In car pc

[raceway99]

hi,

not sure if this is the right place to post this but oh well. im looking into getting a small laptop/netbook for my car instead of a traditional head unit. But ive got a couple of questions about it:

is it possible to run a laptop off of the cigarette lighter?

ive seen some usb touch screens on ebay which are advertised for the eee pc. do they only work on this or would they work on any computer?

im only going to use it for google maps, music and maybe some dvds. what is the minimum spec that would do this? ive seen a cheap laptop for sale but its only got a 400mhz pentium 2?

theres probably some other questions that ive forgotten, will post them up if i remember

thanks for any help,
raceway99

 

[frozenlead]

Excellent idea.

It's possible to run a notebook off of a standard 12v cigarette lighter, but you need one of two things first: (a) a special-made car adapter for your notebook (few manufacturers sell them) or (b) a DC/AC power inverter (your local auto parts store or meijer will sell these).

I don't know anything about the particular piece of equipment you're speaking, but if the screen is indeed USB, it should work with any USB port, whether it be on an eeePC or not.

Using it for google maps brings up a problem - google maps requires an active internet connection! You're going to need some sort of mobile broadband access card for that to work.

A Pentium II is not strong enough to play DVDs satisfactorily and still have a usable computer. You should at least be gunning for a PIII, but I suggest more.

 

[raceway99]

Using it for google maps brings up a problem - google maps requires an active internet connection! You're going to need some sort of mobile broadband access card for that to work.

Yeah im gonna buy a 3g usb dongle (would this require a more powerful processor?)

A Pentium II is not strong enough to play DVDs satisfactorily and still have a usable computer. You should at least be gunning for a PIII, but I suggest more.

As for DVDs im still not 100% sure I would actually watch any (maybe in traffic jams?) and if I did the computer wouldnt need to be usable (except for play, pause buttons). so if i decided against DVDs would the p2 be quick enough? also how would the intel atom fare, and im guessing that the gpu isnt really very important.

thanks for your help
raceway99

 

[frozenlead]

The 3G card shouldn't require a significant amount of processing power.

The Pentium II should be fast enough to play music and use google maps (though not at the same time, likely)

It's difficult to say how the Atom compares to a conventional desktop CPU since they're such wildly different platforms - but my guess is a single core Atom should perform like a Pentium III or a low-clocked IV.

And, yes, unless your gaming, the GPU will only serve you to waste power. Unless, of course, you want to use a complex visualizer (like Winamp's MilkDrop).

 

[raceway99]

firstly a big thank you to frozenlead

milkdrop looks pretty cool but it would probably just distract me while driving

if/when i get round to this i'll make a thread in the homebuilds section, would be more interesting then the usual gaming boxes.

again cheers for your help
raceway99