Hello. I am working on a current project that involves buidling a computer in my car (Micro ATX) with a motorized 7inch LCD screen out of the dash. I am installing this in my 2001 Dodge Intrepid and I was wondering if anyone had/has any previous experience in doing this? If you had a computer in your car would what would you use it for? I plan on loading my mp3s and divx, xvid movies into my car via wireless 802.11x acess. The wifi acess will be handy for transfering my mp3s and movies to my car, plus picking up wirless connections. Thus I could use my 2 12inch Subs, 2 6x9's, 2 61/2s and amp powering the subs, for sound which would be premium sound. I am going to have a nother Optima Gel Yellow Top battery and a power inverter off that and a back up battery running off the inverter. I plan on mounting a external DVDburner under my arm rest and mounting a power switch for the pc up in my dash somewhere. I know the exact details to where everything is going to go and haven't run into any sort of snags, all I need is to get the parts. I plan to have this job finished before June. My current PC setup I have chosen is:

AMD 2500 XP-M
1GB PC3200
(2) 400Gig 7200 RPM drives
Windows XP
Audigy 2
(Maybe) 9600XT

So I'm deciding on the video card still.. I want a semi-Powerful video card but not too expensive. And could anyone recommend any Micro ATX mobo's? I'm prettty sure I'm getting most of my parts of http://www.newegg.com except the battery and the case (which will be modified)

Go for it!
It is abit of work, bur it sounds like ur up to it. Just make sure u mount the pc nice and tight and flat.

No point in getting a gig of RAM. 256MB is more then enough for music, vids and such, unless you plan on playing a lot of games, in which case 512MB should do a decent job.

What's the point?

A survey shows that having more gadgets in the car has led to a lack of concentration and increase in accidents and deaths on the road..... having computers and this that and the other in your car that are beyond reason seems pointless.

But it's your ambition and I don't want to be a dampener so go for it but you've been warned, you've got two eyes, but really, you have one eye, because they can only look in the same place at the same time, not at different things each.

Remember that.

Here is a link that list's some Matx boards. Could come in handy.

http://kuhne.com/static/tech/mATX-htpc.htm

Okay, well thanks guys The real only reason I chose 1GB of ram is because It was so cheap. Ram is getting ridiculously cheap these days so why not. I have had my license for over 4 years, haven't got in a wreck or ticket or anything, I don't think this will make not pay attention to the road. This could be the end of cd's completely for me. I have a mp3/wma cd player in my car currently but just imagine being able to load your 22,000 mp3s In your car. I think that is my main reason for doing this plus I drive a lot from Red Bluff, CA to Stockton, CA

sounds sweet man... I want to see finished pictures!

Depending on what kinda vid you want you could spend ~$150 an get a 6600 that would surely do the job.

You've got me totally intrigued now...

Have you considered going with a Sempron 2600+/2800+ in a Socket 754 flavor? That would get you into a Socket 754 micro-ATX motherboard... which means you can utilize SATA (and get SATA hard drives, whose cables take up far less space) and also bump up into 64-bit Athlon64 (Socket 754) if/when you choose to. Perhaps use an 80 - 120Gb SATA drive internally to host the OS and progs, and then build your own (you seem like the type who could... I have done this as well) 200+ Gb external HD that you can plug in via SATA and a molex (I've custom-made the cable), loaded with all your movies and MP3's and such. You can take that EHD anywhere you want, really. Just an idea.

A Gb of RAM is overkill. 512Mb would be more than enough.

You probably wouldn't need a 9600XT. That would be true overkill. You'd be fine with a 9250 or comparable nVidia card (5200 - 5500)... because you'd also benefit from looking into a half-height card of these... cut down on space considerably.

Keep in mind that there is talk of city-provided wireless service, in the form of towers or "blimps" that provide a wireless connection. You might want to plan ahead. Besides that, if you're going to do more traveling, it doesn't hurt to look into a good GPS/Mapping program, and install it on the machine too, so that you won't get... delayed. DeLorme is a company that makes a GPS device that attaches directly to a computer/laptop so that the screen _is_ the computer (instead of you paying X amount more for a screen on the GPS).

I've _sorta_ done what you're attempting, but you're going the full Nelson... I just have a stereo deck that has a 1/8" input jack, a CD changer that takes MP3 CD's, a heavy-duty battery (we're talking combat -grade), and 3 (one custom installed) DC power jacks in the interior to plug devices into. I've done tours with my Jeep, and can sleep in the back, and have my notebook powered by my car battery and plugged into my top-notch audio system... It's almost like a drive-in movie theater, with better sound! Better yet, I've gone on product demos (snowboarding and mtn biking) where I just flip open the tailgate, plug my notebook into the aforementioned setup, and plug my headset microphone into the notebook, and I'm giving a product demo through my Jeep's speakers... in addition to any Flash or PDF's (already stored) that anyone would want to see on the notebook too.

I do like your idea, that I do. Gung ho go for it.

Sweet!! Yeah, if I do decide to get a 64bit CPU I will just go all the way and get a 939 pin incase of future upgrades. My original plan was to get 512MB of RAM, I might decide to just leave it at this much. I'm going to have my sound out of my computer going into aux of my cd player then video out to the LCD monitor. I have just about everything planned, I just need the parts.. sooon! I also need about a 10ft VGA cable.

Why not just get an Ipod with iTrip? That can hold as many songs, no cds, decent quality, and it would be easier to transport songs back and forth. Plus the added benefit of playlists also, but that requires less concentration.

Just my 2 cents.

How big is the HD's in that iPod? I have 135Gigs of Music on my computer along with 280gigs of Divx Xvid movies so.. I don't think I could fit all that on a ipod.

if your going to play cd's or dvd's in the vehicle you might want to remember that computer disk drives aren't made for the bouncing and vibrating and such that a vehicle does. I don't know how well computer disk drives work in a driving car but i know i once put my home stereo in a car and it kept on skipping because it was made not to move. the idea sounds awesome though and you would deff be popular

I have read if you mount it perpindular to the floor it will be perfectly fine (if you mount it horizontally to the ground it might have read/write issues do to the motion of the vehicle). So I have read, but we will see. Also I know someone who has mounted a harddrive in their car and has been through several wrecks and he has never had a problem. I will for surely take pictures as I will start building this in a couple weeks. And if any problems occur I will possibly take a RC car (that good suspension), rip it apart, and mount the harddrive off that. Or I will make a suspension harness out of rubber bands or something.

Here is a link of what I currently have done to my car. The CAR PC is coming and gaining some head way! WOOT Can't wait till I get it in!!

http://www.cardomain.com/id/wyattx17

Here is my OLD car Booya!
http://www.cardomain.com/id/static_x17