Building Car PC. Advice required.

[paradoxblue]

Right now im using amini atx board and a 40-80 gig laptop hdd. but my psu issue's are the current problem.

i have come accross these lil fellows
http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.13/it.A/id.300/.f

but they are not really build for in car use?
but i DO need the size :S
so i looked at this http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.13/it.A/id.424/.f

anyone have advice on how i can rig the lil fellow to work more like the big fellow? space is a huge concern. next im on the look out for an uber small mobo

 

[paradoxblue]

hmm i should add to this.

maybe soemthing to put under the hood of my car so i have 12vdc lines that are regulated and solid.w ill protect htose lines from spikes etc. because thats what would drop a regular psu?

 

[98EXL]

www.mp3car.com

all of your answers are there

 

[gee]

I wouldn't use one of those in-car.

Their 12V output is almost always just a switched-on input. So if your car is running, the 12V output is actually 13.8-14.4 volts, there's a ton of ripple on it. Worse, you can get huge inductive spikes when the car's being started.

Back when I investigated a CarPC, the easiest/cheapest way to run a carPC was to buy a cheap 12V->AC inverter and then use a regular AC input power supply. I'm not sure if any good 12V-input PSUs have come out since.