I'm seriously thinking of going down the Car PC route for various reasons, but most notably for decent integration of mp3, audio CD, sat nav and mobile phone usage into one manageable device.

I've had a look at a few decent forums on the matter (mp3car.com | your source for mobile computing solutions, digital-car.co.uk forums) and after some background reading, I rather like the look of RoadRunner as it offers a decent front end, is free and quite customisable.

So, anyone else have a working carputer? and want to share their experiences Or will I be all on my own and innovate?

I have a nice rotating animated Skoda gif logo as a start of customisation

this place has had soime good press with regards both parts for a "build your own" or complete ready made solutions...

Intel Car-PCs

Good prices on touch screen tft's too or use to be!

HTH

Yeah. Screenwise, I think this is cheap enough: Car Computer Lilliput Touch Screen Monitors

Although there's a long thread on mp3car where a chap will be manufacturing a proper doulbe DIN sized dash mount which will include a 6.5" touch screen and a slot-loading CD/DVD drive and a row of push buttons and rotating **** which is looking very promising.

I really can't understand why no-one has done a double-DIN thing before. The market is screaming for it (for those who don't like to get high on fibreglass setting)

I agree. If there were affordable double din screens I'd have a car PC by now...

how about a macmini they are about a din and a half size so im sure with a litle modification they would work sweetly

how about a macmini they are about a din and a half size so im sure with a litle modification they would work sweetly

True, but the problem is more with a decent fit of the screen. Whilst I wouldn't mind having some stiff foam wedging a PC in place, a screen needs to have a very decent flush-mounted finish against the rest of the dash and there's currently no adaptation brackets available on the market to offer that.

There is a unit which offers a decent motorised 800x480 touchscreen, but it comes with a built-in amplifier and AM/FM radio which isn't that good. I personally don't want to pay for electronics I wouldn't use. I don't want a motorised screen (as it's something to go wrong) and want something that looks oem-like enough to not attract too much attention.

Like Skoda cars, we all want that streetsleeper stealthy look

mini-itx.com - news was a good site for info and prices, on the mini PCs themselves - when I built one a few years ago (not for car use). IIRC they sell some purpose built car PC stuff too....

Steve

Yeah they still do car-specific stuff, which is quite handy as it has battery-saving safety features as well as delayed startup which is good too, plus the power supplies can cope with the car's nasty temperature ranges etc