Thread: Rio RS Build Using Acer Aspire Netbook

I've read through the FAQs and I think I have an idea of what is needed/required.. but I'd like some feedback as to how feasible this.


I am purchasing a Kia Rio RS from a coworker sometime in the next few months and I have an extensive music collection. However, in terms of cars themselves I'm pretty uneducated. My cousin, who is a gearhead, would be helping me with the technical stuff while I'm pretty proficient in computers and networking.


The basic is this:

An Acer Aspire One (D250) mounted in the truck (either hardmounted or via docking port), running music to the car audio to a front mounted touchscreen controller. The main features I am looking for is an easily-controlled dash interface, wifi from the PC to sync music from my home network (preferably automatically), and capacity to carry high amounts of music.

I picked the netbook because storage is high (160GB), the processor is relatively fast (1.33Ghz / 1GB DDR2 RAM) and power consumption is low as it uses the new Intel Atom processor. The package is very small, since it has it's own 10.1" screen, and a VGA out port, 3 USB ports, and an SD card reader. It already comes pre-loaded with windows XP home as well. The video/sound quality isn't massive as it's all embedded but since video playback and gaming are not on my high priority list, this is a non-issue. An external sound card could possibly be used if that is required.

I plan to use an Opus DC-DC PSU to handle the power for the unit as well as to prevent a full discharge of the car battery.

So the real questions I have are:
>How to hard-wire startup of the netbook, so as turning on my car causes it come out of hibernation (in the case of a hardmount)?

>In this situation, do I need to keep the current headunit in place? Or would simply replacing it by the touchscreen display work better?

>What front end unit would work best for a simple setup like this? I've read some good reviews of Frodoplayer and RoadRunner but I really don't understand the differences verywell.