Computer in car?

[Markoman01027]

Anybody ever put a PC in their car? Maybe like a shuttle Case? Let me know if this is done, and how. Would be awesome to do.

[Iman74]

I seen advertisements of people doing it and stuff but I think it's just another reason for someone to break into your car. All the things I saw were for laptops. Mostly stands that connected in the passenger side area. The best thing I liked was the plat forms.

[Alaron]

A person that did this was featured in MaximumPC about a year ago. He was using a regular setup, not a mini mobo, and he had placed it in his glove compartment. He had the cars AC venting onto the motherboard to cool the components. He used a 15" LCD mounted on the dashboard between the driver and passenger seats. Then he used a mouse with the ball on top of it, as a way to control the system. He used it mainly to watch DVDs on car trips. I haven't seen any guides for doing this but if you do, be sure to post some pictures :)

[Confused]

Bad enough we have people driving around with a phone in their ear, now we have someone watching movies while driving. Next thing will be a microwave to pop the corn to go with the movie.
Cha

[setfree]

im planning on putting a computer in my car in the next year or so to use as an mp3 player. I have a computer that somebody gave me and all I need is a power inverter to plug it in to. I have a front aux. input on my cd player so my thinking is that I can just run a plug from the output on the computer to the input on my cd player. The only thing is I need to find some kind of monitor so that I can see my playlists and such.

[Iman74]

That I don't get people putting all this effort to watch DVD's or listen to MP3's. There are much easier, cleaner, and effecient ways to achieve that than installing a computer. However, I understand people wanting to do it just to see if they can. But when they say I want to put it in for DVD or mp3 I think that is just silly. Besides, I feel the same as Confused, there enough bad drivers on the road, now they have a DVD screen infront of them: that's bad. I am planning to put a DVD player in my 4 Runner, but the only person that can use it would be the passenger(s) in the backseat; mostly my daughter. If it keeps her happy, I'm happy.

[tigstah]

Originally posted by Alaron56
A person that did this was featured in MaximumPC about a year ago. He was using a regular setup, not a mini mobo, and he had placed it in his glove compartment. He had the cars AC venting onto the motherboard to cool the components. He used a 15" LCD mounted on the dashboard between the driver and passenger seats. Then he used a mouse with the ball on top of it, as a way to control the system. He used it mainly to watch DVDs on car trips. I haven't seen any guides for doing this but if you do, be sure to post some pictures :)

i remember that he did it in a cobra.....that was crazy.

[TechSupport420]

My friend bought this little 7" LCD screen that mounts in your car and is powered by the cigarette lighter and has RCA input jacks on it, its great because you can hook up a PS2 or Xbox or whatever you want, it was about $350 for the LCD and then all you would have to do is take the output of your laptop to the input of the LCD or stereo.

[Strider]

Originally posted by Iman74
That I don't get people putting all this effort to watch DVD's or listen to MP3's. There are much easier, cleaner, and effecient ways to achieve that than installing a computer. However, I understand people wanting to do it just to see if they can. But when they say I want to put it in for DVD or mp3 I think that is just silly. Besides, I feel the same as Confused, there enough bad drivers on the road, now they have a DVD screen infront of them: that's bad. I am planning to put a DVD player in my 4 Runner, but the only person that can use it would be the passenger(s) in the backseat; mostly my daughter. If it keeps her happy, I'm happy.

I partly agree with you on the DVD part, I can't see the driver watching DVD, but children in the back would be a blessing for most parents. As for mp3 players, I just finished building a mp3 player ( http://www.pjrc.com or my own pjrc project http://www.pepster.com ) and I could hook it up in my car. It's basically a computer and if you think about it, most electronic gadgets could be consider a computer.

[Iman74]

Yeah, but I think when people use the term "computer" to describe something other than what I'm using right now to make this post, it is just to vague. If it is a mp3 player then call it that, if it is a DVD player, then call it that; etc.

[piasabird]

There are some companies that make small LCD screens that can be mounted in the roof and flip down so you can watch DVD's. You dont need a computer for that, because it already existsts.

[mattg2k4]

A computer is much more versatile and powerful than any similar dvd or mp3 player on the market. You can rip your entire cd library onto your car computer's hard drive, and set up some nice play lists.

And watching dvd's on a computer isn't necesarily any easier or better, but it certainly isn't any worse than a regular dvd player.

I'd recomend mounting the hard drive with it's side pointing up. That minimize the effects of a car bouncing up and down I'm told. Also beware, power from a car is not very clean.