Well i have ditched the (crap) idea of using my laptop to run the carputer system in the WRX. After realising it didnt give me the flexibility i required... ive decided to piece together a mini-itx based system.
without going into precise details... it will run: GPS, DVD, MP3, DTV, PHONE, slideshows of build up etc. It needs to be able to power 5-6 USB devices and will be displayed on three 7 inch touchscreens. Sound will need to be optical digital between the motherboard and the HXD2 headunit. and will need VGA as well as RCA video output as the RCA signal will be sent remotely to the displayboard's 19 inch to display whats on the rest of the system.
Can anyone suggest what components would best suit my needs and where i could buy them from.

thanks all!

3 touch screens may be an issue. to me it seems a bit ridiculous, as you will three seperate controllers for the OS and that could get tricky. 1 t/s and 2 screens would make more sense.

You will most definately need to find a mobo with either an AGP or PCI-E graphics slot, as the video feeds you require will need more grunt than the onboard graphics chip would be able to handle. im not sure either, of how many mini itx mobo's come with an OEM RCA video output as well as VGA.

Also, either a PCI or USB soundcard will be a must, to serve the audio requirements you have put forth.

whats the budget on this? and what are the size constraints?

on board graphics would work fine but most likely wont have the outputs you need

to my knowledge the VIA mobos have VGA and RCA output.....
VGA will run to a distribution box to the front and rear screens and the RCA will run to a video sender which will relay the image to my display board.

Ive discussed the 3 touch screens with MP3car users and the general idea is it would work like three keyboards. to my knowledge the touch sensor inside the screen sends the information of the location the mouse pointer is to go, regardless of its previous position.

PCI or USB soundcard: providing i can use optical digital connection to the HXD2 thats what ide need (does it matter which one i use?)

Please close.... components selected

3 touch screen will work fine, will be like having several mice plugged into the PC (thats fun). Since I assume your doing clones it will be easy. When you start running dual touch screens displaying seperate screens you may run into issues, but I'm not 100% sure.

Do all the touch screens you have use the same software and contain the same hardware?

Let us know how you go cause I am very interested to see how this works out.

finished most of broadz carpc software wise today.

the 3 touch screens work nicely with each other. i downloaded lilliput drivers for the front, as he wasnt too fussed if the rear touch panels didnt work this time round, and it detected all 3 screens as touch screens using just the lilliput software. i tested all 3, they all work properly, using a clone screen setup(vga out goes to a splitter box for the screens).

theres still a few niggly bits with some things, more everything functioning in harmony than anything, for instance, winamp wants to pop up over roadrunner on first run, clicking on roadrunner hides winamp, but i have to make winamp always hidden. i did it on mine, but it didnt want to play the game on this one today. i will sort out after autosalon, but overall, happy with the setup so far.

also as a note, whilst installing the drivers, there was the option for "multiple monitor" support, i enabled this, and in the settings, theres a tab dedicated to multiple monitors, which i will look at later on, in my carpc, just to see how it works.

Nicely done mate

Good to see that you finally pulled for fingure out

Onlt 3 touch screens... pfft!!! LOL

haha, i was waiting for alex to drop the car around to finish it off, since i didnt have access to the screens while i installed everything first time round.

Thanks Troy for setting it up!

All works good, apart from a few niggly bits and pieces which will have to be sorted after autosalon.

Lets see how it goes at autosalon

Picsorban!

Nah serious, i want pics

edit: Of all 3

How was the following implemented?

doubble post

tripple post

^^^^^ as above how did you implement the sound?

Cheers, Grant