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Can your computer be too cold?

Yes, and no. Can you get your computer too cold, no. Can someone with large amounts of liquid helium get their computer too cold... perhaps. I think at around 20K, if I'm not mistaken, most semiconductors gain some pretty high resistance. That said, they will generally create enough heat to get themselves at an acceptable temperature.

Condensation is another potential issue. That said, your computer isn't much colder then room temperature (20c) no where near "too cold". Vapor cooling can drop the temp down to ~ -20->40c
 
What are the lowest temps you've heard of without the computer going into an ice age ?

On an OT note, Winry's tight, but Mei-Chan would totally whoop her 🙂.
 
My ip35-e won't turn on if the room temp is too cold here in the house. I have to get the blow dryer out and heat the bottom of the mobo.

My grandfather likes to turn the heat down every time he passes the thermostat. Sigh.
 
Cogman said:
Yes, and no. Can you get your computer too cold, no. Can someone with large amounts of liquid helium get their computer too cold... perhaps. I think at around 20K, if I'm not mistaken, most semiconductors gain some pretty high resistance. That said, they will generally create enough heat to get themselves at an acceptable temperature.

Condensation is another potential issue. That said, your computer isn't much colder then room temperature (20c) no where near "too cold". Vapor cooling can drop the temp down to ~ -20->40c
Click to expand...

Actually the opposite, at temperatures reaching absolute zero resistance in most common conductive materials drop to zero, requiring no applied voltage for current to flow
 
yh125d said:
Actually the opposite, at temperatures reaching absolute zero resistance in most common conductive materials drop to zero, requiring no applied voltage for current to flow
Click to expand...

Most conductors, but not semi-conductors. What I stated is correct for them. Semi-conductors work based on the number of free electrons available, lower temperature = less free electrons available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistance

In metals, the Fermi level lies in the conduction band (see Band Theory, below) giving rise to free conduction electrons. However, in semiconductors the position of the Fermi level is within the band gap, approximately half-way between the conduction band minimum and valence band maximum for intrinsic (undoped) semiconductors. This means that at 0 Kelvin, there are no free conduction electrons and the resistance is infinite. However, the resistance will continue to decrease as the charge carrier density in the conduction band increases. In extrinsic (doped) semiconductors, dopant atoms increase the majority charge carrier concentration by donating electrons to the conduction band or accepting holes in the valence band. For both types of donor or acceptor atoms, increasing the dopant density leads to a reduction in the resistance. Highly doped semiconductors hence behave metallic. At very high temperatures, the contribution of thermally generated carriers will dominate over the contribution from dopant atoms and the resistance will decrease exponentially with temperature.
Click to expand...
 
yh125d said:
Some doped semiconductors can superconduct
Click to expand...
True, there are some superconductive semiconductors, those aren't a part of your PC. Most semiconductors don't superconduct, and at lower temperatures behave exactly like I described.
 
I thought the common IC semiconductor materials were on the list of those that superconduct?


Well at least such things as the copper traces on PCBs will
 
My "lab" at work has had temperatures as low as around 40ºF (early in Winter, forgot to keep heater set over weekend). Everything still worked fine.

I did have an Abit IP35-E that would not POST if it was too cold. Too cold for it meant under around 70ºF in the room.
 
yh125d said:
I thought the common IC semiconductor materials were on the list of those that superconduct?


Well at least such things as the copper traces on PCBs will
Click to expand...

Yeah, the copper traces will, I don't believe that the actual transistors will, but the interconnected paths might (I'm not sure about how doped they are)
 
Cogman said:
Yeah, the copper traces will, I don't believe that the actual transistors will, but the interconnected paths might (I'm not sure about how doped they are)
Click to expand...

😀

The temperatures discussed in this thread are like a blast furnace!

Electrolytic caps don't like getting charged when they're frozen.
 
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