in car pc

[Zadock]

Morning all,

I recently came across these folks more specifically I saw their stand at the motorshow, saw them listed and though "hmm could be interesting" so I hunted them down, and found their (tiny) stand.

Two young blokes in control, so I started to quiz them about their product... they knew nothing! they couldn't even tell me what was in the box they provided (specs). "its just a full spec pc in a small box"... "so its a micro atx motherboard in there then?" "a what?"

I went to suggest that perhaps the atom would be a good candidate for their product, again the answer was "a what"?

At this point I thought "god they know less about computers than my gran does", and they clearly aren't passionate about their product so I began to challenge them to see what they would say.

Having told me that the unit cost £1300! asked them what the point of having one was when you can't use it whilst your travelling, its dangerous, so you may aswell spend £150 on a umpc which you could use off the 12v socket when stopped... "well it has sat nav, MP3 and bluetooth", yes! so does my Garmin and it cost £120 (£270 total now)... "oh oh, err you can watch DVDs", to which my response was £100 (£370ish total for everything that the in car pc does) for an in car set from Argos... silence (except for my friend next to me who by this point was in hysterics).

they really didn't defend it very well!

Anyone else check out their stand?

I really can't see the point in the system at that price, and it must be one hell of a battery drain...

opinions?

[Funkstar]

You got a link?

KustomPCs do loads of CarPC stuff:
http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/CarPC_Shop.html

No, it doesn't make economic sense to install a carpc, but people do it simply because they want to, it also makes for a very nice clean install of all that gear.

It relly is a shame everything is so expensive in this market though.

[kopite]

I have been wanting one for a few years now

Its like a lot of gadgetty things as its not needed but its fun to own.

You can link it into your mobile and then ring from the carpc, using it for router planning, have ur whole music collection on it and do stuff like that Also if ya wanna be really geeky ya can get a webcam hooked up at the back of the car and run it through so ya can use it as aparking detector

[MaddAussie]

Ive just got a shiny new smart phone (XDA Orbit 2) and a bluetooth sony car stereo I think I'm pretty sorted tbh

[Zadock]

Think it was these guys: http://www.in-carpc.co.uk/

the least encouraging thing was that they didn't know their product inside out, doesn't really bode well with me.

I'll check my programme and make sure, but that looks right.

I seem to remember that custom pc (or was it pc format?) magazine did a feature where they built one themselves on a budget and fitted it to a camper van.

Another thing is; having a PC in you car, bolted in, that has internet acces is a major security hazard what with the liklihood for personal data etc.