There are concerns about what happens to a PC when it's left in a cold room for 7-8 hours while you're away.
There are concerns about what happens to a PC when it's left in a cold room for 7-8 hours while you're away.
I spend my days working from 9 to 5, missing several days each week for about seven to eight hours. My home’s ventilation and insulation are quite poor, which means my room doesn’t keep heat well. To stay comfortable, I’ve installed an oil heater, but on the days I’m at work I leave both my PC and heater off. This causes my room temperature to fall from around 70°F (21°C) to about 50°F (10°C) over those hours. I don’t want to leave them unattended for long because I’m not sure they’ll handle the cold enough to cause condensation. My room is also very dry, and I turn on the heater for roughly an hour to bring the temperature up to at least 60°F (15°C) before starting my PC. My PC sits low to the floor, away from the windows, and the windows are always closed with clamps and thick curtains. Outside temperatures usually hover around 40°F (4°C) during the day.
This situation might seem simple, but I’ve struggled to find similar cases online. My main concern is what happens in winter when it gets cold. Without heat, my room could drop to 40°F (4°C) or lower quickly.
I have the following components:
- MSI Tomahawk Max II MB
- Ryzen 5 3600 with stock cooler
- Four Noctua case fans (two intake, two exhaust)
- EVGA 1660 SUPER
- Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8 16GB DDR4
- EVGA P2 750 PSU
- One Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD
- One Crucial MX500 2TB SSD
- Lian Li Lancool 205 case
When there is no high humidity to cause condensation, it's acceptable. For safety, allow it a few minutes when running on idle.
Sorry, I need to be more precise – the heater is a portable oil-filled radiant model meant for an office space. Any conventional fan-based heater I use will cut power in my room, but radiant heaters work perfectly. Unfortunately, my house was built in the early 2000s by the least expensive contractor, so everything about it feels subpar.