Cheapest Car Computer

I have just completed a trip using a new Mac Mini as the car computer. The Mac Mini cost $850 with education discount (2 GB ram upgrade was extra). It contains an Intel Core Duo 1.66 GHz and runs Windows XP Pro as well as Mac OS. Why do you need Windows you might ask. Sadly OziExplorer only runs on Windows. I used Parallels to run Windows inside Mac OS but you could use Bootcamp.

I used a cheap USB GPS mounted inside the funny glass window at the back of the Disco (I knew there had to be a use for these windows). It was mounted on a bracket that also held the Satphone and Tom Tom external antennas. I used a Belkin FM transmitter to feed sound through the car radio. I lashed out and bought a 500 W sine wave inverter to run the computer, the Bigpond Next G modem and all other chargers, but the system ran OK with the cheaper 300 W modified SW inverter.

The monitor was mounted on the roof console abaft the cabin light and folded up when not needed. The image was inverted by Mac OS.

A really cool thing to do is run Google Earth Plus or Google Maps with real time GPS feed (only works where there is CDMA coverage).