Can humid air damage a PC?

[Actual_Criminal]

With it being summer in the UK and doing loads of air cooling/conditioning stuff the past couple of weeks, it got me thinking if the precipitation is quite heavy and the air is humid, can this affect your PC?

 

Obviously, you have intake fans, so humid air will be running across electrical parts inside your PC (and I guess water could even build up?).

 

Realistically, is this a problem? - Any measures you can take to be safe?

 

Also, slightly off topic but I thought I would ask the question; if you PC dust filters are clogged, temperatures will be higher of course. Besides performance, is there any risk or not really?

[cacoe]

Well I'm in the UK and humidity in my area is about 60% outdoors, 52% indoors because I have all the windows open, which shouldn't cause a problem (its on the edge of acceptable). In terms of the filters being blocked, they should be cleaned reguarly, so there's no reason not to clean them out. Depending on how bad it is, will determine how much actual air flow you're getting and if it's bad enough - next to none which will cause overheating and potential damage.

 

Probs overkill but in the summer months here where it can reach 32c in my living room, I slap the fan speeds right up to compensate for the ambient temp.

[Beerzerker]

You'll be suprised to hear some humidity is actually good to help avoid problems with static.

If the air is too dry you'll have static and that's why server rooms have an established humidity percentage they maintain at all times.
I've seen it maintained around 50-55% in some server rooms but usually around 40-50% is the norm I've ever seen and I used to do HVAC work at the job I had, I was maintaining the various AC units around the place I worked and one of those was to the server room.

The only time alot of humidity becomes a problem is when water begins condensating in or on your machine.
As long as the PC itself is the same temp or warmer than the ambient temp in the room you're fine and that doesn't happen, it's when it gets cold in comparison to room temp is when you'll have actual condensation occur.

[Actual_Criminal]

15 minutes ago, Beerzerker said:

You'll be suprised to hear some humidity is actually good to help avoid problems with static.

If the air is too dry you'll have static and that's why server rooms have an established humidity percentage they maintain at all times.
I've seen it maintained around 50-55% in some server rooms but usually around 40-50% is the norm I've ever seen and I used to do HVAC work at the job I had, I was maintaining the various AC units around the place I worked and one of those was to the server room.

The only time alot of humidity becomes a problem is when water begins condensating in or on your machine.
As long as the PC itself is the same temp or warmer than the ambient temp in the room you're fine and that doesn't happen, it's when it gets cold in comparison to room temp is when you'll have actual condensation occur.

Oh wow, I didn't know this.

 

I always thought those server rooms in large organisations were supposed to be done dry, lol. Who'd of thought.

[jaslion]

22 minutes ago, Actual_Criminal said:

Oh wow, I didn't know this.

 

I always thought those server rooms in large organisations were supposed to be done dry, lol. Who'd of thought.

Oh no that would be a static hellhole. At work we had an issue like this due to the heatpump also having a dehumidify unit installed with it and it was set to the wrong setting nonstop dehumidifying the room for over a week :p.

[dkoudijs]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

Oh no that would be a static hellhole. At work we had an issue like this due to the heatpump also having a dehumidify unit installed with it and it was set to the wrong setting nonstop dehumidifying the room for over a week :p.

Yea, I have seen way to many server racks, in a closet with an AC unit just blasting the front of the rack with no regard for huminity. While items keep shutting down in the racks due to static.

Here is a rough idea (I think the temps are to high here, as 25C is sorta the limit of what I like)

https://serverscheck.com/sensors/temperature_best_practices.asp

[dizmo]

I highly doubt you have enough humidity to damage anything.

[Bitter]

Check dew point for your temperature and humidity, as long as no parts of your PC are at or below dew point then you won't have condensation.

[LogicalDrm]

Condensation is the key issue, not humidity by itself. Condesation happens on surface when cool and hot meet. With powered electronics, the change in temps is too slow to cause really any issues.

[Kisai]

On 7/20/2021 at 3:19 AM, Actual_Criminal said:

With it being summer in the UK and doing loads of air cooling/conditioning stuff the past couple of weeks, it got me thinking if the precipitation is quite heavy and the air is humid, can this affect your PC?

 

Obviously, you have intake fans, so humid air will be running across electrical parts inside your PC (and I guess water could even build up?).

 

Realistically, is this a problem? - Any measures you can take to be safe?

 

Also, slightly off topic but I thought I would ask the question; if you PC dust filters are clogged, temperatures will be higher of course. Besides performance, is there any risk or not really?

Some models of ASRock motherboards have a "dehumidifier" mode. All it does is run the fans every few hours.

 

You're in trouble if it gets to the point that water condenses on things, but otherwise the PC, left on, will usually be too warm for condensation to form. Water cooling is another matter. Since if the liquid is cooler than the humid air around it, it will form condensation.

 

PC's can eventually get enough dust clogged (particularly if you have long hair, have any pets, smoke, or just don't like to clean) that they will overheat, regardless of the condition of the vents on the PC.

 

 

[Bitter]

1 hour ago, Kisai said:

Some models of ASRock motherboards have a "dehumidifier" mode. All it does is run the fans every few hours.

 

You're in trouble if it gets to the point that water condenses on things, but otherwise the PC, left on, will usually be too warm for condensation to form. Water cooling is another matter. Since if the liquid is cooler than the humid air around it, it will form condensation.

 

PC's can eventually get enough dust clogged (particularly if you have long hair, have any pets, smoke, or just don't like to clean) that they will overheat, regardless of the condition of the vents on the PC.

 

 

Wait, what? Your coolant (water in this case or a blend of water and glycol most likely) can only be as cold as ambient temp, it doesn't magically get colder than ambient. You're maybe thinking of phase change cooling like with a refrigerator unit?

[LogicalDrm]

26 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

No, a lack of vaseline is the key issue.  Do you even LN2, bruh?!

Still condensation is what you are using the vaseline for. So your point? Be annoying smarty pants?

[wisex]

I feel like I'm pretty qualified to answer this, so I live in Florida and we regularly have humidity indexes around 90%, and my computers work fine down here. I'd say where you would want to worry is if you have actual water sports forming or something, but honestly unless you were in a green house, you're not likely to experience that in the UK

[Actual_Criminal]

So I bought a hygrometer and my room measures around 47% to 62% give or take some days.