computer heat concerns...

im planning on putting a fullsized computer inside my car, a desktop in the trunk, 15" touchscreen LCD on the dash, mainly just somthing can do alot of wardriving with.... anyway, its obvious the inside of a car can reach temperatures of 120 degrees, in the daytime, should i be concerned about my parts being in this kind of heat when the car isnt in use? (i plan on making it water cooled so i dont expect problems when its running...) but when the computer is off should i be worried about the parts being damaged by the heat? if not is there a way that i can cool the parts when the car is off?

May I suggest using a recording thermometer and get some temperature readings.

150F is a lot closer than 120F. Depending on the paint color.

The temps shouldn't be an issue while the comonents are switched off, especially for the components in the trunk, where it's only the air temp that you have to worry about and not radiated heat from direct sunlight. You'll need to carefully choose a suitable LCD screen that's suitable for in-car use though, as LCD's generally don't like excessive heat or cold.

Also, you are going to have to very carefully mount the hard drive to damp out the shocks of driving over bumps in the road or you'll be getting constant head crashes. And, indeed, you're liable to get problems with things like the graphics card and any PCI cards working their way out of the slots for the same reason. Personally I think you'd be better off using a laptop.

The testing was done in Fitchburg, Mass. Seem the heat was killing kids and pets left in cars. 1977 was the year.