Everybody knows that heat is bad for electronics. Keeping your computer in an area that’s too well-insulated or not properly ventilated is a sure recipe for disaster. In the most extreme circumstances, key components could end up simply melting. Circuitry can overheat and overload. I even had a friend whose graphics card actually lit on fire because of an issue with insulation/installation.

Humidity, too, is a definite no-no. Condensation and circuitry mix about as well as oil and water – that is to say, they don’t.  Water is an excellent conductor. The thing about circuitry is that there are certain areas of it where you most assuredly don’t want electricity to be conducted. Get your system wet, though and, well….put two and two together.

Did you folks know that the opposite is true, as well?

Believe it or not, running your computer in excessively cold or dry conditions can be just as bad – if not worse – than excessively hot and wet.

In the case of severe cold, your system’s components could end up rapidly expanding as they heat up. The severe strain caused by this could end up causing permanent damage and even if it doesn’t, could end up reducing the effective operating life of several of your system’s key hardware components.  If you’re going from cold to hot with any sort of rapidity, your computer’s internal hardware could expand rapidly enough that something gets broken.

Of course, that means you won’t have a computer for much longer.

Excessively dry conditions, on the other hand, are extremely conducive to static electricity even inside your system. All it takes is one errant spark, and you’ve got an incredibly expensive paperweight on your hands. In conditions that are too dry, the chances that your system gets zapped by static electricity (either because of you or because of some internal operation) are through the roof.

At this point, a lot of you are probably wondering what you should take away from all this.

Basically, it’s that extreme operating conditions, no matter the nature of them, are terrible for your system. Be aware of where you’re using your hardware and when. The key is to find a balance – not too hot, nor cold, nor damp, nor dry.

Image Credits: [Smartplanet]

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