Power supply for a canal/narrow boat PC ???

**Maverick** · 01-27-2005, 12:48 PM

After finnishing my car pc
Im now building a pc for a work mate who lives on a boat

i am bulding his old pc into a media pc
the spec is

p4 2ghz
512mb ram
1 x 200gb hd

and thats about it

what power supply would people recomend for this setup
i dont need remote start or any of the other fancy tricks
just a 12v input

any ideas

**mpattonm** · 01-27-2005, 01:08 PM

PW-200? With a little trick to add P4 connector..
http://linitx.com/product_info.php?products_id=502

**god_of_cpu** · 01-27-2005, 01:10 PM

I would just go with an inverter. It'll give you lots of power and be real cheap.

**mpattonm** · 01-27-2005, 01:13 PM

BTW is she living on a boat which does not have 220V power distribution network?

**Scouse Monkey** · 01-27-2005, 01:18 PM

Sorry, you need to go to mp3boat.com and ask over there!

I would just go inverter as god_of_cpu says. 400-500W would be enough. you can then buy a nice decent ATX PSU. Nice and cheap. Maybe get a more powerful ones as it is likely anything else added will run off mains adapters.

**pioneer** · 01-27-2005, 01:49 PM

yeah, inverter. he could also use it to power other things on the boat.

**Maverick** · 01-27-2005, 02:31 PM

i dont know that much about what he has on the boat
i know it has inverters to run mains equipment but i think he wants 12v stuff when he can so save on power i suppose

i know he has a 12v tft monitor so wants to have a 12v pc this is basically going to be a ott mp3 player

i did have a 250w power supply in it before with a cd/rw and 5 hard drives (dont ask) and it worked fine so i was thinking i would only need a 100 -150w psu
for just the board and 1 hdd

**Scouse Monkey** · 01-27-2005, 02:33 PM

What about one of those keypower or summit? don't they do a 200 or 250W ATX style 12V psu?

**Maverick** · 01-28-2005, 07:02 AM

just noticed its not a p4 but a celeron 2ghz
how much difference does this make to the required power supply

btw its all fitting into a 24port network hub chassis so height is an issue
think i will end up using a normal 250w 1u rackmount psu
if i like it or not

**pip** · 01-28-2005, 08:03 AM

Considering you want to run the diesel engine as little as possible on a narrow boat you want the power to be as efficient as possible. Hence you need a DC-DC solution. An inverter would put too much draw on the batteries.

I would NOT recommend the PW-200 as the 12V to the PC components will be unregulated....unless you get a Carnetix regulator. This combination would be pretty good.

Your other option would be a 150W Opus. The advantage would be that the low-voltage protection would stop it draining the boats battery supply too much.