Car Hardware

This is the Hardware that I needed to make the PC work inside the car.  Each piece is important.  This is probably where the bulk of the money was spent, and it really didn't cost that much.  

Power Inverter- Prestone Jump It! 300 Watt DC to AC Power Inverter
This bad boy cost me like $45 at WalMart.  I don't know if they still carry it, I couldn't find it on their web page to make a link to it.  I'm pretty sure I've seen it there since then.  It seems stupid to turn the DC from your car back into AC so your computer can turn it into DC again but I wasn't about to attempt hooking my car straight up to the PC.  This way was way easier and for my $45 it was definitely worth it.  

Ground Loop Isolater- As a result of all the current switching we're doing, there's some noise that comes through the speakers because the Power Inverter and the PC don't have the common ground.  One of the things that can be done to minimize this noise is use a Ground Loop Isolater.  You should also try to ground the power supply on the PC to the body of the car.  I bought mine from Radio Shack for like $20.  You can buy them at Radio Shack's web page for like $15.

Head Unit- Aiwa CT-X 409
I decided I needed a new Head Unit because my old CD player didn't have any way to get the tunes from the PC to the Car.  The cheapest way to go was a tape deck.   This one looked pretty good, so I got it for like $100 from Best Buy.  It has an Auxiliary Input 1/8" jack right on the front.  That's helpful for when you want to plug in a portable CD player or something like an MpTrip. 

Evation IRman- I needed a way to control the PC at least a little bit, obviously.  I asked some people about the Irman and it seemed like it'd do everything I wanted.  Low and behold, it did!  It catches the Infrared signals from almost any universal remote.  I bought a new RCA glow in the dark one and it works great!