When does condensation become an issue?

My cpu gets as low as 25 Celsius, is that cold enough to worry about moisture? I don't want to fry my chip. =\

Are you using active cooling? Peltier or phase-change or chilled WC?

it depends..
if your using a peltier or some kind of waterchiller/phasechange to cool your computer, then u might.
if its just cold in the room where u use your computer, then you should be fine

If your chip was really at 25C (its not, temperature monitoring is horrible), then a room temperature of 30C with a humidity of 75% would cause condensation on your chip. That's pretty humid though.

Condensation only forms on subambient surfaces with a certain amount of humidity in the air. So your CPU has to be colder than the surrounding air in order for condensation to form - how much colder it needs to be depends on the amount of humidity. If it is very humid, then a slight difference in temperature will cause condensation. If it is very dry, then the temperature difference has to be much greater.

Here is a quote that lists air temperatures, humidity, and surface temperatures:

Originally posted by IMOG

Condensation:
Condensation depends on surface temperature, air temperature, humidity, and air pressure. Air pressure is negligible if your region is relatively close to 1ATM.

This chart shows the surface temperatures (in black) that condensation will begin to form at:

Chart is by and from Bladerunner of these forums.

Click to expand...

what he said

I'd suggest to insulate around you cpu (if you are using peltiers or phase change cooling just to be sure)

and just leave it alone if your room really is that cold

when i was using my a/c mod i was getting condensation at 25c, but i lived in FL (super humid)

xace said:

when i was using my a/c mod i was getting condensation at 25c, but i lived in FL (super humid)

Click to expand...

Where did the condensation form? I would expect it formed on the case, considering the ambient air inside the case would have been very cold, and all the surfaces must have been as cold or warmer.

A/C mods can't really cause condensation to form on the PC components, because the air is colder than any of the surfaces. The surfaces have to be colder than the air in order for condensation to form.

Yeah, I actually took out all of the fans in my case, just the cpu, northbridge, and PSU fan. I keep my room pretty cold, I don't notice a difference because I'm always in a blanket anyways. If it wasn't at 25Celsius, then how can I accurately monitor my temperatures? My ambient temp was at 8 or so. Granted it's not always that cold, it's running at 18case and 33 cpu right now.

to be safe, you can get non conductive grease type silicon from your local electronics shop, sounds weird as hell, but stick that gunk right into your pin holes for your CPU, sound CRAZY i know, but its non conductive and this is how swiftech's peliter heatsinks , are recommended to be installed for prevention of condensation, I use this method with my Mach II prometeia unit, it works fine. ..and most of all its safe.