Summer on PCs

[Alan Dayley]

At 03:02 PM 12/19/00 -0700, you wrote:
--<clip>--
 >My advice is don't do it. (Your equipment will probably be okay for a
 >while, but it is likely that something will fail sooner than it
 >would've if you had kept it cool.)
--<clip>--

I can also report that it will work for sometime but you will have 
above-average failures and/or shorter life. I have done work over the years 
for a guy with a 4 computer network in a travel trailer in his back yard. 
He only runs the AC when he is actually in the trailer for about 3 hours 
each day in the morning. We replace major components of his computers (cpu, 
memory, hard drives) about every two years. Monitors are worse. Until I got 
him to turn them off if not in use, one would last only about 9 months. 
(The monitor shouldn't be a problem for a server though. It can run 
"headless.")

His philosophy is that replacing computer parts, that he would want to 
upgrade anyway, is cheaper than renting a "real" office somewhere. Can't 
argue with that, I guess.

Now that I think about it, one of the computers is an OLD 486SX with a 
200MB hard drive that is on 24/7 as a fax reciever. It hasn't had a failure 
for about 3 years... Luck? I'll probably get a call on that one soon...

Alan