed keyboard? Or more importantly, where are you going to place the mouse?



- the PSU use the OPUS power supply instead. goto mp3car.com to see what it is.

- doesnt have to be in a big case. use hardware like mini-ITX motherboards, slim dvd, laptop hard drive, the 90w opus power supply. are systems that can even fit the single DIN on the dash

- cooling add fans and have it in an open area problem solved.

- no need for mouse and keyboard, use a lilliput touchscreen or any other brand...

thxbai lol

I have been planning to do this for a while. When i get another car, i will DEFINATELY be putting in a carputer. Im pretty good with pc's and im sure i can get it done easily.

The magna isnt in the best condition and it leaks water.

This is the motherboard i plan to use. http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=2#p1601 scroll down to the picture of the can of coke next to it.

ok. Im going to have to upgrade my head unit to an Auxilary capable head unit... im assuming that is how i would get audio from pc through to my sound system.

Also

XBOX: how do i hook this up to my head unit? and can it play video files etc etc?

LAPTOP: im not really keen on this idea... however it is an option but i would rather do something different.

MAC MINI: looks good... but how would their sound quality be?

if i get a pc i wont have a mouse or keyboard... i will have a touchscreen mounted in my dash.

Hey nifty. Well looks like everything you need is at mp3car.com.
You don't even need to DIY most of it.

XBOX: how do i hook this up to my head unit? and can it play video files etc etc?



Same way you would connect up a dvd player or even ur computer through rca conections, and yes mida centre will allow you to play video files i am uncertain as to what format tho, it will even allow u to copy ur dvd movies onto it so if u have music videos or something liek that they can be run without the disk, saves them getting damaged. I am just about to start my project so i will be keeping u all informed of how i get along.

has noone here heard of a shuttle pc??? same as a mac mini, but in normal form, so you'd b more used to it...
http://www.nintek.com.au/x/scripts/prodList.asp?idcategory=366

this would be just perfect:
http://www.nintek.com.au/x/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=2416
http://au.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SB86I.asp
http://www.nintek.com.au/x/ProdImages/shuttle/SB86I.gif
$479 +
3.0GHZ Pentium IV ($260) +
1gig Ram ($160) +
200Gig HDD ($160) +
Dvd Burner ($70)

= $1129

good if u can get windows off a mate...media center edition would be good!

leaves you with round $800 for a decent screen...could buy a decent flipout for that cost.

and look at the size of the shuttle! could definitely put it newhere!

ok. Im going to have to upgrade my head unit to an Auxilary capable head unit... im assuming that is how i would get audio from pc through to my sound system.

Also

XBOX: how do i hook this up to my head unit? and can it play video files etc etc?

LAPTOP: im not really keen on this idea... however it is an option but i would rather do something different.

MAC MINI: looks good... but how would their sound quality be?

if i get a pc i wont have a mouse or keyboard... i will have a touchscreen mounted in my dash.

the xbox will play practically ANY file. off the top of my head: wma, wmv, mpg, avi, divx, xvid, mov, qt, asf, vob, mp3, ogg, ogm, rm and the list goes on....


Click here for some screenshots and the site. (http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/info_screens.htm)

sound quality from those mac minis are great... we have 3 macs and 4 pcs... i prefer macs for their outright simplicity... u buy a mac u dont have to keep buying **** to add to it... OSX comes with everything u need.

what the hell u would need 3ghz machine in ur car to run MP3s is beyond me and a waste of time... guess it depends what u need it for. Im a PC person but im not puting one into my car.

here... read this

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/vehicles/mac-mini-vw-gti-install-035712.php

lol just cos its a mac or a windows machine dont mean nehting to do with sound, its all in your soundcard, as i sed to you on msn mate go a shuttle pc they r so much better cos they r windows :P And dont worry about media centre, just get a media engine frontend (designed for carputa's) from mp3car.com

A standerd PC and 7 inch touchscreen is all you need.

2000 dollars on a PC? you have to be joking, my first carpc was a PII 233MMX and it was running windows XP with frodoplayer front end and startup registry hacks to give me a boot time of about 15 seconds into playing music.

The comp prob cost me a couple of hundred dollars and it was playing DVDs and 2 gig video files without hesitiation.

a new motherboard, and 2.4Ghz celeron with 256mb of ram will cost you 200 dollars. 90 for the chip, 70 for the board and 40 for the ram. Then theirs the other little bits and peices that cost hardly anything.

Anything more then that and you are pulling yourself, the only reason why you need anything more powerfull than that is if your playing games or something.
Something with HALF that power can do everything you want it to do and you wont even notice the speed difference.

The reason why you have to get a 2.4ghz chip is because its the slowest on the market.

Orh that was because I was running a cut back version of xp but. Its very very good, called XPlite, look it up.

In the end you only need a half assed computer to do the job.

Right now I have a 8 second boot up time and thats from the car being completly off to in and playing music. Thats still loading the windows shell but, i could cut it back to a few seconds boot up but right now doing that is too much hassle and not really worth it for me.

To get the bootup you want going, look up EWF (enhanced write filter) lets you switch your comp off at any stage and when you turn it back on it will always come back to the same hibernation point. Any data writing is redirected from the HD to the RAM so you cant actually do any damage to the system hence why you can switch it off at any point without shutting down properly.

Im only using an inverter and it runs fine.

Bios is set to startup on AC, so whenever i flick my switch it flicks the relay which sends power to the inverter, inverter turns on automatically and then computer turns on automatically.

If you leave the switch on you can just switch the comp on and off going from OFF -> ACC on the key. Just like any headunit.

Ascension: do you have any problems with damage to the PC when travelling? where abouts have u installed the PC in your car?

The pc is still floating around in the boot, havnt been bothered screwing it down or anything.
Mostly because at this stage i couldnt care what it looks like and my boot never gets opended anymore.

With a gas tank, 15 inch sub, 2 amps and a tower case, theirs no room in the boot for anything.

And nope, no problems what so ever.

A standerd PC and 7 inch touchscreen is all you need.

2000 dollars on a PC? you have to be joking, my first carpc was a PII 233MMX and it was running windows XP with frodoplayer front end and startup registry hacks to give me a boot time of about 15 seconds into playing music.

The comp prob cost me a couple of hundred dollars and it was playing DVDs and 2 gig video files without hesitiation.

a new motherboard, and 2.4Ghz celeron with 256mb of ram will cost you 200 dollars. 90 for the chip, 70 for the board and 40 for the ram. Then theirs the other little bits and peices that cost hardly anything.

Anything more then that and you are pulling yourself, the only reason why you need anything more powerfull than that is if your playing games or something.
Something with HALF that power can do everything you want it to do and you wont even notice the speed difference.

The reason why you have to get a 2.4ghz chip is because its the slowest on the market.

Orh that was because I was running a cut back version of xp but. Its very very good, called XPlite, look it up.

In the end you only need a half assed computer to do the job.

Right now I have a 8 second boot up time and thats from the car being completly off to in and playing music. Thats still loading the windows shell but, i could cut it back to a few seconds boot up but right now doing that is too much hassle and not really worth it for me.

To get the bootup you want going, look up EWF (enhanced write filter) lets you switch your comp off at any stage and when you turn it back on it will always come back to the same hibernation point. Any data writing is redirected from the HD to the RAM so you cant actually do any damage to the system hence why you can switch it off at any point without shutting down properly.

Im only using an inverter and it runs fine.

Bios is set to startup on AC, so whenever i flick my switch it flicks the relay which sends power to the inverter, inverter turns on automatically and then computer turns on automatically.

If you leave the switch on you can just switch the comp on and off going from OFF -> ACC on the key. Just like any headunit.

mobo... chip... ram... dvd rom... power supply... case... sound card... by the time u put all that together u coudl have bought a mac mini from ebay and its already compact and put together.

Orh and a mac mini would be the biggest mistake you can make.

Because i highly highly doubt you could find a front end designed for in car use on a 7" touchscreen for the mac.
So in the end it would be useless.

Go over to mp3car.com and have a look at their front ends.

Get frodoplayer with the brightlife skin, it has ALL the functions youll need and with the brightlife skin pack it looks bloody great to.

As for the sound, you can just use any sound card, for a high quality one go an m-audio 2468.
And the next step up from that would be going digital out from the computer either via the motherboard if you have the plug or by the sound card, and into a processor unit like an alpine pxa-h700.

mobo... chip... ram... dvd rom... power supply... case... sound card... by the time u put all that together u coudl have bought a mac mini from ebay and its already compact and put together.

yeah but whats the fun in that :D


@ Ascension, tell me more about this "enhanced write filter". Can you get this for sp1 ? or does it only work with sp2 ?

Not sure about the different service packs, pretty sure it doesnt make a difference though.

Ive only done it on service pack 2 though.

Like i said before, all it does is redirect any info being written to the hard disk to the ram, so once the computer is shut off all changes are loss, hence giving you the ability to switch off the computer at any point without shutting down. Also gives you the ability to set a hibernate point (eg set it in your fontend) so you can just turn your car off whenver you want and when you turn it back on, it will always come out of hibernation straight into that same point.

This is a copy and paste of one of my post from CAA a while ago.
Which is pretty much just a copy of SFiorito post from mp3car.com
Youll just have to look up the files as i dont have them posted anymore (I dont think)

anyways here go.


Making an EWF enabled XP installation

1) Install XP like you normally would, whether it's an nLite, XPLite, or regular install.

2) Retrieve the EWF files: ewfmgr.exe, ewf.sys, and ewfntldr

3) Place ewf.sys in \WINDOWS\System32\drivers

4) Place ewfmgr.exe in \WINDOWS\System32

5) Place ewfntldr on the root of your boot drive. Rename ntldr to ntldr_bak and rename ewfntldr to ntldr.

6) Configure XP to minimize writes as much as possible. EWF basically creates a RAM drive where all changes are stored in RAM, so the more changes you

make to your protected volume the more RAM it'll take.
a) disable the paging file
disable automatic disk defrag and autolayout:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction]
"Enable"="N"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\OptimalLayout]
"EnableAutoLayout"=dword:00000000
c) disable Last Access timestamps:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\FileSystem]
"NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001
d) disable Prefetch:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]
"EnablePrefetcher"=dword:00000000
e) disable System Restore
f) depending on your configuration you can also relocate your eventlogs to a non protected partition:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/e...nOfEventLog.asp
g) same with your webbrowser temp files
h) MSFT even recommends using a FAT filesystem if you don't require the security features of NTFS as this will improve EWF performance even more.

7) Enter the following registry values into your registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\R oot\LEGACY_EWF]
"NextInstance"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\R oot\LEGACY_EWF\0000]
"Service"="EWF"
"Legacy"=dword:00000001
"ConfigFlags"=dword:00000020
"Class"="LegacyDriver"
"ClassGUID"="{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}"
"DeviceDesc"="EWF"
"Capabilities"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\R oot\LEGACY_EWF\0000\Control]
"ActiveService"="EWF"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\ewf]
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Group"="System Bus Extender"
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Type"=dword:00000001

*NOTE*: For the following key, ADD Ewf to the existing value which should be volsnap.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}]
"UpperFilters"="Ewf"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\ewf\Parameters\Protected\Volume0]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"ArcName"="multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)"

This last entry, ArcName, needs to match the partition you want to protect. If you want to protect more than one volume then just add another key named

Volume1 with the appropriate entries.

8) Reboot!! If you get a boot error then just boot up with Last known good configuration. That will probably kill all the registry entries you entered,

but you probably forgot something so do it again and make sure the EWF files are in the right places.

9) Once you boot up open up a CMD and run "ewfmgr n:" n being the drive letter of your protected volume. If it says it didn't find an EWF volume then you

messed up, otherwise it should show info on your protected volume.

10) If you need to make configuration changes to windows or install software then disable EWF by running "ewfmgr n: -commitanddisable -live" n being your

protected drive. This will COMMIT any changes and DISABLE EWF immediately. Once it's done go ahead and do whatever you want, but BEFORE YOU REBOOT run

"ewfmgr n: -enable" n being your protected drive so that EWF will be reenabled after you restart.

11) Hibernation is possible on a volume protected by EWF, but first create an empty file on the root drive (where you installed the special ewfntldr)

called resmany.dat. Just right-click and create textfile and rename it resmany.dat. That's it. Obviously you need to do this with EWF disabled. Once that

is done reenable EWF and RESTART so that EWF can protect the volume again. THEN you can hibernate. This will allow you to ALWAYS resume from the same

hibernation state. There is no need to hibernate every time you shutdown, unless you want to change the state. For a CarPC system you would obviously

hibernate with your frontend running.

12) You need to really think about what you're doing with an EWF system because you don't want to make tons of changes without disabling EWF, or

disabling EWF and then forget to reenable it. Take into consideration configuration files that may change (such as a frontend saving its state... if it

saves it on an EWF partition it'll be gone when you resume!!).

13) This system will allow you to run a regular XP install from a CompactFlash disk. MSFT has some good information on booting from CF disks and

deploying your OS to CF, even if they are marked as removable: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/e...ompactFlash.asp

Spend the time to read through MSDN XP Embedded docs!! There's lots of good info on there about EWF, but also on streamlining your system and improving

boot speed.

Let us know if you find anything new!!!

S/F,
Frito


This is taken from SFiorito post over at mp3car.com, if you need help just post your questions and ill get back to you.

Because i highly highly doubt you could find a front end designed for in car use on a 7" touchscreen for the mac.

Wrong.

SHUTTLE PC children, read about them, the new mac aint nething new

SHUTTLE PC children, read about them, the new mac aint nething new

and i was the 1st 2 mention it in this post, so ner :P

but yeah, shuttle pc would be alot better to start off with than a tower pc, just for the ease of use. put all the cheap parts in it as sed b4 (would b good with a dvd burner in it, just for the sake of being handy, and theyre only like $60 now!), strip xp right down as stated b4, and ur all set! also, just because the shuttle pc is small, i wouldnt wanna put it in the glovebox, purely coz the hot air is just gonna get sucked back in over the cpu, so u wont b making much of a diff, and that'll just make a hot pc! stick it at the back of the boot, and u'll b set!

so start off with a shuttle, and add the cheapest brand new parts u can find lol

I've looked into this, but currently just use my PDA, vehicle cradle and bluetooth gps receiver.
But..
There are places in oz that make pre built car pc's (carputers)
http://www.bitdistribution.com.au/?stg=49
http://www.cdt.com.au/prod_type.asp?prod_type=Vehicle%20PC

then all you need a nice 1 din size in dash 7' tft VGA touchscreen and a copy of copiliot live laptop v8 and away you go :)

You can also get some very nice intelligent car psu's which monitor your battery and close down pc to make sure you car battery doesn't go flat, or have your pc die from over voltage when you crank your car over. http://www.carcpu.com/opus_solutions_150w.htm

good luck with the project :)

Cheers

Does the price on this touch screen seem decent?

Clicky (http://www.bitdistribution.com.au/?stg=193&view=193)

i rang the guy about 11.30pm (wasnt expecting an answer) and he seemed decent enough.

does anybody know where i could get one cheaper in australia?

400 bucks for a 7" touchscreen, you will NOT find one cheaper.

Jaycar is brining out a 7" touchscreen, and its going to be round that price.

The xenarc im using is about 700 i think.

Just grab a micro atx case and hide it anywhere, or if you want to go really small grab a mini itx, people are putting these computers in a DIN SLOT!

Heres what i did with my din slot, like the gaffa tape?

http://www.members.optushome.com.au/hyper24/2.JPG

The frontend you see is frodoplayer with the brightlife skin pack, might be brightlife 2.

so where do i get frodoplayer from? it looks good. ok .. so u think i should buy the touchscreen then?

Yeah its a liliput, liliput and xenarc are like holden and ford.
Well over at www.mp3car.com they are.

Go their for all your carputer needs.

liliput and xenarc are like holden and ford..

So dont buy one ;) ok jk nah liliput are supposed to be very good

Yeah there are a few ebay stores which seem good for 7" tfts
http://stores.ebay.com.au/Extreme-Audio-Electronics-Ltd_W0QQssPageNameZviQ3asibQ3astoreviewQQtZkm
http://stores.ebay.com.au/Eonon_W0QQssPageNameZviQ3asibQ3astoreviewQQtZkm

Hate to bring this up again but whats wrong with a laptop from my end i cant see anything wrong with it plus you could by one with a damaged screen saving you big bickies and just plug in the LCD touch screen. Use a USB DVD drive if you want to be able to change cds easily. They have easy to buy 12v power supplies (ciggie lighter) already set up to use less power so kinder on your battery when cars turned off. They fit in small places like under your seat and before anyone says anything it doesnt get too hot under there (theres even aircon ducts there) ive seen people put amps there and they get much hotter than a laptop. Their soo much lighter than PCs too and with petrol prices every bit of weight counts.

Because i highly highly doubt you could find a front end designed for in car use on a 7" touchscreen for the mac.


Wrong.

Im not saying there isnt but instead of just writing "Wrong" would you care to share the software that youve found.