Thanks again for the comments, everyone. and thank you for your understanding, admin.

As for the power supply, I just used a 12v DC power supply that came with a mini-ITX enclosure that i was originally going to use. then I simply added the voltage regulator (and integrated power control unit) to prevent possible damage to the motherboard because your battery doesn't always put out a constant 12v... it can either spike up dangerously high or drop dangeriously low.