Now I am getting a 12 volt fanless atom MB with a solid state drive that will be going in the truck but I have not decided on what OS to use.
Don't have a clue what that is Greg. Sounds expensive but I like the solid state drive part.
Well glad you asked. I didn't know how to approach it to explain what I have been up to. This is my second truck computer, the first was removed earlier this year when I went on a remodeling rampage.
I am starting with a simple mini computer mother board setup from
OEM productions. The cost is about $150 with shipping.
Then I am putting in as much memory as I can - cost is less than $100.
Then the solid state drive to run the OS is a Patriot 32gb solid state drive that I have been using for a bit. You can't get it anymore from Tigerdirect but you can get the
Patriot 64gb drive for about $200. They are faster than conventional drives and hold up to a lot of shock. If you have a newer laptop that takes SATA drives, you can replace your existing drive with this and do what I am doing ... I have another 2.5 inch conventional hard drive that I use for backup data and music that will go with me when I am out of the truck. It costs $125 with the external hard case and it plugs right in as a usb drive. When I get home, I hook it up to the home computer and back it up.
The monitor is a cheap LCD monitor that is now $65 at Best Buy. I have the mount for it so it can sit in the cab and I can easily put in the second monitor in the sleeper to watch movies.
The issue for me is this, what OS do I run. I won't get into that.
So this is isn't as bad as a laptop, seeing how people drop them (like me) all the time. I have an Acer that tumbled from a coffee table onto a carpeted floor and now have to replace the smashed screen. Too delicate.
Oh before I forget, if you have a laptop, you can run this system and use wifi to access it from say the truck stop.