Computers and Hostile Environments

Hi all!

I have a question regarding computers and hostile environments. Hostile meaning temperature, falls anything that can impact the performance of a PC. Thus, I am actually asking how to make a computer more durable to environments that may hinder the preformace of a PC that will result in crashing, freezing or lockups.

The instance would be a PC in a vehicle and it crashing due to the heat inside.

- possible solutions: Air Conditioning running all day with vehicle on.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Your hard drive won't like been dropped on the floor. Not sure what the solution to that would be. Maybe some sort of foam cushion.

Some people put the motherboard in mineral oil. Cool the mineral oil with an airconditioning device, and place the motherboard, and all the pcbs that slot into it, into a sealed container, and run the cooled mineral oil through the container, that would protect it from alot of things.

you will need a pice of specilist equipment these are very expensive they are for expoditions and they will cost about £8000 thats uk pounds some higher some lower

No problem...IBM is supposed to be making new hard drives that can incur a huge impact, (unless you have a car wreck and still want to be surfing the net or playing Q3, youll be fine there) put the hdd on foam, use good ventilated cooling- maybe even water cooling, a small radiator under the car? some of the new laptops are supposed to be fairly rugged...are you talking about building a computer into a car, like a stereo? with all the new enhancements in Car A/V you could use a small TV screen in the dash hooked up to a decent computer...but you shouldn't have to worry about heat as long as the computer is ventilated well (if overclocking it, then put some bucks into water cooling)

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computers dont have speed limits - NOT ANYMORE

Hi all!

Thanks for the input everyone. My question is more centered on heat inside the case. You know when you step into a vehicle thats been sitting in the sun for the whole day? You think your PC the way it sits in your room right now wouldn't crash under these conditions?

Thinking a minivan with a small transportable office with a PC inside to do work while you move...

Thanks for all the info everyone!

1st thing, I'd just keep the air on high all the time. But assuming you want to run it while the car isn't running, I'd say get some kind of tricked out battery power supply for the computer only, Make sure it has a well vented case, and I would run some sort of intake and outtake airflow thingy from the van itself. I think the van would have to be modded more than the comp.
-ram

I'd extend an A/C vent to the computer case. It would probably be easier to use the floor vent under the dash and run a hose back to the PC. You could leave the A/C on low and it should get enough cool air to keep a normal PC running. If you leave the car off in the heat you would need to make sure the PC was powered off and not turned back on until it was cool. The heat alone might damage the hard disk. You could get one of those cases with the removable hard drive bay, and just take it with you when you leave the car.

BTW- to run the A/C for long period of time with a car at idle you'll need a diesel, not a standard gas van. A diesel is made to run like this. A regular unleaded powered van would never make the weekend.
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www.quatroux.8k.com
Online SETI database and water cooling info.

[This message has been edited by Quatroux (edited 07-31-2000).]