How to power a computer this powerful in a car?

BigIg · 03-16-2008, 08:05 PM

My friend, everytime he upgrades his computer, he does a total upgrade, he never reuses components except harddisks and dvd drives, so I always get his old crap.

The specs on this thing are:
Intel Core2Duo E4600 @ 2.4GHz
2GB DDR2-800
Geforce 8600GT
650 Watt Power Supply

How would I go about powering this thing? I know I could use a inverter, but is there any other way I could power this?

Also, information about shutdown controllers and inverters seem very limited, can anyone point me to some information on this?

Bugbyte · 03-16-2008, 08:09 PM

If it needs 650 watts, you'll need an inverter.

BigIg · 03-16-2008, 08:11 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Bugbyte

If it needs 650 watts, you'll need an inverter.

I'm not perfectly sure if it actually uses that much, though.

Also, I read somewhere that I shouldn't run a computer like this off a modified sine wave inverter, as it might harm the computer. Is there any truth to that?

Edit:
According to Neweggs power supply calculator, it uses about 250 Watts. This is not including any ODDs / HDs.

You're right, chances are I'll need a inverter.

FusionFanatic · 03-16-2008, 08:38 PM

this might work ; OPUS Solutions DCX6 - 320W DC-DC ATX power supply

check the power draw on each power rail to see if it can provide enough power for your system

BigIg · 03-16-2008, 09:40 PM

I think that might work, but I don't like the idea of not having a decent amount of overhead.

Woofnstuff · 03-16-2008, 09:51 PM

you can always power additional devices like hard drives/optical drives of a stand alone point of load 12-12v psu

http://store.mp3car.com/Vehicle_Poin..._p/pwr-022.htm

FusionFanatic · 03-16-2008, 10:34 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by BigIg

I think that might work, but I don't like the idea of not having a decent amount of overhead.

if your computer uses 250w, then a 320w PSU should be plenty. 70w of overhead isn't enough for you?

krnpimpsta · 03-17-2008, 10:28 AM

Buy a Kill-A-Watt power meter at NewEgg. I'm running an
Athlon 3500+, 2GB RAM, Radeon X850XT video card (it's an old, inefficient power hog.. maybe even more than your 8600 GT, because the ATI X850 XT was at one point the "top of the line" performance card that sacrificed efficiency for maximum speed, sort of like the current nVidia 8800GTX)

I used a Kill-a-Watt meter and I used about 220watts at idle and 270 watts under load. I removed 4 hard drives from the setup since, and have been fine running this with an Opus 320W power supply.

So to sum it up, go buy a Kill-A-Watt meter for $20 and find out how much you need. I doubt you will need anything beyond an Opus 320W with your setup. Core2Duo's are very low power, relatively speaking, and the 8600GT is also a trimmed down video card that shouldn't use too much power either.

BigIg · 03-17-2008, 03:12 PM

A friend let me borrow his power meter, so I slapped a harddrive in there, and under heavy load (Running 3dmark05), it was only pulling 265...... much less than expected. I guess the 320 should be enough.

Thanks for the idea.

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