Computer Power Supply Used to Power a Car Amplifier?

[chicano707]

Hey Guys! Greetings and hope everyone is having a great spring break!
I heard from a few people that a computer power supply can be used to power up a car amplifier at home. I personally think its impossible, but maybe you guys have heard of the "myth" (I guess) too. What do you guys think? is there such thing? Can you even have a car amplifier at home without the need of a car battery? Thanx for checking the thread.

[CrowdAds]

[Tobey]

Sure, it can be done. But how much power does this amp draw? You might get away with an AC adapter.

[Rob*]

all you do is join one of the yellow wires(+12v) from the power supply to the + terminal on the amp and one of the black wires (-) from the power supply to the - terminal on the amp. For your power switch you need a single press short stay (SPST) switch. join the green wire from the power supply to one terminal on the switch and a different black wire from the power supply to the other terminal an the switch. Push the button and you're rolling!

Just make sure the power supply is powerful enough for the amp. say its a 200w amp you'd need at least a 200w power supply. 250w to be safe for peaks etc.

[Slaughter]

I'm not sure how clean the power will be from your home AC, but probably no worse than your cars electrical system.

[Tobey]

I'm betting it's much cleaner than from a cars electrical system, actually.

[ZenChick]

Plus, any decent computer power supply has really good filtering.

[jmx747]

ive actually got a speakerbox sitting right under my computer with 2 8"300 watt subs and 2 6" speakers for the mids n highs.its all hooked up to a car amp (400 watts) and then powered by a computers 430Watt power supply it soudns rather nice haha so to answer ur question yes its completly possible

[sergiomoon]

Hi everyone, (this is my first post whoop) i was doing a little fact finding and many people have used multiple psu to power high watt amps. is that possible? could you say have two psu's with same wattage and amperage on the 12v line and just combine two wires one from each psu and run it that way?

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by sergiomoon

Hi everyone, (this is my first post whoop) i was doing a little fact finding and many people have used multiple psu to power high watt amps. is that possible? could you say have two psu's with same wattage and amperage on the 12v line and just combine two wires one from each psu and run it that way?

Its not a good idea to short the output of different power supplies together.

[sergiomoon]

i was reading around and people have had trouble connecting subs with higher rms wattage's then the psu can provide? issues with sound quality they said could the rms being higher be the culprit?

[saratoga]

Its a lot safer to use a single power supply of sufficient wattage.

[mutescream]

This sounds pretty wild. It's been a while, but I had once considered using a computer PSU to cool a TEC (peltier device). I ended up buying 12VDC bench test power supplies.

When you talk a 200W amp, 12VDC and roughly 17 amps. Hopefully you are checking out spec sheets for these power supplies. Otherwise you may over task your power supply and cause a fire. According to the link sheet I'm going to provide below, it shows that none of the normal power supplies in ATX form factor can handle putting out that kind of current... Even with an ATX12V (a later modification for different morther boards), a 300W power supply could only handle a 15A draw on the +12VDC.

http://www.formfactors.org/developer...12V_PS_1_1.pdf

It's your risk to take, but I suggest exercising caution: depending on how well constructed the power supply's protection circuitry is, this could be a fire hazard. Always check the data sheets, before you use things for an application they were not designed for.

[Syndrome]

I always just used a car battery and a car battery charger. This worked great until my little brother ripped the amp apart and used it without the aluminum case on(heat sink).

But as long as your voltage is right, and the amps add up correctly then it should work good. Though I have found using a cheap Home Subwoofer that you find on craigslist is the best. But I agree with using what you have at hand already.

[mutescream]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

But as long as your voltage is right, and the amps add up correctly then it should work good.

That depends on how well the computer power supply is constructed, and how it responds to being pushed that hard consistently. Not only is it an issue of current draw, but when you connect multiple circuits together like that it adds even more stress on the power supply.

There are no perfect parts out there, and as a result there will be variances in the voltage on each individual circuit you are splicing there (initially). It will equalize out the voltage when you place them in parallel like that, true.... But in doing so at the expense of shorting (at least partially) back to the power supply (through the difference in potential of the individual circuits you spliced together).

It will probably work out ok at least short term, as long as the PSU fan doesn't fail. I would NOT run this sort of set up unattended, and I would keep a fire extinguisher handy,