winter temps: how cold is too cold?

[RickJamesBTC]

Nothing is ever too cold for computers, look up liquid nitrogen cooling, etc.

[Gazza1]

Liquid nitrogen is for computer chips protected by a metal shell.  Not mobos & capacitors

[zoran]

Below -50 C you may start to worrie. Don't until then. 
But theres another question connected to temperature effects - how wet is it? One cold wall/roof may cause a lot of water condensed. Shortage threat is much more real than pure cold issues.

[ineedit]

Below -50 C you may start to worrie. Don't until then. 
But theres another question connected to temperature effects - how wet is it? One cold wall/roof may cause a lot of water condensed. Shortage threat is much more real than pure cold issues.

The question of condensation has been brought up earlier in the thread, it can occur at any temperature. Most SMD capacitors fail to operate correctly below -30c.

[virtualreality69]

We are averaging between -10C to 0C over the course of several days.  The rig is INSIDE, but NEAR a window. 

I've recently rigged up a duct fan to pull in some of the cold air, but by the time it's near the PC I'd guess its never cooler than 0C to 5C, with an average room temp (near the window) of about 10C to 15C.  Overall the GPU temp's have dropped about 5C and the fans run much lower now (which was the primary goal).

Bottom line:
In winter the GPU's are MUCH happier close to a window opened just a bit. It was almost a 10C difference from on the floor away from the window to on desk next to window.


Thanks for all the input.
- VR

Below -50 C you may start to worrie. Don't until then. 
But theres another question connected to temperature effects - how wet is it? One cold wall/roof may cause a lot of water condensed. Shortage threat is much more real than pure cold issues.

The question of condensation has been brought up earlier in the thread, it can occur at any temperature. Most SMD capacitors fail to operate correctly below -30c.

[Gazza1]

We are averaging between -10C to 0C over the course of several days.  The rig is INSIDE, but NEAR a window.  

I've recently rigged up a duct fan to pull in some of the cold air, but by the time it's near the PC I'd guess its never cooler than 0C to 5C, with an average room temp (near the window) of about 10C to 15C.  Overall the GPU temp's have dropped about 5C and the fans run much lower now (which was the primary goal).

Bottom line:
In winter the GPU's are MUCH happier close to a window opened just a bit. It was almost a 10C difference from on the floor away from the window to on desk next to window.


Thanks for all the input.
- VR

I get 20-30C difference.  But I have the window all the way open with a box fan blowing out, thus causing the freezing cold air to rush in through the rest of the window opening.  This is with outside temps around 20-40f.  When it's below freezing my cards can run in the 40s, but I end up turning off the window fan and just leaving it open so they rise back up a bit.

[gamefixer]

I've got two BE Cubes that would stop hashing if it got too cold in the garage (in the teens F). We've had a pretty cold (for Texas) winter this year so I've had to reboot them a lot.