Cooling mining rig with winter temperatures

[deathcode]

I live in Minnesota and as you might know winters can be pretty cold here.
I have a three season porch that we hardly use (especially in the winter) and I am thinking about moving my two rigs there to take advantage of the cold environment.
Are there any cons to do this? I'm not sure how consensation can be an issue, I read something about droplets forming inside the case. I have two Corsair 600T white that has the transparent window installes instead of the metal mesh.
Any suggestions on this?
my rights run 3 Visiontek 7990 with stock fans (since I don't want to void the  lifetime warranty)
I'm thinking that running them in the portch can lower the temps while being able to runn at full speed with less fan RPMs therefore, less noise.
Any thoughts?

[c789]

Facebook is building a server farm in Sweden, specifically because they can use the cold air:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/27/us-facebook-sweden-idUSTRE79Q2HR20111027

I'm sure they're taking steps to guard against humidity (condensation), and you're aware of the need for this. The only other major risk I see is large temp swings. They expand and contract your HD, and over time, this causes failure. As long as your temp is fairly constant, even if it's cold, you should be able to avoid this.

I've also seen some posts on here from a guy in the UK who keeps his server in his attic full-time because it's always cool up there. He says he's done it for years with no problems.

I wish I could do that. I live in the southern US and it's always bloody hot.

[Shadow383]

If you're dumping >1KW of heat into that porch, it probably won't be cold enough for condensation to form, unless it's SERIOUSLY cold in there...

[BitBlitz]

If it is that cold outside, why not use the heat to keep the inside warm?

[Isokivi]

I live in Minnesota and as you might know winters can be pretty cold here.
I have a three season porch that we hardly use (especially in the winter) and I am thinking about moving my two rigs there to take advantage of the cold environment.
Are there any cons to do this? I'm not sure how consensation can be an issue, I read something about droplets forming inside the case. I have two Corsair 600T white that has the transparent window installes instead of the metal mesh.

Condensation only becomes a problem if your rig stops long enough to cool down to the ambient temperature. Heres my take and all my findings with my similiar project so far: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76008.0

[Stephen Gornick]

as you might know winters can be pretty cold here.

Yes, I do know.   Former northern MN Iron Ranger here.

But why not capture the heat and save on your gas bill?

[RB26DETT]

in regards to administration use VNC
allows you to control the local machine instead of a session.

[nomnomnom]

Hello,

Also, another issue I'm having is administration of the miners. I used to monitor them locally and now since they have wireless cards, I can't really do RPD (Windows) since cgminer won't show me the temps/settings as I'm using a terminal window.
Tried Linux also and same issue with SSH...
So I'm experimenting with screen.
anyone knows any other way to do remote management? (windows or Linux I don't care)

screen is great, you can also use a webfrontend for cgminer ("miner.php" is included but looks a bit ugly)
Anubis:  https://github.com/pshep/ANUBIS
Anubis Hank (its more updated): https://github.com/hank/ANUBIS

You just need a webserver + php (for database you can use sqlite included with php, or install mysql)

[Deafboy]

For easy setup and good remote management - use BAMT
I had my rig outside last winter. I was worried at first too and was expecting some future problems with the machine, but everything is still 100% working. Only issue could be quick temperature decrease when internet connectivity is lost (but you can set-up local bitcoind, set it up as backup pool and go solo until the connectivity issue is solved if you are worried about water condensation).

CPU temp. - 0'C to 20'C
GPU temp. - 55'C to 70'C

[Miles Bennett Dyson]

Where I live there is no reason to have my rig outside in the winter, I save money by having it inside as sometimes there is -25°C (-13°F) outside, or even more.

[Isokivi]

Thanks for the tip! now I went to the WebSite and I didn't see support for 7970... do I have to install the drivers separately?

BAMT's massive thread has the info you need (guesstimated at the last 15 or so pages) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=65915.0
The next release which is in a closed beta testin phase atm will have 7970 support.