Comment Re:power consumption (Score 1) 195
Actually, most PC's convert ~120VAC @ 60Hz to 12VDC plus 5VDC! And actually, ATX motherboards have a whole bunch of wires going into them, with who knows what other voltages.
I've been running a small ATX MB with a Via 800Mhz CPU fanless (hasn't died yet) with the 12VDC-DC convert board. There is one of those black brick converts that plugs into the wall and outputs 12VDC, which goes into the 12VDC-DC converter board.
My goal was to build a silent computer that could play mp3s while I fall asleep and wake up. And I had just started to hate all the fan noise of most modern PCs.
Anyways, tomorrow morning I'm going to get some big 6V batteries. Really big, like 1'x2'x6". I think bulldozers use them to start. Anyway, my cable modem needs 12VDC and 5VDC, the motherboard needs 12VDC and I have a LCD display that needs 14VDC. I'm hoping the modem will accept 6V instead of 5V, and the screen will run on 12V instead of 14V. Then I can run everything off of the batteries. And I'm hoping the batteries will last for 6 hours of screen on time, longer with the screen off. I want to be able to ride out power outages, of which there is only about 1/year where I live.
So... the idea of running these PCs off of batteries is not unfounded - at least I hope it isn't!
--syrah
I've been running a small ATX MB with a Via 800Mhz CPU fanless (hasn't died yet) with the 12VDC-DC convert board. There is one of those black brick converts that plugs into the wall and outputs 12VDC, which goes into the 12VDC-DC converter board.
My goal was to build a silent computer that could play mp3s while I fall asleep and wake up. And I had just started to hate all the fan noise of most modern PCs.
Anyways, tomorrow morning I'm going to get some big 6V batteries. Really big, like 1'x2'x6". I think bulldozers use them to start. Anyway, my cable modem needs 12VDC and 5VDC, the motherboard needs 12VDC and I have a LCD display that needs 14VDC. I'm hoping the modem will accept 6V instead of 5V, and the screen will run on 12V instead of 14V. Then I can run everything off of the batteries. And I'm hoping the batteries will last for 6 hours of screen on time, longer with the screen off. I want to be able to ride out power outages, of which there is only about 1/year where I live.
So... the idea of running these PCs off of batteries is not unfounded - at least I hope it isn't!
--syrah
