If it were me, I woulda look for a windows tablet powdered by nvidias tegra 2 and install it into the dash. You can get one with wifi, hdmi, bluetooth, etc. And the tegra 2 can handle 1080p smoothly. The other advantage here is that you'll end up with a device with a touchscreen optimized to work with it - a capacitive screen rather than resistive. You can also bluetooth a keyboard up to it. I don't see why it wouldn't do anything you need it to do.

 

ROFLMAO

 

You want to stay away from Tablets or mini notebooks(netbooks) as they are not going to be capable of doing what you want plus for the money you can build a much more solid based, faster proccesing and more durable "tower" if you will because that is essentially what you are going to want/need...lol.

I think you'll find difficulty running both HDMI and VGA off the same source. The I/O(input/output) needs to be programmed to send communication through the line and having 2 different I/O's will seperate the data and give you essentially nothing. Now, you might beable to find a descent monitor that has a VGA output to run additional screens, but that's pretty much it. I'll have to look into that a little more for ya.
Becareful when your buying the Terabyte HDD's as most of them run slower than the 500 or 750gb HDD's. You might drop some extra coin to get a 7200rpm or even 10krpm 1TB HDD but it'll be well worth it. I think most are slower at 5200?? The standard 500gb HD's run at 7200rpms.
If you want fast, skip the Dualcore and shoot for a Quadcore or else get a 2.6ghz or better Dualcore. I'm not sure what the fastest and cheapest processor you can run on a Mini ITX compared to a Micro ATX board but one of those is the size you want. If you have the room, say under your seat, I'd go with the Micro ATX because they are a bit larger, have more options and you'll be better off doing what you want with it. i think thier max is right about 8gb for Ram and most of their FSB speed is very good plus the M/ATX can support much better video and sound cards, but more so the video card is what you need to work around.
You'll need an inverter powerful enough to support 200+watt continuous power supply with ease. You cannot short change it or you'll have operating issue's. Ofcourse the powersupply will depend on the CPU and video cards used...
The GPS reciever can be had for like $25 or around there. I'll poke around and see if I can't find a link for ya.
One thing you'll want to do it delay the acessory turn-on and program things so that you can access the main frame such as FM and CD sources rather quick, otherwise you'll need to wait the standard 3-5min boot-up time each time you get in. You'll also need to do something about the turn off...say, when you turn the key off, the cpu automatically begins it's shutdown procedure because you don't want to just kill the power like a standard radio... I'll see if I can't dig that up as well because i know there was good info I came across regarding those issue's.
I'm a bit late for dinner and will post back with more info over the weekend to help you get going but I promise, I'll try not to cost ya too much...lol

 

Don't be so quick to discredit the new tablets of 2011.

http://www.slashgear.com/asus-eee-pa...dded-05106028/

With a data connection, HDMI, 500GB of cloud storage, bluetooth, and sd card expansion there can very well be a tablet coming out within the next few months that can suit his needs. The tablets will be touch-screen optimized and the Tegra 2 is a BEAST of a mobile chip. It can play 1080p fluidly, run modern 3D graphics - it's no slouch and you can have a lag-free experience.

The SDXC standard is also gaining more traction and we may see up to 1TB SDXC cards within the year. Would it be the cheapest solution? No. Would it be the sexiest? I think so.

 

 

Dualcore 1Ghz is not fast at all. Also, the soundcards that those things have is nothing fancy either. Laptops in general are ATLEAST 1yr behind desktops, not to mention the cost factor is double-triple the cost for not as much product.
Also, laptops, tablets..etc get very warm and being mounted to a dash with a hidden backside is not the best solution. Sure you can add fans etc, but they need breathing room or else they will fail. If you load them on a regular basis, they get very warm and heat is killer in the electronics world.
I'd rather see him build a tower which will be much cheaper and have more equiptment and better equipt than any tablet or laptop. The sound card alone is worth it's weight in gold especially since he has an aftermarket stereo. The tablet won't do a 5.1 surround or come even close to perfroming the quality that I would expect.

 

dont knock a tablet till u try it...

 

Don't need to try it. I'm a numbers guy and know what all of them mean. You can't cheat the numbers but you can cheat the experience...lmao

 

As far as I understand this is not discussion about computers. I think that everybody agree that desktop computers are better then all others because they are cheaper, more powerful, easy upgradable, etc. However I, for example, wouldn't use desktop in the cabin of my truck simply because there is no space. I don't know where to mount CB radio which 3 times smaller then the smallest desktop (I mean not very expensive). So there are actually only two options: laptop and tablet. Both of them have their cons and pros. I personally in favor of laptop because I don't want to mount computer permanently so I can take it off fast and easy. I also can add GPS card and have GPS navigation on the big screen. On the other hand, this year will be released some pretty good tablets like BlackBerry PlayBook. Their minus in the cabin is that it will require special mount. To summarize: each of us make its own choice. If you want and can mount desktop in your truck, do it!

 

There is plenty of space for a desktop. You don't put the entire case that you mount everything in in the cabin. You pull part the insides and mount them in the lowerer storage unit. Tada