Effect of humidity on air-cooled PC?


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It's summer time where I live and I don't have air conditioning. I have a desktop computer that I like to use for gaming and software development and the room temperature is generally in the mid-80's F (30 - 31 C). In general, if the room temperature is 85 F or above, I just don't turn on my desktop. I have a liquid cooler for the CPU, while the rest of the components are cooled by fans. I have an MSI GTX 980 with a fan that blows air into the case. It can get very hot and humid, so I was wondering if humidity has any effect on cooling effectiveness in a PC.

What prompted this was that one day, the temperature was relatively low, in the lower 80's, but the humidity was higher than on previous days. It resulted in me being very uncomfortable, but since air-cooled computers don't rely on evaporation for cooling, I was thinking that the humidity would not affect the ability of the fans to cool my computer and thus the lower temperature meant that it might be a good day to use the desktop. But it's been years since I took atmospheric physics and a cursory Internet search didn't turn up anything related to humidity's effect on cooling, so I'm asking this community to see if anyone knows how humidity affects air cooling.

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Get a dehumidifier, will still keep the room warm, but will cut down on the condensation.

 

I keep a window A/C in my room. Our house has A/C, but doesn't get to the second floor well..

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9 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

Get a dehumidifier, will still keep the room warm, but will cut down on the condensation.

 

I keep a window A/C in my room. Our house has A/C, but doesn't get to the second floor well..

Same here. My office has an AC window unit even though my house has AC. Second floor of my house is still hot as can be.

I will say this though, I only turn the AC in my office on when I know I am going to be in it, otherwise my PC's are fine in a slightly warmer room (luckily there is not a lot of humidity).

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If anything moister air should be better at cooling than dryer air.

I mean think about it, you use liquid cooling because water transfers heat better than air, so moister air should transfer heat better than dryer air.

 

That being said it's probably only true if both were a tthe same temp, I'm sure dry but colder AirCon air would still be much better than warmer humid air, as fan's aren't designed to use water to cool. But you should have no problems running a PC on a humid day.

 

So long as its not so humid that you're getting condensation (which is fairly unlikely, you'd probably need to be like amazon rain forest humidity for that)

You should be absolutely fine.

 

Out of interest what levels of humidity are you at?

 

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4 minutes ago, philcruicks said:

If anything moister air should be better at cooling than dryer air.

I mean think about it, you use liquid cooling because water transfers heat better than air, so moister air should transfer heat better than dryer air.

 

That being said it's probably only true if both were a tthe same temp, I'm sure dry but colder AirCon air would still be much better than warmer humid air, as fan's aren't designed to use water to cool. But you should have no problems running a PC on a humid day.

 

So long as its not so humid that you're getting condensation (which is fairly unlikely, you'd probably need to be like amazon rain forest humidity for that)

You should be absolutely fine.

 

Out of interest what levels of humidity are you at?

 

+1 on that question

For some peace of mind. I've used custom built PCs and  laptops on a humidity going from %70-95  (Honduras, Central America), humidity is so bad it ruins plain bread loaf if left outside of a fridge.   Never had an issue with cooling components nor hot temperatures ( well, the normal ones anyway) on stock and overclocking.

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Ok, that's reassuring. 80% relative humidity in the upper-80's F is generally the highest it gets where I am, so if you guys have had PCs running fine in even more humid places, then I should be fine.

 

And yes, I do plan on getting a window unit AC soon.

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