The lowest temp.

[stymie222]

I have an unheated garage. I would like to install a spare PC in the garage. What is the lowest temperature a PC will operate at ?

[minsonngo]

I would imagine... the colder the better in most cases.


How cold are you talking about though?

Batteries such as the CMOS one on the motherboard may start to damage or burst if the temps go under 20F.

[Staren]

I would assume as long as it stays above freezing you'd be great. The only problem I'd see is if it actually got cold enough while the system was off for ice to form inside the case and then it melting when the system was boot back up. Otherwise cold is a good thing. It would be moisture that would cause a problem. I wouldn't dare run a system outside for a long period, but I live in Florida so it's usually hot and wet.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Well, cold isn't so much of a issue as condensation is, thats what'll kill it before anything. A AMD CPU usually bugs out at >-30c, and i've seen intel cpu's go as far as -100c without a problem.

Hard drives would definately be a whole lot more sensitive then the rest, a google search should give you a idea on that. I would keep it above 15c.

[TwoRails]

This topic doesn't come up often, but it does come up from time to time. Here's what I have to offer:

I've have mulitple computers, TV, radios, DVD/tape players, etc. out in my work shed for years. Never had a problem with firing them up at all temps. I do have a heater out there, but it takes hours on a winter day to begin to warm up. No I do not wait for heat to turn anything on. I go out there and fire up the TV or radio, the computer, and whatever, and then I fire up the heater.

I've never had a condensation problem out there or when I bring something in the house. For example my "sneaker net" hard drives stay out in the cold shed into I need them. When I need them, I bring them into the house and immediately plug them in and use it. I do not wait hours for them to warm up.

Look at it this way, cars and other things have electronics in them, they work just fine in places like Alaska, Siberia, and so on... you don't see people in Canada using a portable heater to heat the interior of their car before they turn on the radio, do you? Yet to radios last forever.

[doubledragon5]

I had a four yr old mb that sat in the garage for at least four yrs.. Two down here in Texas and two up north Connecticut.. Put it together about 2wks ago and she fired up no problems.. Even the cmos battery was still good...

[stymie222]

I wont be out in the garage using the PC when it gets really cold. It does go well below zero here in Iowa at times. Would the battery be the only thing to remove from the PC. Or do you suggest bringing the whole system inside when temps are falling to the zero mark ?

[TwoRails]

I wouldn't worry about it personally. The operating temp for a typical Duracell mobo battery is -4° to 130°F

http://www.duracell.com/oem/Pdf/new/CR2032_OS.pdf