winter temps: how cold is too cold?

[virtualreality69]

quick background
So for north america is winter time. Where I live its been cold (30 degrees F, 0 degrees C)  for a few months. I have my rig about 12 inches from a window that I open just enough to let cold air in. It really lowers my gpu temps a lot and allows me to get high hash rates with no HW errors and fans spin at a low speed.

Ive since setup a simple contraption which funnels the air into my case quite efficiently (hopefully a picture attached soon).

My question:
Can the outdoor air get too cold that its harmful to my rig? Its currently about 0 degrees F and may hit -10 degrees F over the next few nights.

[vpasic]

my bfl 60gh units are so happy on -20 Celsius.

there is no "to cold" temperature as long as miners are protected from snow or rain.
 

[darkjed]

I've found that if i let my antminer get to 10 Celsius(on board reading) while mining, it has a tendency to constantly reboot. If I use a IR thermometer it usually reads -20 C. I think the super low temperature could be doing funny things with the electrolyte in the capacitors. So now I have it in a container that has a small vent, inside the box while mining it's usually around 10 C and the miner itself reads 35-40 while the IR shows 0-10C on the caps themselves. Could also be the PSU since it's in the same box...But anyways that's been my experience with mining in the frigid north.

[MaxP0WER]

For my mining rig (various hardware including GPUs)

I just keep my room cold in... It sits around 25-40 degrees F, I prefer not to leave my machine by any windows without protection against condensation.

I would  also add an extra mesh if you are just using a normal window screen. I use a compressor often as I live in a populated desert and the there is dirt flying everywhere some days. otherwise my macchines are fine at 60-75 degree Celsius temps easily during the winter.

[Gazza1]

I've had my rigs near a window that has been in the -0's F for months.  They've have been great.  I'm not sure below freezing is good for the fans though.  I think just above freezing say 40F is probably ideal ambient air temperature for mining equipment rooms.  Provided everything is properly spaced apart and air can flow around the entire room in between cards, all hardware, etc.  And that air is exchanged with the outside for new air.

[Gator-hex]

here is no "to cold" temperature

Actually you can get too cold and the electrons stop moving!

It won't happen without liquid nitrogen though. at -144c http://youtu.be/QmSBaizEqkk?t=5m11s

The main problem is cold/hot cycles can crack lead free solder so best to try and maintain a constant temp and not let it fluctuate on BGA devices (GPU/ASIC) or they may one day stop working and need to be re-flowed.

[Equate]

quick background
So for north america is winter time. Where I live its been cold (30 degrees F, 0 degrees C)  for a few months. I have my rig about 12 inches from a window that I open just enough to let cold air in. It really lowers my gpu temps a lot and allows me to get high hash rates with no HW errors and fans spin at a low speed.

Ive since setup a simple contraption which funnels the air into my case quite efficiently (hopefully a picture attached soon).

My question:
Can the outdoor air get too cold that its harmful to my rig? Its currently about 0 degrees F and may hit -10 degrees F over the next few nights.

no harm unless there is a rain.

[Bogart]

For some reason my KnC boxes don't like it real cold.  They're fine once they're running, but they won't start up in the cold.  In particular the BBB never boots, and its blue heartbeat LED never starts beating.

I keep a heatgun on hand for those situations, which I aim at the BBB for half a minute before I start it up.  It's always done the trick so far.

[ssateneth]

Heatpipes can stop working in excessively cold temperatures. I'd say -15C is the lowest temperature you should feed into your computer, or the working fluid in heatpipes can freeze, preventing heat form transfering and your GPU cores, or what have you, willoverheat out of control.

If there are no heatpipes though and it's just a solid chunk of metal, then run it as cold as you can get.

[atc1]

-10F is perfectly alright. Just don't let too much moisture come into the setup.

[mladen00]

HI

You will have problems with humidity in your PC

[mladen00]

and condensation on components....

you know what is happening then...

[RobbieRonalds]

Built my rig inside a old Freezer, no problem at all

[vpasic]

and condensation on components....

you know what is happening then...

condensation and humidity??
LOL
yea right...
nice one...
FYI condensation is catching on object that are colder that air temperature!
and with the miners you have exact opposite thing!
they are running hot and air temperature around them is cold.
do your physics home work next time.

[Gazza1]

and condensation on components....

you know what is happening then...

condensation??
LOL
yea right...
nice one...
FYI condensation is catching on object that are colder that air temperature!
and with the miners you have exact opposite thing!
they are running hot and air temperature around them is cold.
do your physics home work next time.

It's funny how many people get that wrong

[vpasic]

and condensation on components....

you know what is happening then...

condensation??
LOL
yea right...
nice one...
FYI condensation is catching on object that are colder that air temperature!
and with the miners you have exact opposite thing!
they are running hot and air temperature around them is cold.
do your physics home work next time.

It's funny how many people get that wrong

yeah
unbelievable.

[HellDiverUK]

Which is fine until air temp increases quicker than the cold parts of the miner.  I've seen server cases rusting when the aircon went wrong and was cycling the temp, leading to condensation on the server cases, despite the servers being on and outputting 40C air from the exhaust.

[wpgdeez]

my bfl 60gh units are so happy on -20 Celsius.

there is no "to cold" temperature as long as miners are protected from snow or rain.
 

My PSU's get cranky around -30 Celsius.

[virtualreality69]

Which is fine until air temp increases quicker than the cold parts of the miner.  I've seen server cases rusting when the aircon went wrong and was cycling the temp, leading to condensation on the server cases, despite the servers being on and outputting 40C air from the exhaust.

I'll keep this in mind.  It's been -15F to about 10F for the last few days. It might "skyrocket" up to 30F today.

You will have problems with humidity in your PC

I live in Colorado where humidity's usually not an issue, but I'll keep an eye on it too.


As far as moisture/snow/rain,
I plan on setting up some small industrial venting hardware which would handle it.

Thanks for all the input everyone!
- VR

[melmo]

I had a gpu rig running in the garage, it was running well even when it dropped below -20C, until it hung and I didn't notice for a few hours.  Then it became very unstable and would only run for 20 minutes before hanging.  I moved it indoors and it's been running fine ever since. 

I'm guessing either the caps or the heatpipes froze.  I should have lowered the fan speed, I had them at 75% because it had been in the garage ever since the summer when it was hitting 35C.  If you have a multiple 5970 rig, and the gpus are reporting temps like 14C, then something is probably wrong

My first gen Avalon took its place in the garage, and it's been running fine for a few weeks.  The fans are barely moving...