Homemade "carputer" power supply?

[zachj]

On the alternator front, even if it's not powerful enough, you can go to any car stereo place and pick up one that would probably power your whole house, so don't fret about that.

If the power supply is a standardized size (ATX) and the case is, then it HAS to fit, or it's false advertising.

If it's a QUALITY power supply, it should power a P4, although I highly doubt you need 2GHz in there. If you can get your hands on a mobile P4, then you're on the right track (lower power consumption).

Z

EDIT*** I looked at the case. It's an ITX case, it says, although I don't believe that. If it's not ITX, then it's MATX. Either way, the PSU that comes in it is a 150W unit, so 250W is definitely more. However, there are no specs for the PSU it comes with, so I can only assume that it offers high amps on each of the voltage lines. The PSU you linked to is weak in all areas when it comes to amps, at least compared to regular desktop units. I don't think you're going to be able to use an AGP card, certainly not a high powered P4.

And the measurements of the PSU you linked to are "(W x H x D )
150 x 86 x 142 mm/ 5 7/8"x3 3/8"x5 1/2" ", so find the specs of a normal ITX or MATX PSU, and compare. You can find them on Newegg.

Z

 

[n17ikh]

Coolness but can a standard ATX power supply fit into a mini ITX case?

 

[eksine]

I have no patience to read every post here but n17ikh your approach is wrong. they have DC to DC power supplies I.E. theres a website, I think it's called mini-box.com or something like that. get the m-series dc dc power supplies. they are made to work even when the engine is being cranked and not destroy your computer due to overvoltage. they are around $80. do not get the m3, the micro sized one, they have big failure rates. get the m2 series it looks like a pci board, but they will fit in a mini-itx box. generally carputers have gone mini-itx in the past but nowadays people use micro-atx form factor.


just build it all into a larger box, maybe made of wood or plastic so you have extra empty space in your backpack for cooling and cutholes in the box thru the backpack to mount 2 opposing case fans at say .5 amp range or less, not sure you would need to test airflow. use a kill-a-watt Direct current version to make sure you dont consume too much total power. and use SLA sealed lead acid battery, as heavy as you can handle. 32 amp hours isn't too ridiculous if u can take the load (25 lbs?) maybe attach a small 15-40 watt solar panel to the outside of the pack too with a charge controller?

 

[pcgamer4life]

I saw this topic and thought 'holy crap, people are still building carputers?'

Then I realized it was ten years old.