Recently, I've had a few questions come my way about putting PC's in vehicles. Funny, because I've been working at doing this on my own vehicle for going on 10 years now... And by working on, I mean being lazy and never working on.
BUT, I have helped some people local to me put theirs in, and have a decent knowledge on the topics of computers, audio, and automotive, and even some electrical. The hobby has been steadily growing for quite a few years now, and some of the items are getting close to becoming mainstream items. IMO, it's not too far off where consumer vehicles will have TS LCD's and either a Microsoft or Apple mobile OS, and have all the bells-and-whistles for internet, GPS, music, porn, etc...
For a TON of reading on the topic, MP3car.com has some great threads and great information, but you have dig... A MUCH different atmosphere than this site though! I will probably include links to some of the better articles/wiki's on different topics, later.
Anyway, there are MANY options for nearly every aspect of this project, and I'm not even going to attempt to go into detail on every topic, or explore every route! But here's a simple guide for the basics...
Index:-Buying a Package Unit
-Building a CarPC (TruckPC)
-Connecting to Vehicle's Sound System
-Links
Links:-MP3car: "Car Computing 101" - Why we do it
-MP3car: "CarPC intro" - Basically, the pretty wiki version of this thread on another site
-MP3car: "High-End Solutions" - SQ-Based forum on the topic of CarPC's
-MP3car: "Audio Tuning via Software" - Using your PC to EQ, TA, crossover, etc.
-Wikipedia: "Audio File Formats" - Very basic definitions of different file formats
FSC Builds:MattMan24's: Coming Soon... Hopefully, or else!
TonkaDawg's: FSC; MP3car
thekl0wn's: FSC
Vendors:-MP3car Store
-NewEgg
-Tiger Direct
If there is any information you would like to see added, or have questions about, or would like a further definition, please just let me know! 