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ITX... 100% Enclosed?

Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:08 pm
by Welch
Was curious if anyone knows of a 100% enclosed ITX case, or perhaps one that resists or eliminates condensation. We are talking about -30*F to -60*F.. Cold Start ups and all.

Re: ITX... 100% Enclosed?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 6:23 am
by StuG
Considering that the majority of people do not live in Alaska and need some sort of fan to cool the system I have a feeling you won't find this at all. It might be easier to just make your own, also a fun project :D

Re: ITX... 100% Enclosed?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 1:19 pm
by Welch
I was thinking the same thing after this post went dead a few weeks ago lol. Im considering making a neat little low powered fanless/enclosed water tight enclosure, thats been sealed in a room with near zero humidity to avoid condensation build up inside of it. This would be a cool project and I think that up here and in many other rugged places in the world (Antarctica, the Ice Roads for the diamond guys in Canada, Deadliest catch guys, ect) could really benefit from having a computer system that they don't need worry about whether or not its going to short out or something. Now ive seen some systems that are waterproof, and all... but nothing that was really meant to just be abused to the max. The Toughbooks for instance, very nice and all but they can't handle -70*F, they show them putting sand on them and all of that but they don't move the system around while doing it. It even amazed me that they and some other competitor to them still use mechanical drives in their rugged systems but charge 3-5 grand for their rig.

Re: ITX... 100% Enclosed?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 1:40 pm
by MadManOriginal
Not sure what the OP is thinking of but condensation comes from having something cold in warmer air not from having something warm in cold air.

Re: ITX... 100% Enclosed?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 3:18 pm
by Welch
MadManOriginal wrote:
Not sure what the OP is thinking of but condensation comes from having something cold in warmer air not from having something warm in cold air.


I think you may be missing a bit of the "equation"... You can have cold air with moisture in it and when it comes near a very warm/hot surface the area then becomes heated and redistributes throughout the case. When that warm air then hits that cold surface condensation will begin. True that the heat-sink will heat up quickly and be warmer than the air in the case, but the air/temp will mix and the surface that is not in direct contact with the source of the heat (the cpu hsf) will then have condensed water on it, more than likely the inner surface of the case which is acting as a heat-sink and will remain ice cold due to the constantly cold temperatures outside of the case. I may get lucky at first and only have that accumulation of water freeze to the top of the enclosure but eventually the ambient temp will rise enough to make it melt dripping down on the mobo and what not.

Re: ITX... 100% Enclosed?

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:54 am
by eitje
mount the motherboard upside down?

I'm interested in this idea, but I have no idea how I would test any prototypes I'd build.

Re: ITX... 100% Enclosed?

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:34 am
by just brew it!
Welch wrote:
MadManOriginal wrote:
Not sure what the OP is thinking of but condensation comes from having something cold in warmer air not from having something warm in cold air.

I think you may be missing a bit of the "equation"... You can have cold air with moisture in it and when it comes near a very warm/hot surface the area then becomes heated and redistributes throughout the case. When that warm air then hits that cold surface condensation will begin.

I think you are missing a bit of the equation as well. Unless the cold surface is colder than the air was before it was heated, the air will still be above its dew point, and condensation will not occur.

Getting back to your original concept, you would probably need to do something special for to cool the CPU, since there will be essentially zero air movement within the case. Thermally coupling the CPU to the exterior of the case somehow is probably your best bet.

Re: ITX... 100% Enclosed?

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:41 am
by SNM
You'll have to make sure your components can handle that kind of temperature, too -- a lot of electronics don't like to be stored below ~0 degrees C. I think it's usually the LCD screen that craps out soonest, but I'm betting mechanical hard drives would start whining at 10 or 20 below as well.

Re: ITX... 100% Enclosed?

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 4:55 pm
by Welch
Yep that was my largest worry now.. .the componants operating out of their cold start up range. LCD's for sure will be a problem, at -50 or so the liquid actually freezes... i've read from a few people posting on the net that it will eventually warm up and all you will see is the backlighting for awhile, or they will have very odd colors until they warm up. I'd imagine this sort of abuse makes for a short lived LCD..... NOW with OLED laptop coming out, thats a different matter. OLED screens actually have the ability to operate at -50*F from what i looked up, and there are supposed to be others that can go colder than that.

As for testing then out, i'd be hooking them up outside probably so as to really abuse them, figure out some sort of breaker so I dont take half the houses power out lol. If mounting the Motherboard upside down you'd still have the space between the top of the case and the bottom of the motherboard. That would probably make condensation for you... coldest because its the outer surface, and then the back side of the mobo with all of the heat, the coldest and hottest in close quarters :|