[HardwareHank]

Hey all - I'm currently in Fairbanks, AK, and it's nice and cold outside (-10F right now, and it was -25F last night). I think I may be able to hit some pretty high speeds outside. Has anyone tried this in a cold climate before? If so, reply with results please. I'm going to see how fast I can get my 2500+ going out there pretty soon.

[matttheniceguy]

errr.... this doesn't sound like the best idea.

Are you going to just put an air cooled computer outside in that temperature and see how it works? I don't think some of your components would appreciate this, espcially the hard drives. The platters will contract and things will go horrably wrong from there.

You could water cool the system and put a radiator (or just a bunch of copper pipe) outside, and have a nice chilled water system, but I don't think putting your system out there is a great idea. You can't play games with a giant mit on your hand anyway.

[HardwareHank]

Good point,

The hard drives contracting would be a bad thing :P. I wish I could hook that kind of system up in my dorm room, but it's kinda impossible since I work for the school and would be fired if I did that kind of thing. I need to take advantage of these sub-0 temps somehow though. I thought possibly putting my system by the window and pumping the cold air into the intakes from the window and back out into the window might work. I have a heater duct, and maybe I could isolate the proc by doing that.

[Zork]

Mattheniceguy is right, that kind of cold will ruin your harddrives. I had two drives that were messed beyond use a few weeks after trying something simular.. I would definitly run your drives externally then and have them inside your room or away from the cold somehow.. Good luck, hope to see some chilly results soon....

[eeksters]

don't forget to protect everything from condensation.

[matttheniceguy]

Actually condensation wouldn't be a problem. Air that is that cold usually has very little moisture in it, and the computer would be warmer than the air anyway so there would be no prombem.

What would be a problem is the platters of your hard drives contracting and the heads getting totaly lost and permenently F'ing up the drive. I'm pretty sure some other components would react poorly to those temperatures as well.

[sandman001]

Originally Posted by matttheniceguy

Actually condensation wouldn't be a problem. Air that is that cold usually has very little moisture in it, and the computer would be warmer than the air anyway so there would be no prombem.

What would be a problem is the platters of your hard drives contracting and the heads getting totaly lost and permenently F'ing up the drive. I'm pretty sure some other components would react poorly to those temperatures as well.

Capacitors, and fan bearings don't do that well in cold, due to the different rates of contraction of the materials they're made of.