Hi All,

I'm currently looking at a new car (VZ SV6) and weighing up the options.

i have been considering a carpc just for the convenience of having all my music in the one spot. i am concerned about the ease of controlling one.
having just seen a laptop with a 7" screen come into work, i am starting to think the little touchscreen might not be the best idea anymore.

anyone got any experience with these kinda setbacks? any ideas for remotes etc and whether it is really worth it or just a bit of 'wank factor' for the car?

Thanks for your time.

Knighty.

Gday Knighty

I guess there are a few things to consider here...

If you want to put in a car pc, go for a proper mini pc, not a laptop. You could put in a stand alone touch screen into a single DIN slot (assuming you can do this easily in a VZ. The car pc would give u the ability to play mpegs, avi, DVD, surf the internet (with some kind of mobile broadband connection)...You can even use the car pc as a GPS.

Also depends on how much u want to spend....

Here are some links you might find useful...

www.cartft.com
www.cdt.com.au
www.epro-itx.com

Car pc is great. I used a cracked screen laptop in my festiva. 15" LCD I mounted in the dash area was a bit big, but looked awesome.

I used a Microsoft wireless desktop mouse and keyboard. The receiver was on the steering wheel column which looked wicked, and the mouse I kept in my door pocket, and keyboard usually just on the back seat, or floor.

Thanks for the reply,

with the laptop i was using it to gauge the size of the screen i was thinking of (i think most car pc screens are 7 inch ones, it looked almost too small for any practical use.

just thinking a program like media center or itunes or something might not be the most practical to control whilst driving.

propper sized PC isn't a problem, i wouldn't invest this kinda money in a laptop someone else designed when i can put the parts i want in.

also, thinking about the steering wheel controls, they would be more than most likely useless with an aftermarket stereo or pc anyway, so i would need something different if i wanted to use the steering wheel for controlling the music.

any more ideas would be great.

Knighty.

Alpine have great (most people rate it as the best) iPod control and also with the use of an external interface (which are easy to come by) you can use your steering wheel controls too!

Check out the alpine website for the models that allow this.

Hope this helps

You should check out a program called "Centrafuse" - just Google it and find the website. You can download a beta version on to your PC and check it out. It's quite simple and easy to use.



Sure, you wouldn't be able to change tracks with the steering wheel remote controls, but you would still be able to control the volume. At least, you should be able to....

Just some more to think about I guess

Do you only want to play music?? If so, probably the iPod control/integration with the Alpine h/u would be the way to go.

hi mate,
i would go with centrafuse for the front end software as it is easy to navigate through songs and you have and you can also make use of the gps, phone control and obdII diagnosics.
For the computer you can get mini itx motherboards that are compact and will fit nicely in the boot. I use the VIA SP13000 motherboard in my commodore VR and it is neatly tucked away in the right side of the boot. by using the small form-factor motherboard i can save precious boot space and managed to fit 2x 12" subs and 2 rockford power amps. there are heaps of new mini itx motherboards on the market at the moment so have a look around.
as for the steering wheel controls, there is ways to connect the steering wheel controls to a pc with a fusion brain or something simialar check out http://www.fusioncontrolcentre.com/FusionS...talog/index.php and http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/documentat...l-controls.html .
cheers
jacob