A question for anyone who knows anything about computers.

[SEAN!]

is it a bad thing if i never turn it off?

i have two hooped computers right now, one that is five years old and one that is probably about 8 years old. I need to buy a new laptop for school/work. how should i take care of it to avoid it becoming a slow piece of dirt.

[rawb]

the startup process is hard on things like your power supply. if you arent concerned about power no reason to ever turn your computer off.

things that will harm most people's computers are physical shock (dont kick it or drop it or move it), heat (make sure all your fans spin and that your internal temp isnt too bad, also dont place the computer next to a radiator or put the intake fans right up against a wall) and dust/lint (every once in a while remove the accumulated dust from your computer with a can of compressed air)

[ebbomega]

I've heard it said that constantly turning your computer on and off does more damage than just leaving it running at all times. For desktops it's also a smart idea not to get an OEM machine (like a Dell or an Acer or whatnot) and instead get a computer shop to build one for you (or if you at all know how to build one yourself, you can buy the components piece by piece and do it up). OEM machines cause all kinds of headaches whenever you try to upgrade or change equipment.

As for laptops, brand is important. Dells generally have cheaper hardware and will crap out on you quicker, whereas IBM/Lenovo and Acer are pretty decent. Macbooks are sexy but expensive. Toshibas used to be mint but I've been hearing a few complaints recently that they've gone downhill, but that's all second hand stuffs. eMachines are flakier than eTards. Sony also used to be rad but is teh suck now. Also try to get one with a spare RAM slot so that you can upgrade that if you ever feel you need to (RAM is one of the easiest things to upgrade wherein you'll get a noticeable boost in performance).

[ppcock]

the worst thing you can do is turn it off/on a lot.

It's been probably 8 months since I've turned off my computer.

[ebbomega]

2 WEEK UPTIME, THAT'S WHEN I LAST DID A KERNEL UPGRADE.l

[Ragga_Wh0re]

i turn mine off every night:(i need to find a better spot for it or get rid of my desk top and get a laptop

[SEAN!]

is it normal for a computer to get slower with age/use?

i have this pentium like 66 laptop thats a hand me down from my mom from years ago and it runs faster and infinitely more reliably then the 2.ghz p4 desktop i have

[brit]

does anyone know anything about these. Thinking about buying one for a trip, strictly to keep up to date with family/email ect.
worth it or no? I couldn't carry anything any heavier.

[ebbomega]

Originally Posted by SEAN!

is it normal for a computer to get slower with age/use?

i have this pentium like 66 laptop thats a hand me down from my mom from years ago and it runs faster and infinitely more reliably then the 2.ghz p4 desktop i have

Not really, no. Usually if it's running slower it's because something's meefed with the software itself

[ppcock]

Originally Posted by brit

does anyone know anything about these. Thinking about buying one for a trip, strictly to keep up to date with family/email ect.
worth it or no? I couldn't carry anything any heavier.

They're fantastic.
Small, light, lots of cool features.

good for school, some folks at work have some, meaning to get one but tattoo's and diving ftw for now.

[fritz]

speaking from experience the on/off thing is a myth

the top 3 hazards are:

heat
power spikes/static shock
dust (which is just the precursor to heat)


You can turn your desktop on every morning for 5 years and nothing bad will happen. It just happens to correlate with when dumb mistakes made at the OS layer will become apparent. Why not save the environment, and you dont have to listen to that dumb fan anymore.

[brit]

Do you think the 2gb is enough for my purposes (email/travel research) ?

They get a bit bigger then that, but $250 sounds great

[rawb]

Originally Posted by fritz

speaking from experience the on/off thing is a myth

when a power supply kicks the bucket it tends to work fine until turned off again, in my experience with old servers and the like

[stringbeans]

ive maybe turned my computer off once or twice since the beginning of this year. its really important (if you do constantly keep your machine on) that when you do decide to turn it off or whatever, open up the case and clean out all the dust that'll accumulate on your fans or cpu cooler. mines a dust magnet, but then again i dont have side panels for my tower heh

[fritz]

Originally Posted by rawb

when a power supply kicks the bucket it tends to work fine until turned off again, in my experience with old servers and the like

true enough, issues can be hidden until the computer is restarted. So if you restart it a lot you'll find out sooner when there's a problem. Also no one shuld turn ever off their cars to avoid any ignition issues.

[anewlife]

Originally Posted by SEAN!

is it a bad thing if i never turn it off?

Hopefully not...

fishatfishbox:~$ uptime
15:34:39 up 184 days, 11 min, 2 users, load average: 0.08, 0.02, 0.01

[ebbomega]

Originally Posted by anewlife

fishatfishbox:~$ uptime
15:34:39 up 184 days, 11 min, 2 users, load average: 0.08, 0.02, 0.01

FISH HAT!

[stephen_c]

Originally Posted by SEAN!

is it a bad thing if i never turn it off?

i have two hooped computers right now, one that is five years old and one that is probably about 8 years old. I need to buy a new laptop for school/work. how should i take care of it to avoid it becoming a slow piece of dirt.

keep it on.
the only down side is a noisy fan,
but if it's 8 yrs old, it's prbly pretty noisy already.

Originally Posted by brit

does anyone know anything about these. Thinking about buying one for a trip, strictly to keep up to date with family/email ect.
worth it or no? I couldn't carry anything any heavier.

the eee is gr8.

check out the acer aspire one
512mb 8gb ssd 8.9" 1024X600
$329.99 @ ncix.

[rawb]

Originally Posted by fritz

true enough, issues can be hidden until the computer is restarted. So if you restart it a lot you'll find out sooner when there's a problem. Also no one shuld turn ever off their cars to avoid any ignition issues.

a computer isn't a car.

but, to use your analogy, if you rely on an older car or computer to continue to run, and you know a usually unnecessary function will render it inoperable, then logically you should avoid that function unless it is absolutely needed (unless you work in an IT department/car repair shop where you have a lot of spare parts, get paid to fix things, and finding problems justifies your job).

[inside]

This is the cheapest, best builder of pc's.

LU Computer -- Index

no pst, only gst!

[SEAN!]

Originally Posted by rawb

a computer isn't a car.

but, to use your analogy, if you rely on an older car or computer to continue to run, and you know a usually unnecessary function will render it inoperable, then logically you should avoid that function unless it is absolutely needed (unless you work in an IT department/car repair shop where you have a lot of spare parts, get paid to fix things, and finding problems justifies your job).

my name is sean, im an accountant, computers are a tool and some times i like to look at porn with one, (no japscat).


user friendly and reliable is what im looking for. rawb, ebbo and marty got that, all you other mufuckahs is nerd ass mufuckahs.

yo rawb say wassup to michelle for me, quality son.

[kir mokum]

you're an accountant?

[Lenny]

dear people in this post. listen to rawb. and me.