Computer in cold garage?

[Brad1234]

Never done it but here is a couple of ideas. 1) build an insulated box around your computer with a hinged access panel. Inside the box wire in a light bulb socket. I bet a light bulb will keep the space warm. I have seen welding rod kept in old refridgerators this way. 2) instead of a light bulb use the wire made to keep pipes from freezing in the box. Either idea could be hooked to an in line thermastat to only turn on at the preset temp.

 

[930dreamer]

I work in a vault that has a room with computer servers, it has it's own AC system, very cold all the time.

 

[malibu101]

1) build an insulated box around your computer with a hinged access panel. Inside the box wire in a light bulb socket. I bet a light bulb will keep the space warm. I have seen welding rod kept in old refridgerators this way. .

That thought kinda crossed my mind before.
I thought of building a cabinet under the bench for the computer to live in to keep it more out the dirt than where it's sitting and how I have it covered now.
A cabinet to keep it clean and (with this input) warm. Now there's an idea I'll have to work on.

 

[Gary S]

I work in a vault that has a room with computer servers, it has it's own AC system, very cold all the time.

My garage gets down to around 15F during cold winters. I doubt your server room runs at that temp.

 

[Stuart in MN]

In my experience most PCs and related electronics have a rated operating temperature range of 0-40 to 0-50 degrees C (32-104 to 32-122 degrees F.) If you don't turn the computer on until the temperature in the garage gets within that range you'll probably be fine.

 

[Chris Adams]

All depends on the comp i find. i had a fue in the shop at my old place a P4 and a amd. fryed the amd as it got a lot hotter then the P4 when running and would get a bit of condensation well running on very cold days. P4 never had a prob as it dident run as hot. most times i just leave them on stand by or sleep mode and havent had a prob yet. ive used my labtop in my shead when it was -6 in there with no probs

Not too suprising, while I favor building AMD units, with the right cooling, AMD is sorta famous for running 'hotter than a pistol', while Intel has , well mostly, built cooler running, but more expensive chips. Design thing, of course, as AMD has build millions of chips for Intel, but their own designs are pushed harder to get more bang for the buck.


Heat is more of a problem in shops here than cold, of course.

 

[Chris Adams]

Never done it but here is a couple of ideas. 1) build an insulated box around your computer with a hinged access panel. Inside the box wire in a light bulb socket. I bet a light bulb will keep the space warm. I have seen welding rod kept in old refridgerators this way. 2) instead of a light bulb use the wire made to keep pipes from freezing in the box. Either idea could be hooked to an in line thermastat to only turn on at the preset temp.

Good ideas.

Though, from personal experience, a ten watt bulb does the trick, just sitting inside the regular computer box.

Of course, some of the posters are in COLD places. I'm not.

 

[Shocker]

Hey Chris, can you please point me to the information you based your "Design thing, of course, as AMD has build millions of chips for Intel..." comes from? I am genuinely interested.

As far as I am aware, AMD has not made any processors for Intel. There are agreements when it comes to technology, but Intel has many proprietary processes and designs.

And I personally find it about the same to build an Intel based system as an AMD based system, only with much stronger performance.