Originally Posted by sqkev

well, here's my honest opinion regarding laptop and gps (I used it as a testbed for my project for a month)

loading time- it'll be at least 2-3 minutes before you could actually use the gps program. (imagine having to stop to fill up gas and then driving away) Consider that you have to buy a converter for the laptop too.

screen will be washed out @ certain angles during daylight, there's no way around it using a laptop.

how will you tightly secure your laptop to a position where you can actually view the map?

few things you need to think about if you're going with the laptop gps route. If you only need the gps, just buy a small portable gps with voice guidance. It'll be cheaper than the laptop route.