Aight this would be a "newbie" install of a comp in the car. so first let me begin by saying what most people end up saying... this is something I been wanting to do for a very very long time. Knight Rider inspired me while I was younger, then came my usb gps reciever I got for my laptop since I loved travelling.. thats when i started thinking.. hey why can't I install a computer inside the car... did some google searching and eventually found out people actually did do it. Thats when I found mp3car.com, WOW what a site and wow some smart people on here. so Time went on blah blah blah and I started to get more involved into and started purchasing parts.. everyones story is generally the same more or less so I'll just jump to main stuff
the car
the car being used is my trusty 1997 Nissan Maxima. It's 5-spd, and 5 spd with 6 cyl. is an awesome combination. lol I drove it a lot so I have about 204,000 miles on it right now, but i swear anyone take a drive and you'll think it has well below that. It's amazing how it still drives strong and clean. I've always used synthetic oil and most the time use premium gas and to save that extra buck I do as much as I can on my own instead of going to the mechanic. I baby this car like crazy which is probably why its still in great running condition and great shape. the car itself is pebble beige and I have nice ray-ban tints that go pretty good with the car, kind of cuts down my cell phone and gps signals tho.
the system
for the computer here's what I have along with prices as of now:
Jetway 615DF mini-itx motherboard w/1.2 GHZ celeron...
2 x 256 mb= 512mb sdram sticks...
20GB 2.5" hard drive (for windows and programs)...
80GB 3.5" hard drive (for media)...
lilliput 629gl 7" touchscreen...
m2-atx power (I assume this is good enough)...
belkin vga extension cable...
10awg wire... found in house
audio fed through my alpine head unit
netgear wireless usb adapter:
So far so good, saved some money I think. I bought the stuff slowly over time so it didnt feel like I spent much really. most of the money I saved up over about 1.5 to 2 years so it literally felt like I didnt spend money. the free stuff is because I used to sell hard drives and ram on ebay and after I made a decent profit I kept those drives and memory. not sure if the 3.5 is going to juice out too much from the battery but if it does I'll eventually change that to two 2.5" 40 gigs. the lilliput I got a good deal on at the time I bought it because they were all going for much more before, not sure how much theyre going for now but back a few months ago I kept an eye open at this one seller that was selling a few each week for a lot lower then his normal prices and I missed the sale he did for 179.99 plus 10 shipping and this was the second best I could find. m2-atx I wish it didnt cost so much but I guess itll be worth it if it works properly. And the extension cable for vga I picked up at some wholesale store while visiting my brother in boston. so what do you guys think? good spending so far? Oh and I wont have an optical drive yet, if at all. I guess I'll think about it some more.
After months I'm finally starting my install and so far I have the screen mounted with the help of my dad last week. It was a nice feeling having him help me, originally I wasnt going to ask and instead he ended up volunteering to help and he got out the dremel and other stuff and we did a simple mount right into the dash.
the case I got done during the week in between my homework and studying. Originally I was going to use acrylic but found some nice aluminum sheets at home depot. each piece was around 6 bucks and is 1ft by 1ft. I got 3 of these sheets and it turned out ok I guess.
I'll have pictures up soon for whats done so far, right now I'm tired out and ready to hit the bed.
any suggestions, comments, or warnings will be greatly appreciated! 
Also I'm curious what people think of the 3.5" drive and 1.2 ghz processor as far as the m2-atx is concerned. From what I see on the forums, it seems to be an ok setup to run on a m2-atx. If no one has a comment I'll do a test setup that way and let everyone know.