Setting up Gaming Desktop in Truck

One thing to keep in mind is without using a good inverter the buzzing your hearing is the caps in the power supply struggling this by far will shorten the life of it, I would recommend a good "gold rated" style power supply and use a sinewave inverter. Then since there so cheap anymore at your discretion it would be wise to run a small ups to have another filter in play.

Imo desktop components have come a long way I've got a small form factor build that while has yet to be installed in a truck (soon hopefully) it has spent the majority of its life traveling with me on airplanes from work site to worksite and we all know how airports treat luggage...

 

This is just wrong. You obviously have never built high end gaming and work machines from the ground up and don't understand the huge power requirements large power supplies must pull to supply all the components with steady power. Just a max-capable GPU will need a steady supply of power, never mind the CPU. There are gaming power supplies that can output up to 1600 watts continuous DC. Such a PS on a 1500 peak watt inverter is going to be starved for power at some point.

Yes, they prefer ultra-clean power but it's not absolutely critical. Adequate power is far more critical. If sensitive electronic components require or prefer pure sine wave power, how do you explain all the tens of thousands of satellite DVR receivers running problem-free on cheap inverters?

 

The point I'm trying to make is, if you decide to invest significant dollars into a new inverter with pure sine wave out, get the biggest you can find, preferably 2,000+ watt. 2,500 if you have a 1500 watt PS in your system. Purchase of a 1,500 wave sine wave inverter and a high end gaming tower is going to be a disappointment is my concern.

That said, you don't want to buy more inverter than your maximum expected needs warrant. Larger inverters will pull down batteries faster, in use or not. So it's a balancing act when you're trying to power high-demand appliances and have finite battery power. Not too small, not too big.

 

Alright. Let's get this straight. Most gaming desktops running today don't need a 650W PSU, let alone a 1500W one. Only way you're pulling even 800W is with multi-gpu setups and multiple super high end cpus. The buzzing you hear in the PSU is likely the chokes vibrating under switched DC which would likely cause more movement in them than sine wave. OP's problem seems to be a low quality inverter which can't handle the load it's getting, but PC power supplies should work perfectly fine under modified sine wave as all they're doing is converting AC to DC which is emulated by the modified sine wave of most inverters. My biggest concern about running a desktop in a truck, and one which I would like to get some more info on, is what happens to the heavy graphics card on rough roads. It will cause g-shocks to the PCB of the card, the mobo PCI-e connector and the motherboard by the nature of having crap like the CPU heatsink hanging off of it.

 

Um, I've been building computers since 1995. You? And you want to talk about wrong, you just showed how clueless you were. You just said its rated at 1500watts DC, so why would you say it draws 1500 watts AC? The AC voltage is 120, the output is 12.

The PSU on a computer is rated at 500, 750 or 1500 watts AT 12 VOLTS. Not at 120 volts. The computer doesn't operate on 120v. The output of a PSU for a computer is where the rating comes from, not what it draws. You have to divide that number by 10 to get the 120v number. Do you realize that 1500 watts at 120v is 12.5 amps? That's more than the most powerful consumer vacuum cleaner draws. Do you really think a computer board pulls more than a vacuum cleaner?

An inverter in a truck is rated at its output, not its amp draw. 1500watt inverter is 1500 watts at 120v because that's what an inverter puts out. However, a PSU that goes from 120vac to 12vDC is rated at 12VDC. 750 watts at 12V. 500watts at 12v. Whatever its rating is.

I have a high end gaming computer. It pulls 250 watts at 120v at full power. It has a 750watt at 12V PSU. I have a graphics card that requires two plugs from the PSU just to operate. This is a very high end machine. That 250 watts includes the monitor too, it's plugged into the inverter as well.

I love being called wrong by someone who turns out to be VERY wrong. How does that crow taste?

 

What I do to alleviate this is I take the computer while driving and put it on the bed on one end with a pillow between it and the wall of the truck. Problem solved. I've had my gaming computer in this truck since I got my first truck. Never had an issue. Never even had a wire come loose.

I also lay it on its side on the bed, not standing up. You don't want it to be rigidly mounted to anything. The pounding of the truck will loosen stuff you'll never figure out. Don't worry about "heavy graphics cards" as they are screwed to the chassis of the computer. Just don't want it being banged around in general.

 

I think it really depends on what you are running far as durability. If I was putting something together for a truck I would do a small form factor style case, which has advantages to being in a truck IMO. The power supplies generally are micro and with the way they are designed take more abuse.

Few things I would recommend doing if your looking to do a build....

Run a AIO cpu cooler this will help with not having a huge risk of the cpu having issues with the heatsync.
Also another thing that might be wise to think about is running a extension and mounting the graphics card remotely this would allow you to mount it slightly better.

Here is a small form factor build I have done, which will soon hopefully be in a truck once I finish school.



Monitor is a cheapy 13.3 off amazon that is somewhat self contained. Due to the nature of my current job I travel alot but also am stuck sometimes basically standing by events (security) I specifically wanted to get something that is super portable but can also be used out in the field. This entire setup fits into a 10L camera bag and can be setup within minutes.

 

And here I was thinking I would bring my full tower along. I'm not so sure about and AIO because the vibration could cause a leak and you don't want a leak.

 

That rig has two seperate AIO's CPU and GPU never had a problem yet... knocks on wood..... I did have a problem almost EVERY #### time I ran a fan style one with it slightly shifting and creating a gap then it would thermal shutdown with almost no use lol. That actually took me a bit to figure out what was going on. Biggest thing with those style cases is keeping good airflow and just being smart about component choices. I've got 3tb total storage on that but zero spinning drives just built it up over time. With the way the current prices are the total build would run 1200 today which is crazy. I had about 900 into it with the monitor.....

When your job has you staring a moving/non moving trains for hours on end you need something to entertain yourself without going nutz lol. I do have a laptop but I was never big on the "gaming" style rigs, I also find trying to use them in a cramped up pickup truck its more of a pain then its worth. With the mico PC I park up throw the monitor up on the dash leaning on the glass then put the keyboard on my lap allowing me to have way more room and not be sideways leaning over a laptop.

 

Just a tip related to this power discussion. The PickAPart web site shows you the non over-clocked power usage of your build as you go. It's a good reference anyway for how much power you would need. System Builder - Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core, GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB ARMOR, Meshify C Dark TG ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker