Running a pc in a car

[BDunkz]

Hi All, 

I've been in a lot of long car trips lately and I'm wondering if it's possible to to build a small form factor gaming pc to sit in the car and be powered off a USB cable and if so what kind of parts would be uesed. And if not would a small affordable ups be an option?

 

please help,

all thanks in advance

 

BDunkz

[Enderman]

Raspberry Pi.

[Guest]

Depends on if you're car has a ciggerate charger, or a standard wall outlet. DEFINITELY not usb and it'd have to be pretty low powered to run off of a car wall outlet since I think mine is only like 2-250 watts.

[Guest]

Just now, Enderman said:

Raspberry Pi.

He said gaming tho...

[The Sloth]

1 minute ago, BDunkz said:

off a USB cable

your best bet is the intel computestick or pi zero. 

[Enderman]

Just now, Abyss Gaming said:

He said gaming tho...

He can play minecraft on it.

[Guest]

Just now, Enderman said:

He can play minecraft on it.

Well

[BDunkz]

How about an affordable ups?

[The Sloth]

Just now, Abyss Gaming said:

He said gaming tho...

yes, pi is an excellent gaming "console", you can emulate thousands of games. 

[BDunkz]

Just now, BDunkz said:

How about an affordable ups?

 

Just now, Abyss Gaming said:

Well

I mean a 970 can run the games I'm playing at max settings 

[The Sloth]

Just now, BDunkz said:

 

I mean a 970 can run the games I'm playing at max settings 

what games are you planning on playing? why not buy a laptop 

[Guest]

Just now, BDunkz said:

 

I mean a 970 can run the games I'm playing at max settings 

And a 970 will use too much power... Idk just doesn't seem like the greatest idea but possibly with a ups

[Enderman]

2 minutes ago, BDunkz said:

How about an affordable ups?

A UPS is only made to run a PC for a few minutes during a power outage so you can shut it down.

It is not for making a PC portable.

[BDunkz]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

what games are you planning on playing? why not buy a laptop 

That was my other thought, could you recommend any reasonable priced ones $100. The only thing is I've just finished my gaming pc for home and …

[The Sloth]

Just now, BDunkz said:

That was my other thought, could you recommend any reasonable priced ones $100. The only thing is I've just finished my gaming pc for home and …

for 100$, a raspberry pi handheld would be easy to obtain, what game are you planning on playing? 

[Cyracus]

well, there's either a laptop or getting a serious battery bank to power a pc and monitor. The first would be cheaper...

[aisle9]

4 minutes ago, BDunkz said:

That was my other thought, could you recommend any reasonable priced ones $100. The only thing is I've just finished my gaming pc for home and …

$100 laptop capable of gaming?

 

Probably a off-lease ThinkPad T420 off of eBay, but even those tend to be more than $100, and they have no graphics card to speak of.

 

No matter how you do it, you're going used, and you're going to be limited to very basic games by the graphics of whatever you end up with. APUs are also an option if you can find one cheap enough. I had a Toshiba 17" laptop with an A8-6410P (IIRC) that could run Skyrim at 720p low settings reasonably not badly, but even that would be pretty far above $100. I ended up selling that laptop about 6 months ago for $150.

[AvocadosGuac]

Convert your current rig into an usff and use a pure sine wave inverter(400watts) to power it. Grab a USB 720p display for $100 on amazon and you're set

[brob]

1 hour ago, BDunkz said:

Hi All, 

I've been in a lot of long car trips lately and I'm wondering if it's possible to to build a small form factor gaming pc to sit in the car and be powered off a USB cable and if so what kind of parts would be uesed. And if not would a small affordable ups be an option?

 

please help,

all thanks in advance

 

BDunkz

Power inverters come in a variety of sizes. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-Power-Inverter-Smart-Adapter/dp/B01DP9JE18/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1499134644&sr=8-2&keywords=BESTEK+300W+Power+Inverter+Dual+110V+AC+Outlets+and+4.8A+Max+Dual+USB+Ports

[BDunkz]

2 hours ago, aisle9 said:

$100 laptop capable of gaming?

 

Probably a off-lease ThinkPad T420 off of eBay, but even those tend to be more than $100, and they have no graphics card to speak of.

 

No matter how you do it, you're going used, and you're going to be limited to very basic games by the graphics of whatever you end up with. APUs are also an option if you can find one cheap enough. I had a Toshiba 17" laptop with an A8-6410P (IIRC) that could run Skyrim at 720p low settings reasonably not badly, but even that would be pretty far above $100. I ended up selling that laptop about 6 months ago for $150.

Sorry I meant $1000

[aisle9]

10 hours ago, BDunkz said:

Sorry I meant $1000

Plenty of laptops out there in the $800-1,000 range that have a quad i5 and a 1050 in them. MSI, Dell and Acer all make one, I believe, and you can get a decent power inverter capable of handling any of them for less than $100. That's your best option by far.

[BDunkz]

6 hours ago, aisle9 said:

Plenty of laptops out there in the $800-1,000 range that have a quad i5 and a 1050 in them. MSI, Dell and Acer all make one, I believe, and you can get a decent power inverter capable of handling any of them for less than $100. That's your best option by far.

So convert my current pc into a small form factor and get an inverter?

[brob]

55 minutes ago, BDunkz said:

So convert my current pc into a small form factor and get an inverter?

If your current pc is drawing anywhere near 300W or more you will need to install the inverter with a direct battery connection.

[aisle9]

2 hours ago, BDunkz said:

So convert my current pc into a small form factor and get an inverter?

I still feel like saying, "This is what laptops are for," but yes, you could build a SFF gaming PC for under $1K that uses less than 300W. I did.