Hi all,
I want to put 2 Atx-router in an waterproofed box outside. I would like to know if someone had problems with this setup. No one had problems with condensation water in winter? Please let me know some experiences from your sides.
hkaiser
Errr…
Do you mean putting P4 or AMD ATX motherboards in a sealed box outdoors?
Not a good plan, P4/AMD CPUs emit between 50 and 100W each, plus the motherboard electronics and PSU. Things will cook …
It IS possible to make fanless, sealed units but they need to be low-power processors, and there are some specialist technologies needed.
We spent a lot of time and developed some good solutions for this, but be warned, there is a cost implication.
Someday, there will be cheap, plentiful low-power CPUs and boards to make outdoor routers with. But now, it’s a headache and not too cheap.
Regards
you could use heat pipes on a pentium m/athlon mobile, then have the ends of the heatpipes sticking out the box(caulk the hole well), then have outdoor rated fans blowing on the exposed heatpipe tips.
itll still run hot, but it may run. if you try it let me know how it goes, i never did it before.
also make the box white NOT BLACK.
Has anyone tried the circulated liquid coolers?
Or the dialetric coolers ?
I know… Power Power Power…
hey guys, hkaiser asked about ATX routers and you throw 3.8+GHz beasts on him - don’t you know that many nice p2/300MHz and higher ATX solutions exist and still are operable?
hkaiser, we operate SEVERAL p2/400MHz to p3/1200MHz atx boxes in plastic IP55 (I think) waterproof boxes. The only cooling solution we’ve done is 7cm = 2.75" inch hole at the bottom of box with standard PSU 8cm fan bought for 3$. We are located in mid-europe, no sea here, temperatures ranging from -15 degr. Celsius to around +40C, usually below 35. We don’t use any temperature controlled units to stop these fans at winter or any other mean of “temperature control/management”. So far (several years), NO PROBLEMS, no condensation, no rost, nothing. You have to understand that each ATX box will create its own microclimate inside the box - even if you have -15 C, heat generated by CPU, chipset, radio card(s) etc is enough to keep above zero temperatures inside the box. We have never found trace of water or condensation.
My bad…
I was not thinking…
I use a PII/400 at the house and have No issues with it..
Being a hardware Eng. I seem to forget that some of the older hardware still works !!
Craig
You don’t use any temperature controlled units to stop these fans at winter or any other mean of temperature control?
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P4 1500Mhz
