Comments on: Long Haul Low-Cost PC “Refit” How-To

By: CD DVD Printer

CD DVD Printer — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Intel and AMD are both different when it comes to price, but if you will compare then when it comes to performance they are almost the same.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:48:33 +0000

Yes, it’s true that everything nowadays are made to be more easily broken, maybe in around 5 years or even less. Nobody wants to manufacture highly durable things because you need a “high-circulation production” for continuing living in today’s commercial and consumption demand. People get bored more and more easily and get “wow” for every newer things, and every manufacturer responding well to that. Reduce costs, and keep people buying and buying. That’s it…

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:15:22 +0000

One thing to also consider that really hasn’t happened yet is the 10-year PC (hence the reason there aren’t any long-term articles on the subject since everybody throws theirs out after 5). Not many have the exact same PC they did 10 years ago that they still use daily as their do-everything machine.

It also doesn’t help that our technology is designed by nature to be disposable.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:53:50 +0000

Electromigration is another culprit people blame. But what I have never seen is a true study with controls, etc. that shows that given otherwise identical circumstances, a hotter machine will actually not last as long in a real world environment.

Admittedly without evidence, I still believe that other external factors contribute to the demise of the vast majority of computers. In fact, I bet most “dead” PC’s don’t have a dead CPU, but instead a fried motherboard from a power surge or power supply failure, or even a dead hard drive for the less savvy user. Or dead fans, dust, mechanical shock, etc. I think these things are so much more likely to cause a problem that the heat issue is moot.

I am just not sure giving up computational power to get a cooler running CPU is worth it. I fully admit I could be dead wrong–I just wonder if the the big picture equation adds up.

(Thanks for letting me be a devil’s advocate around here, BTW.)

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:59:04 +0000

Short answer: No. Heat alone does not cause the metal components of a PC to degrade, but the shifting of cool to warm back to cool does.

Long answer (and bear in mind I’m not a metallurgist):

The best example of what can happen to thin metal components is if you examine an older miniSD card, such as the kind put in cell phones (which generate a good amount of heat routinely.) The constant shifting of temperature from cool to warm/hot will cause the metal contacts to contract and expand. Over an extended period of time the contacts will “shrivel” and may even separate/break.

As to why this occurs, it’s because the molecular properties of the metal do not “fall back” into the same state they were from hot to cold. Over time, this causes the metal to becomes brittle, then break/separate.

If the metal components of a PC are kept at a cooler – or steady – temperature, they will not be subjected to constant expansion and contraction, and therefore last longer.

This starts with using parts in a PC that run cooler by nature. The less heat generated = the less expansion that occurs = the less contraction that occurs = metal components that last longer = longer overall PC life span.

[edit]

Incidentally this is why there are so many 8-bit computers like Commodore 64′s, Apple II’s and so on that still turn on and operate just as good as the day they were manufactured decades ago, as they barely generate any heat at all.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:30:14 +0000

Does heat really degrade a computer? People say this all the time, but I have never seen an article that actually has empirical evidence that it does. Can someone point to one? And I don’t mean the crap you get when you google “does heat kill computers”. I mean a real scientific paper with data. I mean, do the gates on the IC’s actually physically degrade? I have my doubts. I am not talking about the an instance of some sort of cooling system failure with a large spike–I mean does running a chip at 50 degrees C for years eventually “cook” the chip? I doubt it (again, what is the mechanism of failure). If not, then there is no reason to worry about how much heat your components give off.

By: Brian Griffin

Brian Griffin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:09:24 +0000

The upgrade version of Windows 7 will accept itself as a previous version. Install it, don’t put the validation code in and let it start. The use the windows disk again but chose update this time and and the code when it asks. Then you need to go into disk clean up and remove the previous version. This is what Microsoft tech support had me do because I did a clean install of 7 (like they suggest) and it wouldn’t accept the validation code.

By: eli

eli — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:47:13 +0000

This can also be applied to public libraries. We have a major need to make use of older/existing hardware because of budget constraints. Open source software has been a BIG help to us in doing this. Ubuntu has let us continue to use machines that cannot handle the combination of XP and the antivirus software that a Windows OS needs.

Tech Soup has also helped a great deal. There’s assistance out there for organizations like churches and libraries to take advantage of, the trick is to find it. For example, we take advantage of e-rate on our phone bill here at the library. Some organizations qualify for a great deal of assistance in the technology area through the e-rate system.

By: Steve Stone

Steve Stone — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:30:09 +0000

We are talking churches, which are non profit charities, which means they most probably qualify for access to a site like Tech Soup which in the past has offered VLKs for XP Pro for $8 a pop. Not sure if Win7 is currently available.