A user’s gaming PC is too hot, he simply lets the icy outside air cool the system – how dangerous is the “cool” idea?

On March 15, 2023By Garmin Philip

A gamer has to deal with high temperatures in his PC. He came up with a particularly brilliant idea: he simply put the PC on the balcony in the icy air. But this “solution” is hotly debated. Does the cold air damage the gaming system or does it not matter?

The user himself shows with a picture what great effect the cold outside air has on his PC. The -10 degrees outside temperature lowers the internal temperatures of his computer significantly. Its Intel processor temperatures range from 6 to 9 degrees, which is pretty impressive.

But can the “brilliant” idea damage the PC or can something like this simply be done? The community is extremely divided.

Can humidity damage the gaming PC?

These are the reactions: Not everyone is enthusiastic and believes that such an action will damage their gaming PC in the long term. Many explain, for example, that the humidity outside must be much higher. In a very short time he should have completely different problems than “high temperatures”. So Someone Mocks (via reddit.com):

Next post: Can cold computers be switched on? I don’t know what happened after exposing my computer to unusual humidity.

Others see another problem: the computer would not run for days at a time. If the heavily cooled computer were then switched on after several hours, it would also damage the system. Because electronic devices and cold don’t really go together. With such sudden temperature fluctuations, condensation can form. And moisture does not like any electronic device.

However, the user Kingmi123 joins the thread starter and replies that the humidity is not a big problem. As he writes (via reddit.com):

A lot of threads here don’t take into account that the saturation point of cold air is always lower than that of warm air.

Cold air is fully saturated by fewer water molecules than hot air. This means that for 100% humidity in cold air there must be less water in the air than in hot air. As soon as the saturation point is reached, condensation occurs.

That’s why hot air hitting a cold surface condenses. The air near the cold surface is colder and therefore has a lower saturation point. What is 60% humidity in a warm room becomes 100% humid when hitting the cold surface.

Reverses the above scenario as OP does. Cold air comes into contact with a hot surface. The percentage of relative humidity around the components is much lower than outside, which means that condensation is practically impossible.

You can observe the principle in winter when you heat your apartment. If the warm air hits the cold window surface, the window becomes damp. The biggest problem is therefore when condensate forms. Because water damages computers and can cause a short circuit.

If the humidity in your apartment is very high, then this can cause several problems at once and can also cause mold. Normally, the humidity in the apartment should be between 50 and 60%. By the way, this can be checked with a hygrometer, which you can get for a few euros in specialist shops or hardware stores.

Gamer opens Gaming PC for the first time in 6 years and shows why you shouldn’t make the same mistake

High temperatures cause various problems in the computer

Why should high temperatures be avoided? Running hardware under high temperatures will eventually run significantly slower. Because the processor and graphics card throttle the performance to deal with the heat or switch off in an emergency to protect components.

On top of that, some components wear out more quickly when there are large temperature fluctuations or at very high temperatures. Therefore, many gamers try to keep the temperatures and possible fluctuations within limits and either use extensive air cooling or immediately rely on water cooling.

How to check temperatures? With the little one Tool HW Monitor you can easily (and free of charge) check the temperatures in your computer. The data is read out in the tool and you can check it directly.

AMD criticized for high temperatures: In the past, AMD, among others, had to struggle with criticism of high temperatures. There have been reports of extremely hot GPUs with the new RX 7000 graphics cards. Issues AMD subsequently had to look at.

The situation is different for processors. In some cases, high temperatures are said to be “normal”. For example, AMD explained that 95 degrees is completely normal for the current “Ryzen 7000” generation and the chips are designed for such temperatures (via hardwareluxx.de).

However, most gamers should still be concerned when the temperatures in the computer reach almost 100 degrees.