leaving a machine on 24/7. whats the impact on hardware life-span ???

qwijibow · 01-23-2005, 03:41 PM

I have a chaintech VNF-250 AMD64 Motherboard.

2 Case fans, 1 PSU fan, and 1 CPU fan, (ive stted a seprate thread on difuculty's controlling fan speeds, but thats a seperate question)

My CPU voltage and Frequency are controlled by an amdpowernowd deamod which
lowers the cpu freq and voltage is cpu load drops below 50% and increaces it it rises above 90%
Maximum setting is 2.4Ghz 1500 mV
Minimum Setting is 1Ghz 1100mV

my hard disk is set to spin down if left Idle for 10 minutes.

99% of the time, the machine is serverly underclocked.

but what impact should i expect to see on the computer hadware's life span ?

jtshaw · 01-23-2005, 04:08 PM

Id guess it'll last a lot longer then you'll be using it. My oldest PC has been running 24/7 for over 6 years now without a problem. Sure it's slow, but it still makes a great mail server.

michaelk · 01-23-2005, 04:16 PM

I have PCs that are on 24/7 and others that only run 6 hours a day without any failures. My work PCs are on 24/7 with out any problems too.

The hardest thing on electronic equipment is turning it on. Except for laptops and maybe saving a few $ I do not see then need to spin down the drive. It is harder on the drive if it spins up and down a lot vs just running.

The important thing is keeping a stable environment.

Tuttle · 01-23-2005, 04:39 PM

Also, clean the boards and heatsinks from time to time as dust restricts the lovely cool air.

qwijibow · 01-23-2005, 05:31 PM

About the disk....
Yes, im sure accellerating the disk is the hard part. but the disk gets very hot.

lets say i leave the machine on 24/7. i may only be using if for a few hours.
surely the rest of the day, the disk would be better off.

what idle times would you recomend ?
in server mode, ive set swappyness to 0 (i have 2 runlevels, default and server) so im hoping the disk will sleep untill i login vie ssh.

qwijibow · 01-23-2005, 05:32 PM

Ohh, and about cleaning the Board...
How ? wont wiping dust away generate static ???

Tuttle · 01-23-2005, 05:48 PM

use a damp cloth... only joking! Use a natural fibre paintbrush for best results.

qwijibow · 01-23-2005, 06:51 PM

i have a draw full of unused (clean) paintbrushes, but i have no idea what there made of, probably nylon. a problem ???

Tuttle · 01-23-2005, 07:12 PM

The thing to do is, while you clean with one hand, hold the case with your other hand. That way, you will discharge any static you generate to ground, thereby not zapping any delicate components while you clean.
As to the brush, does it melt if you heat it? If yes, then it's plastic. It probably wouldn't make that much difference anyway!