Well, after struggling, succeeding, and deciding that my carputer would be worth more to me as cash than in my trunk, I am here. I have for sale 1 Dell Inspiron 8200 Laptop. It has a 1.6 Ghz P4, 256 MB of Ram, a 30 GB HDD, a Firewire port, a DVD Drive, a 15" XGA screen, and a built in LAN controller.
This is perfect for a carputer for a few reasons. First, Radioshack sells a universal power adaptor for laptops for 60 bucks which will easily power thie laptop (cut the cig lighter and hardwire it, thats what i did). Secondly, you can set the power options to hibernate or shut down after 5 minutes off AC power, wire a relay in the power line that is triggered off the ignition, and you have an instant shutdown controller.
There are 2 small problems with the laptop, neither of which should affect its use as a carputer: The built in touchpad and onboard speakers do not currently function. This may be a software problem or it may be a hardware problem, ive never tried to fix it becuase it was going into my car. I will throw a USB Dell Mouse in so you arent mousless on startup in case you dont have an extra sitting around.
I am asking $800 shipped OBO to the continetal US for the laptop. Please search the FS/Wanted forum for my username - i have had good feedback here before. (for example:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/classified-archive/26122-fs-dell-latitude-laptop-perfect-carputer.html)
I accept paypal, email me or PM with questions. If you want it , make me an offer.