PC in attic concerns

T

TWallace

Young grasshopper
Dec 26, 2015
62
12
Shoreline, WA
I've just moved my Blue Iris PC into the attic. Are there any concerns other than heat in summer, or roof leaks that I should be aware of? I'm in Seattle, so it doesn't normally get too hot in summer, and the PC has excellent cooling. It's in a Coolermaster HAF 912 case, has a beefy Noctua CPU cooler and I've added 2 200mm fans and a 140mm fan to the case. It's not overclocked at all.

The reason I'd like to have it in the attic is for security in case of burglary. If it's in the attic, I think it's far less likely to be stolen. Previously it was just out in the open in the basement.
 
as someone who's had tons of harddrives over the last two decades, I can say overheating killed a good share of them.. how much you spend on your storage?

have you ever monitored the temperature range of your attic throughout the year, I bet you'd be surprised.. what about humidity? I see algae growing on vinyl siding up there, your HV/AC is not providing any dehumidification up there.. its likely to be closer to outside humidity than inside.

If you have a basement I would say use it, they dont seem that common in that part of the country, there are other ways to hide or secure something.. could put it in a hamper in your laundry room wtih a false floor and put some smelly gym clothes on top, and I came up with that in just a few moments..
 
Put it near top of closet and put a board near ceiling to make false ceiling and maybe vent into another room/closet. You might be better off with a small nvr to hide and use blue iris pc for notification stuff maybe
 
nayr said:
as someone who's had tons of harddrives over the last two decades, I can say overheating killed a good share of them.. how much you spend on your storage?

have you ever monitored the temperature range of your attic throughout the year, I bet you'd be surprised.. what about humidity? I see algae growing on vinyl siding up there, your HV/AC is not providing any dehumidification up there.. its likely to be closer to outside humidity than inside.

If you have a basement I would say use it, they dont seem that common in that part of the country, there are other ways to hide or secure something.. could put it in a hamper in your laundry room wtih a false floor and put some smelly gym clothes on top, and I came up with that in just a few moments..
Click to expand...

I have not monitored the summer time temps in the attic. It's usually quite dry in summer here, and when it's wet it's a lot cooler. There's no mold growing in the attic, so I think the humidity is pretty low.

The basement is finished and there's not really any where to hide a PC there.
 
pal251 said:
Put it near top of closet and put a board near ceiling to make false ceiling and maybe vent into another room/closet. You might be better off with a small nvr to hide and use blue iris pc for notification stuff maybe
Click to expand...

I don't have any closets with a power outlet. Maybe you're saying to install an outlet in a closet first.
 
nayr said:
as someone who's had tons of harddrives over the last two decades, I can say overheating killed a good share of them.. how much you spend on your storage?
Click to expand...

I forgot to answer this in my previous comment. I've spent around $200 on the storage in the PC. It's got 2 WD Purple drives, a 1TB and a 4TB. It boots from an SSD, but that only runs Windows and Blue Iris and doesn't store any recordings.
 
TWallace said:
I've just moved my Blue Iris PC into the attic. Are there any concerns other than heat in summer, or roof leaks that I should be aware of? I'm in Seattle, so it doesn't normally get too hot in summer, and the PC has excellent cooling. It's in a Coolermaster HAF 912 case, has a beefy Noctua CPU cooler and I've added 2 200mm fans and a 140mm fan to the case. It's not overclocked at all.

The reason I'd like to have it in the attic is for security in case of burglary. If it's in the attic, I think it's far less likely to be stolen. Previously it was just out in the open in the basement.
Click to expand...

TWallace,

I have a Synology 4 Bay NAS, TP-Link 24 Port Switch and a cheap IP Cam in my attic for the reason you say "In case of a burglary" and I've never had any problems with this setup. I've changed two hard drives on the NAS in about 3 year on separate occasions.

In the Winter it's reasonably cold and in the Summer it's quite warm. If this helps you.
 
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