Having trouble decide? Check out our PSU comparison chart here.
Once you have your machine and your displays a long with all of the
other gadgets that you want for your carputer you will need some way to
power it.
It all comes down to two options:
A power inverter
A DC-DC power supply
Your car's battery puts off 12 volts of DC electricity. Computers
natively utilize DC power as well. Because most computers are used in
the home or office, they must be able to convert the electricity that
comes out of the wall (which is AC curent) to DC current. This is where
you will need a power inverter to convert the DC current from the car
to AC current that the computers power supply can utilize. Then the
computer power supply converts the AC power back into DC power so that
the computer components can utilize it. In short, if you choose to use
a standard computer without a CarPC specific power supply you will need
a DC-AC inverter.
Your other option is to use a DC-DC power supply (such as a M2-ATX)
which will allow you to connect the 12 volt DC power from your car to
your computer. Most DC-DC power supplies have other features such as an
ignition switch which will turn your computer on when your car is
started and will send a signal to go through a soft shut-down process
or put the computer into stand-by or hibernation. Most of these DC-DC
power supplies also incorporate an amplifier turn-on signal which is
timed to not send a turn-on signal until the CarPC has alredy started
the boot-up process. This feature is usually configured to prevent
amplifier turn-on thump which can not only be very annoying, but can
also damage your speakers.
To learn more about the various DC-DC power supplies, you can read in this fourm: PSUs. You can also purchase many of these power supplies here
