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12v Power Supply



You have 2 ways of getting the 12v power supply you need to power your computer with car batteries. You can either use the same type of conventional mains power supply you would use in your desktop PC, or use a power supply specifically designed to run on 12 volts.

If you use a normal mains power supply, you require a DC to AC inverter, to take the 12 volts DC from your car battery, and convert it into either 110v AC, or 220/240v AC. Your mains power supply then converts it back to 12v DC.





M2 DC:DC power supply


That seems a bit pointless doesn't it?

As you would expect, this is a very inefficient way of supplying the power (in some cases, the efficiency can be as low as 30%). You need to keep the power requirement as low as you can. For this reason alone you should choose a car computer power supply specifically designed to work with a 12v system.

There are several other reasons why a DC DC converter is the better choice.



Some of the DC:DC 12 Volt Power Supplies available.

Pico Power Supply PicoPSU-90, 90w output
Pico Power Supply PicoPSU-120, 120w output
PW-200-M, 200w output
M1-ATX 90w PSU
M2-ATX 160w PSU
M3-ATX 125w PSU
M4-ATX 250w PSU
Opus 180w dual output PSU
Opus 150w triple output PSU
DSX12VD 140w ATX PSU
DSATX 220w ATX PSU


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