atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories Computer Life

The main failure point that I have found on newer PC's is the hard drives. They just do not last near as long as the older ones. What I have started doing is putting drive coolers on them, nothing fancy, just a fan to replace the bay cover. This keeps cooler air flowing over the drive and appears to extend its life quite a bit.

Drives will wear faster the hotter they get. They will also wear faster if they are too cool. There is kind of a lukewarm operating temperature where you achieve the least amount of wear. I forget the exact number but I remember it being in the 45-c range (so just above body temperature).

Also got to remember that a 3600-rpm hard drive will wear less then a 7200-rpm hard drive under the same conditions. Not to mention a 3600-rpm hard-drive was the size of a small shoebox and took like 4-amps to run.

Quality and target market have something to do with it as well. Most desktop hard-drives are designed to be cheap at all costs. The MTBF for these drives is usually rated at like 20% duty cycle. This is typically what you are going to find at CompUSA and Staples, etc.

A mid-grade SATA drive like a Seagate ES or WD Raptor are designed for light-duty enterprise usage. I've been using the Seagate ES drives since they came out and they are very reliable and perform well. I have yet to have a failure. The MTBF for this class of drive is usually in the 60% area.

High-End drives, such as SAS and SCSI, are designed for the sole purpose of high usage and availability. The MTBF is usually rated at 80-85% duty cycle and they are usually given completely different internals as the desktop line. This is also reflected in the price. These drives will usually last YEARS upon YEARS in normal usage. Even in high-use raids they are usually only rotated every 5 years.

The other thing you got to remember is that MTBF does not mean the drive will last that long. That rating means that if you replace the drive on manufacturer suggested intervals (Life Expectancy) you will have that much time before you experience an unplanned failure.

Take for instance, a drive with an MTBF of 50,000 hours and a life expectancy of 2-years (consumer desktop drive). This means that if you replace that drive every 2-years, it will take 50,000 hours (Or 5.7 years) before you experience an unplanned drive error.

The consumer/desktop grade drives are only designed for a 1 to 2 year life expectancy.

The enterprise grade drives are usually rated at 5.

Again, this is also just a "guideline". Your mileage may vary.

Dang, Kumba, I don't care what 'they' say about you, you can stay. Altho most people couldn't care less, the info in the last couple of posts is probably interesting to most regulars here. Thanks, for the info. Now, do I start thinking about building a new vista compatible, but with XP for now, unit? Or do I wait for the inevitable crash, then kick myself down to Big Box and get the shaft? Only procrastination knows! John C. (Not Garand)

I'd run XP. Vista is pretty useless. Infact it will break more things then it fixes.

I was looking up Seagate ES drives last night, and they are rated for about 40-degrees celsius.

I change all my computers(in my office) every 3 years, I default the old ones and keep them as back ups. Overkill yes, downtime, never. I find other uses for the old computers, donation, for a customer that wants an SMDR program etc.


Walter

Chances are in 3 years the computer will be so outdated that it wont run some of what you need anyways.

The only exception to this rule is a server, as they typically only run the same stuff they are initially configured with. So unless the load increases on a server or it's storage requirements increase, they are pretty static.