Laptop as Car PC / MP3 Player

[Borisw37]

For a while I have wanted to put a PC in my car. It seems to be becoming more and more popular and there are plenty of car-pc products out there. The only problem is the cost. I dont want to spend $150 on a 8" lcd screen thats "made for the car" when I can get a 19" monitor for the same price.
So here is an idea. Why not just use a laptop.
My actual question is:
Can a laptop screen be removed, put into a separate enclosure with longer wires and work fine?
If that can be done, I can just buy a cheap slow laptop w/ low power consumption. Hook up a 100gig USB2 external HDD and have ALL my mp3s on the road at 1/2 the coast of a car-pc. A USB keyboard can also be used so that the laptop itself can be located under a seat, or in the trunk...

What do you guys think?

Boris.

[Richie P]

Interesting idea...the one problem i can see to it is the connector(s) between the laptop screen and the base (motherboard). It's not a standard connector and there wont be an 'extension' available - you'd have to come up with a way of extending the wires.

Would be interested to hear more about this tho...you've got me thinking :)

[Borisw37]

From a couple websites it seems that its just a ~20wire cable. It shouldn't be too big of a problem to cut and lengthen them. As long as solder joints and longer wires (coupled with electronic engine noise in the car) do not create interference, shielding should help there.

http://www.lcds4less.com/images/Removal-14.jpg
http://www.screentekinc.com/photos/rm-en-compaq-step6b-huge.jpg

[Richie P]

Yeah i know about the wire, it's just like you said, i don't know if it would degrade the picture quality or introduce inteference etc...

/Off Topic
I'm currently in the process of modding a laptop panel for use as a standard pc monitor.

[Fluxburn]

my laptop has a vga output, can't you just get a vga to rgb converter to hook into the red yellow white tv?