From MP3Car.com Wiki
The computer parts you choose to use are the heart of your whole system. These will affect the stability, user experience, features, and budget.
Note that in this step, we'll only delve into the hardware part of the main system - which means, all that is in the box of your normal computer. That does not include a screen, or user interfacing (i.e. keyboards etc).
[edit] Features
Call it whatever you want, but I prefer to start from what you, the user of this system, wants out of it. After you've decided on what you want, you may then consider how powerful a computer you'll need under the... well, guess not the hood in this case :) I've copied over the list from the main page, and added some comments / issues of the features presented.
| Music | Play music from CDs, hard drive (MP3s, other compressed files) or external device |(USB/PCI FM radio receiver, etc) | Note that to do so, you'll need a CD and maybe some ports (USB), |interface to be somewhere accessible. If you are only interested in hard drive playback ( or mostly |), you can avoid this.
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| Video | Play video from DVDs, VCDs or from the hard drive | As above, for playing |video from any kind of disk, you'll have to have an interface somewhere accessible.
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| GPS | Provide location tracking, route planning/navigation, etc. | You'll need either a |USB or Serial port for a GPS receiver.
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| Cell Phone Control | Hands free cell phone control via software with Bluetooth |You'll need a USB port for a Bluetooth adapter.
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| On-Board Diagnostics | Connect with your cars OBD-II, J-1850, CAN, i-Bus, or Consult interface and display real-time data on all diagnostic information available. (RPM/Temps/Speedo/etc.) | This will take some serious tampering to your cars wires. Not for the feign hearted. Also, this will require software you'll have to buy ( haven't found any open source solutions yet ).
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| Video Games / Emulators | Play video games | Video games always were, and always be, the most system intensive task. This means that you'll need much stronger computer parts in order to play modern games.
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| Cameras | |You'll probably need some USB ports for the camera(s) you intent to use. Note that a good use of the computer in my experience, is to off-load your still cameras when their memory cards are filling up.
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| Vehicle Control | Control windows,locks, climate control. | Again, this goes to the cars internal cabling, beware.
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[edit] Round them up
