What is a safe ambient temperature for your computer?

Answer 1

External case temperature should always be below 27*C (80*F), with the best temperatures around 18*C (65*F). Internal air temperature should be around 40*C (104*F), except for heatsinks, which require lower temperatures.

As long as you're using fans, don't be worried until case air temperature exceeds 55*C(130*F). At this point, both fans and passive coolers will be useless, and only liquid cooling will be able to safely protect your components.

Answer 2

In general, the cooler, the better. Cold works really well. But don't reach for the thermostat yet. Grab a seat and pull it up. Let's chat. The semiconductors in modern computers like it cold. So do the other components, generally speaking. But the new stuff has been designed and engineered to work well in "warm" or even "hot" environments. Particularly the laptops and other portable computing devices. If someone like, say, a surveyor is out in the desert using a computer to locate benchmarks or load data, he or she needs that machine to work. And it will. It was designed to. It isn't a good idea to ramp the thermostat down thinking your computer will be happier. It will, but it can take "room temperature" and even more. Work in a temperature that is comfortable but that conserves energy, and let your well-designed and well-engineered computer take care of itself. It'll do fine.

Answer 3

Depends how powerful it is. Lower power PC's (like dinosaurs) should run at a lower temperature. Newer or more powerful computers can run hotter.