Carputer Help?

I know that this has been covered before but i cant seem to find all the info that i need.
I am in the process of trying to get a carputer sorted. I want sat nav, tv and all the usual trimmings only thing is i only want to spend about £200 on the initial build without the touch screen.
Can anybody point me in the right direction of where i can scource the parts as im not really a computer wizard or where i can get a reasonalbly spect prebuilt. I have had a look on ebay and can only find one for about £130 with pretty poor spec. Small hard drive and no Dvd r/rw.
Thanks
Stuart

do carputers take certain hard drives, becuase if not, normal pc ones are reall cheap... especially off eBuyer i think...
i personally would strip a laptop, but thats not gonna come to under 200 squids if youre after good spec stuff...

I think that they take 3.5" drives. Its the certain OS systems that you want because they have a super speed start up times and im not sure that you can put them on a normal computer but i dont know. I have seen a list of all the components and things for a reasonable price before i just cant remember where. Im sure it was on here but i cant find it.

rite i get 2 meet quite a few people in work (halfords) and i met this computer tech who has a mind blowing computer so i found out quite a bit about computers. well laptops are out of the question for a start.
generally tower pc's al have reducers to take the voltage down to generally 12V tho this varies a wee bit between PC's. a lot of hard drives have for some reasons two different voltage feed. but i know you can get a direct replacement for the reducer inside the computers so it can run of 12V directly and regulate this to avoid blowing it up, lol. as for where you can get it from im not too sure. im going to see about building a carputer myself as soon as i get the nessecary bits (exhaust/new wheels) 1st. i was just going to get a cheap tower pc, upgrade any components necessary (eg. ram) and get this guy to get me the nessecary part for running off the correct voltage. i see him every month or so and unfortuantly i seen him this weekend so i may not see him till around christmas time but if i do ill get details of the part required and pass it on to ya

The components of a tower would prob be too big plus you would need an Inverter for the PSU if you are really ineterested i would start looking into Mini ITX that seems to be the best solution and prop similar price to a tower. Also you would need some special software i cant remember what its called off the top of my head but it has a super startup time because off a normal PC you would prob get too your destination before loading. If you look in the Stilo tech section at a thred called Double Din someone has found a V good solution the only thing that is missing is a hard drive but one can be added for music storage.

laptop hidden in boot with external touchscreen on dash & external dvdrw in glovebox. much cheaper, better spec, and much more functional.

My boot is choccer block and you still have a lot of other issues like i have said in my last reply. Start Up times and such like.

Do you actually know WTF your talking about? By the sounds of it your 'mate' doesn't either so I guess its not your fault. A PC power supply (PSU) take mains voltage (230-250v AC) and converts it into seperate voltage 'rails' 12V 5V 3.3V. A hard drive does NOT run of 2 voltage feeds . It runs off a 12V rail and scales the voltage down for its own requirements usually 5V.

As for original post it is actually very simple to do :-

http://www.carcomputer.co.uk

^^ They have everything you need to do this although you may want to source your kit yourself to save money. Technically all you need is:-

Chassis - Something small and compact but big enough to contain the following:

Motherboard - Mini ITX would be ideal scale
Processor - Just something that will fit the Mini ITX motherboard and runs cool
Memory - 1gb Memory should be ample
HDD - a Slim 3.5" Hard disk or even a Laptop Hard disk would be ideal
VDU - You need a Touch screen display preferably with USB output to go to PC.

PSU - You should be able to get an external PSU that will run off 12V DC no problem if thats not an option get a 12dc to 230-250AC Converter

OS - For this I would recommend 'Windows XP Ultimate - Lite' Which can be found on torrent. This is a slim cut down no 'Junk' Version of windows XP and boots up in litterally 5-10seconds on a moderate spec machine.

Also see this thread :-

http://www.fiatforum.com/i-c-e/11720...er-car-pc.html

And pay particullar attention to the link I posted think it may help and give you an Idea how to procede . Personally I could knock a professional looking and running system in about a month but just don't have the cash or time to do it.

I dont think the Dr was trying to claim knowledge just giving me an idea to work with.
I dont think that it is as easy as you say it is, im not an expert but my Brother and his Boss who are said that they wouldnt touch it with a barge poll. Although i do agree with you mate it does seem quite easy once you have all the components. Im still going to go for the DVD double din with Satnav for the moment and slowly build the computer for the sake of it. I do know sum1 who would be the Dogs b****x at this so i will ask his opinion.
P.S Cheers for the link i knew that i had seen it here.

i was going to build mine on a nano-ATX system but i think i might opt for a high spec laptop, hopfully one with a shot screen.

as pointed out by Jug you will get an better spec from an equal size bit of kit

ive got a Laptop under my seat with wifi and cdrw only a 800mhz thing but it will have a touchscreen put into my dash once done.

only down side i can see to a laptop is you will probably have crap audio quality, can overcome that with a nano-atx built

plugs into my amp which is directly below it lol

Well Im going to proove to you bitches that my way is the best. Just need cash . And regards previous posts. If you set up the OS and software properly (I.e No XP garbage) you can run it on a 500mhz C3 Mini Scale processor. And the beauty of my idea is it will all be hidden and 'installed to the car probably behind the dash and the only visible component (the touch screen) will be removable to stop potential pikey seeing it and saying 'I want dat one'.

I have no doubt that ut does work your way im just confused as to why every pro that i have spoken too is so baffled by the concept of it. I will find the name of the best software to use for you and put it up here. There is one that has an easy to use interface that will be better user friendly for driving with.