Not enough voltage for desktop gaming computer

You should always double your expected max load when choosing an inverter or at least multiply by 1.5. (In my opinion)

You will also have other peripherals needing power simultaneously.

What you should do ideally is take your system home and run everything through a meter and stress-test the GPU and CPU (to get the desktop power supply to ramp up fully) and see what it really pulls out of the wall (peak)

 

I think the apu is not covering the load. For some reason.????

 

Some APU,s will have to run an hour to recharge what the main engine alternator will do in 10-15 minutes.

 

Step 1) system specs
2) get a ups to protect voltage drops/spikes
3) sell pc and get a gaming laptop. If you want to run a crazy gpu get a laptop compatible with a thunderbolt gpu. 2017 Guide: The Best External Graphics Card Boxes (eGPUs) - ComputerShopper.com
4)learn the difference between invertors and converters
5) you don't really need a high-end gpu for most gaming. My gaming laptop only has a gtx780m and it runs most new games at max
6) Game on!

 

A kill a watt is what I use. Cheap and work well. I'd be interested to know the exact specs our model of tower he bought from them. They make some really robust systems.

Kill-A-Watt Electricity Monitor-P4400 - The Home Depot

 

That kill-a-watt is the only way to go. Even if your system has a 1k psu that does NOT mean you are always pulling that. If you're just watching a movie, emailing, or not doing anything intensive it uses less. On my laptop it even has a light that tells you when the gpu is running vs the onbaord video. If you cant afford one right off the bat get one from No Compromise Gaming
Call them first though. They usually have cheaper unit on the shelf from returns/referbs and/or make you a custom rig.

 

I didn't see it asked anywhere else so I'll ask. Are these Lowe's inverters directly wired in, or are you plugging them into the 12V plugs for the truck? The plugs aren't made for more than, say, 180W.

 

Those may work but not 100% confident. With my gaming laptop it uses both the battery and power directly from the charger while intensively gaming. It very very slowly discharges but gamed over 8hrs straight w/o issues. Now the charger is rated at 180w so its not really recommend for even that.

 

You can safely run a 300 watt inverter no problem, hell even cobra makes a 450 watt inverter that plugs into those plugs

 

300W would require 20 Amps at a nominal running voltage of 14.7 which would call for 12 gauge wire, 8 gauge for 450W. 14 gauge gives you over 180W, but these are with the engine running. Don't overload the wires or you'll have a fire.