a little confused...

Ste2 · 07-03-2008, 07:33 PM

God evening all, just a quick hello from accross the pond where we drive from the correct, (hehe) sorry, RIGHT seat in the car. (and change gear with he trusty left hand too

)

I have decided i want to have a go at a (budget) first attempt car pc...

i currently have lying round a spare desktop pc, which was a a p4 1.8 with 1gb of ram.... i assume i can pinch the mobo from this?

the first issue was that this pc is a dell, but having read the threads on here, i have just had the multimeter out, and am pleased to report it is wired to ATX standard.

What DC-DC PSU's can be used with this board (if any, im hoping there are!!).... the reason for me asking is, as this is a p4 board (i thinkt thats the reason anyway) aswell as the 20pin atx connector, it also has that extra four pin connector (yellow black yellow black) from the psu to the mother board... do any of the DC to DC power supplies support this?

thanks for your time guys.

Ste

blackcobra487 · 07-04-2008, 12:54 AM

I know the M2-ATX does. I'm sure there are others though.

2k1Toaster · 07-04-2008, 01:05 AM

Yes the M2 has this wire, as do the Opus line, and the DS-ATX.

The M2 will NOT power a desktop P4 well.

Tidder · 07-04-2008, 01:08 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by 2k1Toaster

The M2 will NOT power a desktop P4 well.

It seems to do OK on the older northwood and williamette based P4 processors. But I've only ever used a 400mhz fsb with the M2 psu. I ran a 1.8 for a little over a year, had a 2.4 in there for a while, then fried my mobo in an unrelated accident.

galvitron · 07-04-2008, 01:09 AM

The M2 may not have enough watts for your P4. You may want to look into a less hungry CPU. There are some very cheap options out there (smaller too)...

Ste2 · 07-04-2008, 05:24 AM

Its currently a socket 478 cpu which is a p4 @1.8ghz, what do you reccomend instead?

the current mains psu is only rated at 250w max.

What sort of whattage would i need do you think?

Thanks for the help so far.

Regards.

Ste

galvitron · 07-04-2008, 06:19 AM

The M2 atx and many power supplies are around 160W. You will need to factor in other components besides the CPU (monitor, USB devices, Motherboard, etc). Some P4s use over a hundred watts. By comparison, the new 45nm core 2 duos use 35w at peak.

Tidder · 07-06-2008, 02:47 AM

A P4 1.8 should use at peak 75w.