A Carputer, is a general term referring to a computing platform installed in a vehicle. Before 2006, no OEM or major aftermarket supplier offered or supported carputer installations, limiting the installed base to the hobbyist, enthusiast and custom car shops. The term generally refers to personal computers retrofittedfor a certain production model of a car.

Home made Carputer machines are most often built from average desktop components, most noteably utilizing the more Indutrial base form factors such as mini-itx and nano-itx. To show how technology has grown, the firs aftermarket Carputer systems involved two main components: a monitor in the dashboard and a PC in the trunk. Very “clunky” by todays standards nut now there are all-in-one systems that can directly replace the factory radio in a car, without any separate components.

Topology (How it hooks up to your Vehicle)

The “CarPC” or “Carputer” consists of the motherboard, processor, memory and data storage solution. This can either be a hard drive or a SSD. If a hardrive is used, care must be taken to provide protection from any vibration. For this reason notebook hardrives should be used because of their “air bag” systems.