Altitude?

[LuKreme]

On 6-Sep-2007, at 00:40, Eugene wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 08:50:12PM CDT, R.L. Grigg  
> <newslists at autonomy.caltech.edu> wrote:
>> On Sep 4, 2007, at 6:43 PM, Hacker Scot wrote:
>>> - Maximum altitude: 10,000 feet
>>>
>>> ??? What components in a computer are altitude sensitive?
>>
>> We've been told that the thinner air doesnt have the same cooling
>> effectiveness so it will likely casue overheating even when the  
>> fan blows
>> on full.
>
> The less dense the air is, the less number of "air" molecules,
> therefore the less amount of matter available to carry away heat
> via kinetic energy.

I don't buy that argument at all.  It's much more likely to be  
something like the reduced air pressure increases the chances that  
the r/w heads on the hard disk will 'crash' to the disc surface, as  
someone else mentioned.

However, in an imac, there could easily be other components that are  
altitude sensitive (the bulb for the LCD perhaps?); so it's hard to  
guess.

I do note that Maxtor hard drives list a maximum altitude of 3048  
meters, which must be just about exactly 10,000 feet.

My Seagate has a non-operating max altitude of 12,000 meters, but  
that is NON-operating.

-- 
"There will always be women in rubber flirting with me."