[Pc_Support] Re: Case w/ good airflow and PSU with good +12V?

[Austin Denyer (Ozz)]

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 20:21:46 -0400, Homer Whittaker
<whittake at sbaflorida.com> wrote:
>
> All this talk about internal temperatures and in general discussions
> about leaving a linux  computer up and running for sometimes a year or
> more (Bryan what is the highest yours have gone to?) leaves me cold (pun
> intended).

I've had Novell NetWare 3.12 boxes that had been up for over 5 years
back in the late 90s.  It broke my heart to install the y2k patches as
the patches required a reboot...

> So this  talk about power supplies heating up and etc, etc. frankly does
> not make sense to me.

The main issue with power supplies (correct me if I'm wrong here) is
that if the PSU is unable to supply enough juice then the voltage
drops.  As the voltage drops, the current increases proportionally to
compensate (W=VA, so A=W/V), and the increased current is what causes
the increased heat.

I'm pretty sure that's what fried my 1.3GHz Athlon - the CPU was
running at INSANE temperatures...

> Secondly, in reference to the leaving the linux boxes on 24/7 I have
> neverr had one fail because of capacitors running out of alloted life
> times.  I have several motherboards that are 4 or 5 years old and they
> run 24/7 or almost.  What another engineering ghost just went out the
> window?

I have a Magitronic 386sx40 that's gotta be 15 years old.  It's still
running...

> Me  thinks the engineers are in cahoots with the manufacturing people so
> that they can get their new notions put into play :)

There are always exceptions to the rule...

Regards,
Ozz.