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Operating a PC at 4°C - Is this done?
Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I am setting up a specific piece of equipment that requires I work at 4°C. There needs to be a computer attached to the equipment. However, none of us are sure if we can move a PC into a cold room or not. We are okay with it staying in the cold room forever. That is not a big deal.
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It'll love it. You would probably not want to move it in and out of a room that cold due to possible condensation, so you'll want it to stay in there, yes. Move it in, let it sit overnight, fire it up.
EDIT: Also since it can really suck to sit at a computer in a room that cold to operate it, put some sort of remote control software on it. Assuming it has a network connection.
I'd be concerned about condensation since a PC can be near 70C, that may also impact your cold room.
I'd probably look into drilling a hole and putting the wire through it, and use some sort of sealant or gasket to be the best solution. PCs like cold, though.
http://www.connectzone.com/watertight-rj45.html
That page might have something that fits right up your alley.
I can't imagine why that would be a concern, though I have no idea what sort of equipment (obviously food related, but beyond that IDK) you're hooking it up to, what sort of tolerance you have for such molds in your environment, or how heavily prevalent you expect such mold to be. If it's just a case of "sometimes this foodstuff can maybe possibly get this mold, sometimes" I probably wouldn't worry about it. The computer really isn't any more or less likely to spur/incubate mold growth than I would suspect the equipment you're working with is.
If it's more "this mold would totally ruin our equipment/environment, and we cannot risk having it" or "this fucking mold is gonna be everywhere in this room, guaranteed", then maybe drill the hole, run the cable, and seal around it well.
Very (very) light reading suggests those sorts of molds generally only inhabit organic material. You can pack some filters around the intake/outlet vents of the PC and regularly change them if it's just a general "what if" contamination concern.
EDIT: Oh and get a goddamn keyboard cover if this is going to be near a food "thing" of any sort. Fucking keyboards are straight fiiiilthy, man. Bag the mouse too.
It's sounding like the watertight RJ45 bowen suggested is probably a simpler overall solution unless there is a good reason to have the workstation directly accessable while working with the lab contents.
You could also look into a Toughbook/Rugged Laptop. All the ones here pass MIL-STD 810 military standards for temperature, rain, humidity, fungus, salt fog, sand, explosives, leakage, acceleration, shock and vibration
Yeah he said they were fine with it staying in the cold room forever.
Most biology cold rooms don't have circulating air, which (in addition to the bacteria/mold that you're actually storing in there, if you're a biology lab) tends to lead to a lot of mold growing on everything. I probably wouldn't want a normal off-the-shelf desktop in there, you'll almost certainly get mold growing on internal parts before too long... and they're not really designed to be cleaned easily.
The thing you need to be cognizant of is how the heat of the PC affects the room, not the other way around. Make sure that 1) You turn the PC off when you're not using it/at the end of the day and 2) Your cold room has a temperature alarm (it should already). I've seen a light bulb fry everything in a cold room when the refrigeration failed overnight one time; a PC will turn the place into an oven. Temp alarms suck because you will inevitably get a false alarm text message at 2 am someday, but it's better than frying all your samples.
I would not drill a hole if I were you, there is probably some grant money going into facilities costs (electricity) and I imagine another P.I. will be pissed off about it when they move into that space eventually. Some anonymous person did that to one of my old cold rooms and managed to plug it up fairly well with putty but I always hated them.
Out of curiosity what are you setting up?
http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php
They actually sell kits for this now. I contemplated suggesting this.
All you need is a fishtank and some oil! (And passive coolers on your CPU, GPU and PSU [also I'd steer clear of submerging a platter drive])
I have to admit that setup looks hella awesome despite the sheer logistical nightmare that thing would be to move/upgrade.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
I have done this sort of setup before. The main problems that you can run into are related to the heat output of the PC, for two reasons: 1) too big a temperature differential will cause condensation, and 2) a hot-running PC can noticeably raise the temperature of its part of the room, which may not be picked up on by the thermostat.
The concerns about mold are valid, but it's a question of cost/benefit: are you more interested in saving money with a traditional desktop which will need to be replaced frequently, or are you more interested spending a lot more money for an industrial/sealed PC that might not need to be replaced?