How cold a temp can mobo's handle?

Stickman

Stickman

Stickman

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I noticed on the mini description tag for the "Asus X58 Sabertooth TUF" Intel Motherboard (the bit you can see when viewing it from the components page, but not from within it's description) it says "Built with military grade components the X58 Sabertooth can operate in both extreme temperatures and sub zero conditions."

Is it actually true that it can operate in "sub zero" conditions... because a mate lives in a shop and we were thinking about sticking a PC in the cold-store (about -24C) to see if it would overclock well as a seti rig... but since even SSD's claim they only operate down to about 0 degrees C I'm guessing this is just hype?

(obviously we know mechanical HDD's won't work in there... but we were thinking of running a sata cable through a small gap to the outside air so the HDD could still be warm)
 
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It may be able to operate, But you have to factor in condensation. At sub zero temperatures, water vapour will condense on the components and as you know, Electricity and water dont mix.
 
But I guess that if you're in a cold store, then the air will be dry as the water will have already condensed out and onto whatever else is in the store.

Depends on the cold store I guess! If everything there is covered with ice, don't!
 
Motherboards are often subjected to minus 176 degrees with LN2 benching and work just perfectly. :D

BUT

Condensation is a killer.
 
It's not the mobo that is subject to LN2, it's the CPU. The motherboards are insulated ;).

I really wouldn't try to use a cold store. As stated, condensation will form unless it is some sort of vacuum in there lol.
 
However i'll add, if you do go ahead and do it.. (which you probably really shouldn't) do let us know how the results turn out! :p
 
Doesn't condensation only form on things when they are colder than the surrounding air, like when you have a cold beer glass on a warm night? If the mobo is running then it should be warmer than the air.... so I think in theory it shouldn't get any condensation on it unless it's left off for a while... and then when people open the door the air will be warmer and you might get condensation on the colder mobo... at least I think that's how it should be. Would just have to be careful to make sure it's not left off for any length of time.

Also... I think webbo's right... CPU's may be able to handle LN2 cooling but i'm not sure the whole mobo could... I don't know why yet (will have to do some research) but a lot of electronic devices don't seem to like working in temps below -10c... even some solid state ones like SSDs which are essentially just microchips. Hmm, more research required it would seem.
 
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Why hasnt this been done before, a few times i have thought of trying to put my pc in the freezer but the humidity question always stops me, would a dehumidifier work?
 
Most home freezers would not be able to remove enough heat quick enough... since they're only rated for a small number of watts, and only on a low duty cycle (i.e., they are not strong enough to run constantly... they're just designed to recool the air when the door opens).

So, you need a bigger and more expensive cooling system for one, that can handle the constant heat load. And of course, this will greatly increase the running costs of the PC... so this is the main reason people don't do it. But just as a test we thought it might be fun, we just didn't want to knacker our hardware. :)
 
Some overclockers when going for crazy benches with LN2 put their motherboard in mineral oil stop condensation, you could possibly read into it a bit more and see if it's good for a long term usage.
 
Coat everything with dielectric grease and you might get a few hours out of it.
Condensation WILL kill it eventually tho :p
 
w3bbo said:
It's not the mobo that is subject to LN2, it's the CPU. The motherboards are insulated ;).

I really wouldn't try to use a cold store. As stated, condensation will form unless it is some sort of vacuum in there lol.
Click to expand...

problem with there being a vaccum is theres no air left to actually cool the PC (thermos flask anyone?)


if you're curious, id give it a shot with some reeeaaal cheap scrounged components. sounds me me like theres a higher chance of it breaking than working.

im certainly curious...

edit: maybe if you could find a really small dehumidifier that you could place in between the case intake fans and the components (ie, like a dust filter but for water)?
 
thingemajib said:
edit: maybe if you could find a really small dehumidifier that you could place in between the case intake fans and the components (ie, like a dust filter but for water)?
Click to expand...

if moisture can find it's way behind the zif of a mach2 cooled processor, i have huge doubts whether this will make it past post and into windows :p

take lots of pics tho, pleeaze :D
 
Definitely sounds like a neat idea. But as stated, would only try it with spare parts to actually find out what (if anything) goes wrong. Odds are theres a number of factors as mentioned above which will make this a short experiment, but it's still an intriguing one.
 
I have seen hand held PC's rated at -40C they are low power and run in sealed cases with heated drives and screen.
Mechanical drives would probably fail at -5 or -10C. If you can seal unused sockets etc. with window seal or similar and around cards, processor you may avoid condensation.
Place in a sealed case like peli or similar, you may be able to run a heater circuit to the drive from a molex and insulate it well (or boot off a ruggedised USB flash. Your screen will need to be warm or it will freeze.

andy
 
According to Asetek socket 1156/1336 aren't safe for sub-zero cooling and vapochills were never updated beyond socket 775 as a result. The added complexity of circuitry around the CPU made insulation impossible.
Sub-zero cooling isn't practical anymore.
 
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