Leaving a Computer Running ?

[Anthony Atkielski]

Xian writes:

X> I have an archaic thing thing running a small web server and it is built a
X> damn site better than most other computers I've seen. It has and old SCSI
X> drive that's built like a brick.

What brand?  My old HP Vectra is beautifully built, but you don't really
notice it until you open the case.  I've seen other high-end HP
computers that were equally well built, both in terms of case design and
in terms of quality of parts and workmanship.

Compaq servers (now part of HP) had similar reputations, and I've heard
that Dells are pretty good, although I haven't looked inside.

On the other hand, some systems are junk.  People in our IT department
said you could tell who had worked on one particular brand of PC by
looking at his hands and arms: if they were disfigured by dozens of tiny
scars, it meant that he had been working on this particular brand, which
contained stamped metal parts with very sharp edges that would cut at
the slightest touch.  The same people also complained that no two
computers of this particular brand were ever the same, since the vendor
would throw in whichever components it could buy most cheaply that
particular month.

In any case, I'm leaning towards building my own stuff now.  It's true
that I won't get custom motherboards or cases that way, but I can pick
the components I want, spending more money on things like fans and
quality disk drives, and no money on wasteful gadgets like stereo
speakers.

FreeBSD and my current home-built server make a good couple.  The
hardware seems very solid and runs very cool (thanks to all the fans) in
an ugly but large and accessible cabinet.  Likewise, FreeBSD runs on the
hardware--it's not the sexiest OS around, but it just keeps on running
and running.  I'm hoping that the time between both OS and hardware
failures will be about two decades.  (The old HP system has held out for
nearly a decade already, so I know it can be done.)

-- 
Anthony