We use 12 volt systems because we already have 12 volt power present for other equipment in our applications. Previously, we used a UPS or battery powered inverter system that ran on --- 12 volts. We decided to "remove the middleman" so to speak. This gives us a number of battery charging options and makes the whole system more efficient then converting the power back and forth 2 or three times, besides saving to cost and space of the additional equipment. The Via boards and processors running CentOS have been reliable and draw a reasonable amount of power for what they are doing. This may not be the best solution for heavy-duty computing, but in our medium-duty application which involves mostly system management and media conversion using codecs they do just fine. -Ben jim wrote: > 12VDC is appropriate for places that don't have > other electrical supplies. these places include > automobiles and boats as well as remote regions > that use windmills, creekmills, solar panels, > car batteries, and deep discharge gel batteries, > possibly in a mix. typically there's noise and > variant voltage levels above the nominal 12VDC; > any system should be designed to work with spikes, > noise, and higher voltages--most are as a matter > of course. > >