MP3Car.com - View Single Post - Hardware Review: M3-ATX Power Suply

Bimmerstyle · 01-01-2008, 03:32 PM

@kmcniece

Now I've ran the power supply directly to the battery and it works a little better but still far from perfect.

Shutting down is no real problem except for the fact the amp stays powered for about 60 seconds after shutting down. This is not a big problem but my heavy amp still draws a lot of power when idle during these seconds and I concider this as a flaw.

Startup though still has problems. I measured the voltage on the battery (a brand new one as I said before) when glowing the engine and it is about 11,8V. The manual of the M3 specificly mentions it NEEDS 12V at startup. I don't have it and there is no way of having it in my case and many other diesel engines.

With the new wire from the battery it seems to survive engine cranks better I must say. But then I have to turn on ACC wait until the system starts, turn on ignition and glow, and after that start the car. This takes forever!

So now I use a switch on my ACC wire to make the computer start after the engine is started. This is the only way to make it start reliably. So far for making it start with the turn of the key. I have no experience with an opus but I never had any problems with my M1-ATX.

Also the small amplifier pops maybe nothing serious for most users but the M1-ATX has no pops at all!

So I still don't recommend it to use in a diesel powered car. It's quite possible that on a petrol powered care you won't experience any problems at startup ever because the voltage never drops below 12V (if you got a good battery) so if you have petrol car you probably can give the M3 a go but after what I've experienced with it compared to my M1, I would never buy it again. Specialy because there are two better alternatives that cost about the same as the M3 and those are the M1 and M2.

The M3 could have been a reasonably good PSU if there wasn't the need for 12V at startup. Now it just isn't. That's my opinion.

01-01-2008, 03:32 PM	#4
Bimmerstyle Constant Bitrate Bimmerstyle's CarPC Specs Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Belgium Vehicle: BMW E39 525tds Posts: 165 My Photos: ()	@kmcniece Now I've ran the power supply directly to the battery and it works a little better but still far from perfect. Shutting down is no real problem except for the fact the amp stays powered for about 60 seconds after shutting down. This is not a big problem but my heavy amp still draws a lot of power when idle during these seconds and I concider this as a flaw. Startup though still has problems. I measured the voltage on the battery (a brand new one as I said before) when glowing the engine and it is about 11,8V. The manual of the M3 specificly mentions it NEEDS 12V at startup. I don't have it and there is no way of having it in my case and many other diesel engines. With the new wire from the battery it seems to survive engine cranks better I must say. But then I have to turn on ACC wait until the system starts, turn on ignition and glow, and after that start the car. This takes forever! So now I use a switch on my ACC wire to make the computer start after the engine is started. This is the only way to make it start reliably. So far for making it start with the turn of the key. I have no experience with an opus but I never had any problems with my M1-ATX. Also the small amplifier pops maybe nothing serious for most users but the M1-ATX has no pops at all! So I still don't recommend it to use in a diesel powered car. It's quite possible that on a petrol powered care you won't experience any problems at startup ever because the voltage never drops below 12V (if you got a good battery) so if you have petrol car you probably can give the M3 a go but after what I've experienced with it compared to my M1, I would never buy it again. Specialy because there are two better alternatives that cost about the same as the M3 and those are the M1 and M2. The M3 could have been a reasonably good PSU if there wasn't the need for 12V at startup. Now it just isn't. That's my opinion. __________________ BMW 525tds -Biostar I94GM-I4 -Celeron M44O 1,86GHz, M2-ATX, 1Gb, 320GB -HQCT RDS tuner -Creative Extigy -iBus controller -Lilliput 7" touchscreen -DLS Ultimate A7 amplifier -Focal 130K, 130V, 27V2 speakers Bezel Worklog -My Install -My Website (Dutch)