hi. i would like to do a car pc in my 380. not for entertainment (just a bonus) its for a diagnostic system. at work we use a laptop to diagnos lpg fualts but the program for brc also shows engine temp, lpg pressure in injector rail(this is the problem im having now), engine speed, road speed and much more.

so what would i need and how much roughly would i be looking at.

it needs to have cd drive and usb ports.

any help appreciated.

or would it be easier and cheaper to get a laptop.

if its only for diag id look at an eepc, car pcs are nice but do consume alot of time getting it installed, havent seen one with a cd rom tho heres a guestamate of my car pc cost

lilliput screen $320, m2-atx psu $120, bare bone asus systm $280, 320gb sata drive $120, 2gb ddr ram $55, dvd rw $45, cables paint etc $200+ software/os $400-500 thats before it thinks about makin a sound & thats when the dollar was still good

Honestly I'm not sure the total cost of my system, but I'd say it's in the realm of $1200. If you just want to do diagnostics though, the Eee PC option suggested above may be better, it took quite a bit of time, effort and patience to get mine going, and it wouldn't be worth it if you weren't after video/music/navigation.

mind you i love it :) its all connedted to alpine R gear

Yeah a eepc would be the go, and besides that i believe the 380 stereo is intergrated into the dash? meaning it would need a fair bit of fibreglass work etc to mould a screen in