Need help and advice with power... :)

**Supra Steve** · 11-13-2006, 10:44 PM

Hey guys, been lurking around the forums for a while now, trying to get my head around all the vast amounts of info here.

Basically I'm planning to whack a carputer in my 94rz supra.
I'm a network admin, so the PC end of it all is easy as pie.
But when it comes to car power and psu's i'm a total novice

. So I suppose my question is about the power for the PC... I'd really like to know exactly what parts I need as far as powering my PC and monitor goes.
The PC is an old p3 933mhz with 512m sd ram. Standard IDE hdd with a few USB ports. So pretty low power requirement.
I ran a power calculator thing and it said I needed about 144 watts?
Same with the touch screen LCD (yet to order)... That just hooks straight up to the battery yeah?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Steve.

**DarquePervert** · 11-14-2006, 05:50 AM

Originally Posted by Supra Steve

Hey guys, been lurking around the forums for a while now, trying to get my head around all the vast amounts of info here.

Basically I'm planning to whack a carputer in my 94rz supra.
I'm a network admin, so the PC end of it all is easy as pie.
But when it comes to car power and psu's i'm a total novice

. So I suppose my question is about the power for the PC... I'd really like to know exactly what parts I need as far as powering my PC and monitor goes.
The PC is an old p3 933mhz with 512m sd ram. Standard IDE hdd with a few USB ports. So pretty low power requirement.

Use this to get accuracte CPU power draw: FAQ: Will <insert PSU model> Power Supply work with my system?
It will also give you the output on all three rails of the PSU to allow you to make smart a PSU choice.

Run your setup through multiple power calculators and take an average. None of them are very accurate.

I ran a power calculator thing and it said I needed about 144 watts?
Same with the touch screen LCD (yet to order)... That just hooks straight up to the battery yeah?

POssibly. A Lilliput will have an egg-shaped regulator. If you use that, you can wire directly to the battery. Also, Xenarcs have an internal regulator, so they can be wired directly to the battery.
There are other models of screens, but I can't say whether you can run them straight from the battery or not.

**Supra Steve** · 11-14-2006, 07:37 PM

Awesome, thanks very much for the info and link DP.
So my CPU max power diss is about 28w, so the opus solutions 120w PSU would provide more than enough power for the CPU with 42w - leaving 14w spare?

Does that come with everything I need to get run my PC from my car?
Or are there other components needed (handy or otherwise), like a regulator or something?
I've read through quite a few different peoples projects and they all seem to do it differently, with different equipment and stuff...So i kind of get a little lost.
As i said, i really have NFI when it comes to car power and electronics...

As always, your input is greatly appreciated.