im really interest in making a carpc, but dont know where to start

 

Yup

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/

Just don't buy anything from their store. If you get tempted email me and I'll explain how much they suck.

 

Thats a great site.... Rotary Rasp can help you out since he built a carpc as well..

 

mp3car.com is a good resource for info. I can't comment on the store since I haven't used them. http://www.mini-itx.com has a store, but you can find better prices. Just run a google on "mini-itx" and you should find quite a number of sites. A few are also mentioned in various threads on mp3car.com.

 

BTW... with the advent of the Vroom carpc case, you can pull off the audio amp look like Rotary Rasp, but possibly even cleaner looking.

Be sure to check out the site that truemagellen mentioned in his thread. It's a M-bus to carpc adapter. It works with the P.I.E. adpater to not only give you AUX input to the stock HU, but also allow you to use the steering controls and HU controls to control your carpc.

 

you could check out my site. I don't think you'll find a complete DIY because of these reasons:

too hard to do for most people
too hard to explain
too much work
few people even want a carputer according to the mods on this site

I think the closest thing you'll find to a DIY is my site

www.trickrx8.com

PM me with any questions, I'll try my best to help.

and like others said, don't buy from mp3car.com....took them 3 weeks to refund my money.

 

https://www.rx8club.com/suggestions-archive-212/audio-carputer-sub-forum-70621/

 

thanks buddy !

 

Yea, Rotary has been very helpful in my planning for mine, which I have already started buying parts for....right now Im at a tossup do I buy new golf clubs or finish the carpc..

 

Thats a no brainer dude!

 

about how much did it cost u guys to do ur carpc? I was looking into it, but couldnt figure out about how much it would set me back...

 

It depends on where you get your stuff and how fancy you want it. Mine right now with the screen is going to cost between 800-1000(overestimate)

I know Rasp was a little higher because he swapped out some components..

The nice part about it is that you can you buy the pieces as you have the money, and for me it gives me a chance to bond with my car :p ...


Rasp: Yes I know its a no brainer....I apologize for the weak moment.

 

Yeah, it depends on what features you want. I'd say the least you'll spend is 700 bucks. My total is around 1200-1300, mainly because I bought replacement parts for anything that I had to distroy in the process, like my dash. This way if I ever sell the car, I can return it to factory looking.

 

In my 5th post I broke down the prices.
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-interior-audio-electronics-24/carputer-installed-60392/

I've added a few things since then, such as the OBD scanner.

 

Hey RR...how did you get XP embedded? It's pretty much the only route I'd go for an OS... although it looks like I'm going to be putting the CarPC project on hold since I'm moving to China in March for six months...

Dynasty

 

I did a carputer in my FC.... easy as all getup... I bought my screen thru the mp3car.com store with excellent service and prices were good as anywhere. If I end up getting and RX8 I would like to put a carputer in there too.

 

Things must have changed as of 6 months ago at mp3car.com's store cause they not only jack up the prices but have terrible custmer support. Still waiting for my refund mp3car.com!!!! I didn't mind paying a premium price for premium service which is why I choose them in the first place. Not only did I over pay $100 for my combined purchases but add +$70 in shipping in order to get a non defective product ( one was a manufacturer defect the other was an extremely poor packing job resulting in a cracked screen ) and I'm still waiting over 3 months later for my refund for shipping the final working screen to me. In the process I lost my installer as he had to go back to chicago which left me to do the finishing touches on the dash along with getting it vynled. I discused all this with them before making my first purchase from them and they said it wouldn't be a problem. The company is a joke! *end rant* lol

Between screwing me and rotory rasp they lost way more bussiness then it was worth. All we can do is warn you and hope you listen.

 

I got Windows XPE from work. I would not recommend using it unless you are savy with computers. It can be pretty hard to build a working image of XPE.

If you think you are up to the task, you can download a trial copy from Microsofts website. If done correctly, the things you can do are insane. Boot in seconds, virus proof OS, faster than solid state memory, very secure, rock solid performace.....and so on.


P.S. mp3store sent me a bad M1 psu, I had to buy another from them because they would not ship a new one until the got the bad one back. It took them 3 weeks to refund the money from the first unit...they never refunded the shipping.

 

guess I got lucky, I'd go back to em when I get my RX8... sigh built one up on mazdausa.com the other day... but gonna have to wait a year.

 

If you check mp3car.com you can find ways to setup WinXP Professional almost as well a XPe. There is third party software to trim down the size of XP, instructions on using a couple files from XPe to improve boot times and protect the file system/OS for use on CF (compact flash) cards and much much more.