I have an extra laptop power supply that I am considering for a KM system. Specifically, I was thinking about using it with a DC to DC bridging it with a DC-DC converter to a 'carputer'-ish system. What I mean by that is a fanless, low power MOBO such as the EPIA VIA series.

The goal is to arrive at a configuration that uses minimal power and is silent: I would like to avoid fans for the powersupply and CPU.

Has anyone had success with using a laptop power supply or seen an article indicating success? Any lessons learned or caveats are appreciated.

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R7.3: 0.22.20091023-1, Hauppauge PVR-500 (Philips FQ1236A MK4), Gigabyte Gigabyte EG45M-UD2H, E5200 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GEFORCE 256MB

I have not seen anything like that, but that's what Google's for! All sorts of people out there trying all sorts of things

Take a look through http://www.silentpcreview.com , lots of info there for making a very quiet/silent PC (if you've got the $$ !)

I have an older Nexus PSU that I can only hear if I put my ear right up to the box...

I had an EPIA M10000 with one of those, but the moment I added a 7200RPM disk drive, the power budget was exceeded.

(A TV tuner card, plus the motherboard, plus the disk and a CD drive was more than the 48-60W the little switchmode PSU put out)

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| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club

I'm running my EPIA M1000 frontend from a 12V 60W external power supply. I'm using the 120W DC-DC converter that provides power to the motherboard, 2.5" hd and 5.25" DVD drive. I'm planning on swapping the full size DVD drive for a slimline DVD drive for lower power usage.

epiacenter has a power simulator for estimating power usage for epia systems.

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Backend R5E50
P4 1.3 - 384MB, 250GB HD, HD5000AV, PVR150 non MCE
Frontend R5E50
EPIA M1000 - 512MB, 40GB HD, Streamzap
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Thank you cameraready! This is exactly the kind of posting that I am interested in. Your power supply, I imagine is on par with that of a laptop PS. What is the mfg \ part number on your DC-DC converter? Does it require cooling?

My power supply is 90W (20V x 4.5A): it would be nice if there was a DC to DC converter that could efficiently convert it to voltages \ currents useful to a EPIA system.

Thanks for the link to the power simulator: a power budget definitely needs to be considered.

BTW- is your EPIA a M1000 or M10000? I am considering the VIA EPIA-CN10000EG 1.0GHz VIA C7 at newegg for $175. I am not sure that it is worth the extra scratch for th 1.2GHz version at $235. Any suggestions regarding mobo selction is appreciated.

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R7.3: 0.22.20091023-1, Hauppauge PVR-500 (Philips FQ1236A MK4), Gigabyte Gigabyte EG45M-UD2H, E5200 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GEFORCE 256MB

It's been a while since I bought my DC-DC converter so I can't remember the exact model number. I bought it from Logic Supply. They have several different models that work with epia boards. The only fan I have on my system is an upgraded 60mm fan on the cpu. The stock 40mm fan was a bit noisy. Nothing else needs the cooling. My board is the older M1000 1GHz with the cle266 chipset. It works great with SD video if you enable the xvmc option in the frontend. My cpu rarely goes above 30% when watching mpeg-2 recordings.

_________________
Backend R5E50
P4 1.3 - 384MB, 250GB HD, HD5000AV, PVR150 non MCE
Frontend R5E50
EPIA M1000 - 512MB, 40GB HD, Streamzap
KnoppMyth Folding Team Stats