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Car Computer Accessories

Most cars today come with dashboard computers, or at least some cheap GPS/PDA systems that cost less than a CD-player/radio. In these cases everything is built-in, there’s no need for any additional accessories. Car computer accessories are for users who want something extra in their cars, like a more powerful computer with bigger screen and far more functions than a GPS or dashboard computer. The first problem you face when you want to install a computer in your car is then voltage difference between the car battery and the desktop/laptop computer.

For laptops you’ll need something that converts 12V DC to 15/16/18/19/24V DC (depending on the laptop type).

Most laptop manufacturers offer very cheap car adapters for all their products, but there are also some universal adapters that support almost any type of laptop. If everything else fails, there’s also a less efficient solution: buying a 12V DC to 120/220V AC converter. This way you eliminate any kind of compatibility issues, most of these adapters can power laptops (or any other type of appliances) up to 150Watts, gaming laptops are no exceptions.

Running a desktop computer on a car battery is a little different, because most computers need more than 150Watts of power, so the before mentioned DC to AC trick doesn’t work. The best solution is to buy an LCD monitor that runs on 12Volts and an ATX power supply that also runs on 12Volts. This way efficiency is increased, with the right kind of components you can reach 90-95% efficiency, something that’s possible with very few and very expensive 120V/220V AC ATX power supplies.

The maximum output of this little power supply is 250Watts, enough even for any standard PC configuration, but without any high-power CPUs or graphics cards. For example a Core i7 – 930 would need 130Watts and an ATI Radeon 5870 graphics card another 170Watts, so this kind of configurations are out of the question, however a 45-95Watt quad core processor (Athlon/Phenom II X4 “e” version, Core 2 Quad “s” version or Core i5/i7) with a 45-100Watt graphics card (Radeon 4670/5750 or nVidia GTS240/250) might work.

This type of ATX power supply is not a new concept, it was already used in mini-ITX cases with external AC/DC adapters to save space:

For the LCD monitor it’s best to use a stabilizing power supply that converts 11-25Volts into a constant 12V DC, because it’s unlikely that the LCD will tolerate tension fluctuations.

There are also specialized LCDs built for cars that can connect directly to the non-stabilized battery power.

After you assemble a computer system like this there’s no need for car computer accessories, because any standard desktop accessory can be connected, as long as it runs on 12V or 5V USB power.