Best advice for Extreme Conditions

We have talked about why You Shouldn’t Leave Your Computer On Stand-by and we mentioned if you live in extreme conditions you shouldn’t use your computer at all, but sometimes you just can’t do that.
When you live in areas that are extremely cold, hot or humid there are other things to consider. Computers don’t respond well to cold, hot or humid and damage can result. Keeping today’s systems cool is a challenge under normal conditions, but when temperatures are high cooling is even more important.
If your temperatures are too low we have different problems. Lubricating grease and oils in fans, CD/DVDs and other moving parts get thicker when cold and my not lubricate as needed and in some instances even prevent movement altogether causing failure sooner rather than later.
Damp or humid areas can cause condensation on critical components like Hard Drive disks, causing head collision or short circuit electrical boards. A little moisture can be a really bad thing.
Going from hot to cold and back can be bad at both ends and in the transition. Heating and cooling cause components to expand and contract which leads to circuit fractures and sometimes even rubbing of close tolerance parts.
The best thing to do if you must work in extreme conditions is leave your computer running at all times. This helps to maintain a constant temperature inside and prevents moisture from forming those damaging dew drops. If you decide to move your computer from a cold place to a warmer place, say from your garage to your home, there is a greater chance of condensation forming once in the warm house. In these cases make sure you leave plenty of time for your equipment to gradually warm and dry out before powering it on.