Running a Server at Freezing Temperatures?

mw13068 asks: "As a part of a backup solution, I'm thinking of running a backup server in my unheated, unattached garage. I live in central New York State, and the temperatures very often drop below zero degrees Celsius. The computer is a Pentium III Celeron running at 733MHz. Has anyone else tried this sort of thing? If you have, please share your experiences."

Comments

overclock?

[fcheslack]

is it just me, or are other people thinking he should overclock it to make sure its nice and warm (excuses to overclock are always good).

Re:Mice cause cancer in computers

[Anonymous Coward]

The [...] urine [...] destroyed the motherboard.

Only on ./ could this be modded informative... and it actually was.

Mice

[wanerious]

Yes, mice will chew through all exposed cables, especially if you put peanut butter on them.

Re:Mice

[rusty0101]

Mice were so much of a problem, eating cables, leaving a mess on the table, etc, that I switched all of mine out for trackballs and tablets.

Re:Mice

[ScrewMaster]

Mice are hard on electronics. When I was a kid back in the sixties, we had a Lowrey console organ in our living room. One year a field mouse got in (unbeknownst to us) and apparently spent quite a bit of time in the guts of that organ. The machine began to fail in odd ways, some keys only working sometimes, making unusual sounds for some stops, and other bizarreness (remember, this was in the days when everything was discrete analog, it was jam-packed with wires and circuit boards.) Finally Dad opened the thing up, and discovered that the furry little bastard had chewed through wires everywhere, removed components from boards ... generally made a complete mess of an expensive piece of equipment. Fortunately Dad was an electronics engineer and managed to get everything working again, but I can personally attest to the destructive powers of the lowly mouse.

The conclusion of the story happened a couple of days later when my uncle (an ex-Marine) found out that we had a mouse in the house. We never did find out exactly where the little monster was hiding during the day: he only came out at night. So my uncle sat up one night with a CO2 powered BB pistol (a REALLY powerful BB gun, actually.) Sometime after midnight I heard an extended flurry of *pop* *pop* *pop* from the gun, with my uncle crashing around the house swearing a blue streak. He eventually got the thing, but there were BB holes in everything and a trail of blood everywhere. My mother was ... not happy, come the next morning, although as I recall my uncle was inordinately proud of himself.

Re:CPU probably irrelevant

[tdemark]

Two letters and two words:

E Z Bake Oven

Seriously.

Get a rubbermaid or similar box is just a tad wider than the computer case is tall, 18" taller than the computer is wide and about a foot longer than the computer is deep.

Put a few 2x4 spacers at the bottom of the box (to hold the computer off the "floor" of the box) and place the computer in on it's side.

Cut a few holes on the "back" side of the box to run wires into - use heavy foam, rubber, or "great stuff" to seal the holes after the wires have been run.

Mount a light (with ceramic base) to the back of the box, about halfway from the upper side of the computer and the top of the box. Wire this light to an extension cord. You probably wouldn't need more than a 40W light bulb to keep the computer warm in the coldest of weather.

Put the top on. An E Z Bake Over to keep your computer warm.

Of course, there is no guarantee that this will (a) work, (b) not fry your computer, (c) not electrocute you, and (d) not burn down your house and/or garage. So: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

- Tony

Have you considered getting an Athlon?

[Lendrick]

It ought to keep your garage nice and warm. Problem solved. :)

Re:CPU probably irrelevant

[ticbot]

I think a nice wool-polyester blend from L.L.Bean would be just right.

Queer Eye For The CPU Guy?

Too cold?

[bob65]

Just use an AMD spaceheater - no more problem.