running a pc in a cold enviroment

[rubber5]

i want to put my pc into the garage as it gets to warm in my bed room but the thing is that it can get really cold in the winter times sometimes it can get to -10c but my question is will i be ok to use it on a daily basis without any damage to my pc or equipment plese can you help me becuse im really not sure if i can do this

thanks to enyone that can help me

[sn0man]

Unless it gets extremely cold outside, you won't run into issues with cold boot bugging or anything like that.

The only thing I'd keep an eye on is to watch for any kind of condensation.

[prava]

Unless it gets extremely cold outside, you won't run into issues with cold boot bugging or anything like that.

The only thing I'd keep an eye on is to watch for any kind of condensation.

Condensation....the little I know about it seems to suggest that it forms because of temperature differencials, IE your room is warm and outisde is cold = condensation. BUT, as all the ambient temp would be the same except the computer I really don't see how it could condensate...

[OldChap]

At the interface between hot and cold....like windows in winter hot inside, cold outside = condensation on glass but that forms on the cold surface inside...someone want to comment on the likelyhood of it forming on the surface of a hot component? does the heat drive it off?

[Movieman]

i want to put my pc into the garage as it gets to warm in my bed room but the thing is that it can get really cold in the winter times sometimes it can get to -10c but my question is will i be ok to use it on a daily basis without any damage to my pc or equipment plese can you help me becuse im really not sure if i can do this

thanks to enyone that can help me

The answer to your problem isto keep the PC in the bedroom in the winter to aid with heating the house and move to the garage in the summer to get that heat dump out of the house.
Yes,involves 2 moves a year but thats maybe 15-20mins each..
Of course if in the garage in the winter it could make it a degree or 2warmer and help a tad with starting the car on those -10degree days..

[tool_462]

I had no issues for short term usage at -30C but was scared of the hard drive freezing up. Was so cold that night that when I grabbed the aluminum case to bring it back inside, my fingertips are still stuck to that case :p

[rubber5]

ok thanks guys i think i will give it a go if im running the pc and any sort of condensation appers i will take it back into my bed room.

ps there is no car so it will be used as my pc room thats why i was asking
but i think it shuld be ok it does not get to the extremes of -30 geeez thats cold

thanks for your help everyone

[OldChap]

A couple of rigs running on wcg and maybe a couple of cards running Grid or Folding and you will find it is quite a pleasant temperature in your "Computer room" even in mid winter

[BeepBeep2]

Condensation will not appear if it is always out there.
(ie, you didnt have it running LinX and FurMark at the same time then run it out into the cold)

Your hard drives may not want to spin up though, make sure you look at the Operating temps for your hard drives. They dont like to work well when temps are under freezing.

[sjohnson]

I ran an old NF2 rig in a similar environment. Talking about -30f lows, running 24x7 for weeks at a time and usually looping 3dmark03 (trying for a burnin). No condensation but it did behave strangely in 30 below temperatures: it would stop running, as though I'd pulled the power. No blue screen, no reboot, stopped dead. It always started right back up, and I never did figure out the reason for the behavior.

The only time you need to be concerned about condensation is bringing the cold PC into a warm room. Warm PC into cold room, no problem.

[rubber5]

thanks for your help everyone.
I have sorted it all out now and its in the garage and so far it has droped my temps by 10c
I cant beleve it my i7 920 is at 3.67ghz 1.16v in bios and crunching with wcg its under 60c what a difference and it only 15c in the room at the mo just wondering what my temps will be like as the snow comes down near x-mas

[sn0man]

What was the difference in temperature (ambient, not computer) between inside & out?

[rubber5]

What was the difference in temperature (ambient, not computer) between inside & out?

not really sure what you meen but the temps
bed room was between 22c-25c cpu running wcg 66c-70c
garage at the mo is 15c cpu so far max 59c after 2hours
i have only just moved in the garage today so not sure of temp differences

[lalPOOO]

I found most of my hard drives functioned fairly well with colder temps as long as they were spinning and in use (staying warm).
The problem was when they had been sitting idling overnight and cooled off to under or around 10c (as reported by the drive in speedfan) one or two of them would power off and on repeatedly until they were shut off or I warmed them up. This problem seemed to stick around, but the drives still seem fine.
Probably best to backup your data just incase.

[sn0man]

not really sure what you meen but the temps
bed room was between 22c-25c
garage at the mo is 15c

Yeah, that's what I meant.

[rubber5]

here is a pic i have just ran cpuid hardware monitor so it wont have the lowest temps but this seems to be the highest (running wcg @100%cpu) ps for the non uk'rs its 12.32am in the uk and my thermomitor is reading 12c room temp ps hdd's@28c

[ericFX1984]

Unless it gets extremely cold outside, you won't run into issues with cold boot bugging or anything like that.

The only thing I'd keep an eye on is to watch for any kind of condensation.

you don't know what you are talking about... if the room is -10c and the PC is in the room then the PC will be hotter than room temp and therefore WAY above dew point...

so how are you going to get condensation?

please read up on dew point before you tell people to worry about condensation...

basically condensation is not possible with air cooling or water cooling (unless it's chilled water cooling)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_point

[ericFX1984]

You'll get condensation if it's been off, sitting in the cold and then you boot it and get up to 100% load very quickly. If you're always on at 100% load then it's much less of a problem. Personally, I'd be more worried about the amount of dust out there.

I'd recommend turning off HDD spin-down/acoustic management that way the disk is always spinning otherwise it might be a little sluggish after spin-down in the cold.

Honestly, the only time I've really had any problem with condensation was when I had a peltier cooler on my Celeron 633 @ 950 MHz, so with basic air cooling you should be okay.

no you will not... test it...

Gongo you are wrong... that or you are leaving out some important variables

if the room is X temp and the computer is B temp then the computer will have to be lower than the room temp... that is not possible on air cooling... or even water cooling... you can not cool to temps lower than room temp by using room temp air... so since the computer will never be colder than the room temp then you never have to worry about condensation... anyone that says they get condensation on air cooling or even on water cooling is full of crap and a liar!

let me make this VERY CLEAR:

You can only get condensation on a PC component if you cool the component below dew point dew point is always lower than room temp (unless the room is 100% humidity, which would basically mean it is raining in your house)

so since water and air cooling CAN NOT get any colder than the air it is cooled with, in this case the air in the garage, then you can not get the computer cold enough to hit dew point and therefor can not have condensation on any part of the computer

condensation forms on the surface of any item that has a temp that is equal to or less than the dew point in the air surrounding it(the room temp)

and as for starting it up and quickly hitting 100% load... bull crap bud... the PC would be no colder than the room temp and would only get warmer as you powered up and started to add load...

in short all this talk of condensation = FAIL

that being said... if you stored the PC in a cold room and brought it into a warm room you would have condensation form if there was a big enough difference...

basically, a hot object in a cold room just heats up the room

a cold object in a warm room will create condensation on the cold object, provided that the air in the room has enough humidity and the cold object is below dew point...

understanding these thing, explain to me how you could get condensation with air cooling???? YOU CAN'T



to the OP... do it... but you might consider locating your hard drives in a warmer room

[ericFX1984]

The only time you need to be concerned about condensation is bringing the cold PC into a warm room. Warm PC into cold room, no problem.

thank you

[THOMO]

7years I've fed my pc with chilled air from outside directly into case........which is stored in warm room and I've had no problems with condensation yet (outside temp reaches -10c). Any condensation which MAY form on your cpu HS the moment you turn it on will evaporate within a few seconds as the HS warms and burns it off. The only issue is hard-drives die quite quick (so insulate them with some thin foam) and if you attempt to burn a dvd/cd whilst your burner is at -6c it'll most usually fail (so insulate those aswell).

[rubber5]

i have been running my rig for a while now no probs at all i have even been able to get my i7 920@3.8ghz i dont know if its a good overclock but it does me
it just gets REALLY COLD jeez better get my coat on for the winter lol

thanks everyone for your help ps cpu with linx 20passes never goes ant higher that 70c 1.25v bios