On Saturday 04 March 2006 12:12, Tim wrote: > Tony Dietrich: > >>> 2. One fan failure (at 14months). > > Tim: > >> Ones that run constantly or only now and then? Some PC fans have > >> surprising short lives, and that's not due to faults, but how long the > >> manufacturer expects them to work for. > > Tony Dietrich: > > Constantly .. that machine just happened to be my own office system! And > > since I tend to use that to test stuff, AND it wasn't switched off over > > the entire 14 months (AFAIR) I wasn't too surprised .. leaving a system > > doing batch compiling and test runs for entire weekends does kinda send > > the fan wild. > > According to some specs that I've seen, some fans are only rated to run > continuously for about 18 months. That may be fine for many home PCs > which spend more time off than on, but no good for servers. Even more > so if they're fans that can't be easily replaced (e.g. ones that are > bonded in as part of a CPU block or the graphics cards, or deeply > embedded in the PSU brick). I think server fans ought to be standard > models, though long-life, easily replaced, and using ducts to the parts > that need directly cooling. > > > Seriously .. I suspect that one reason I (and James Wilkinson, see rest > > of thread) get good systems from 'local' builders is that in the UK ( I > > have no idea what its like in the rest of the world) we can walk into a > > local builder and spec exactly what we want built. I can tell my builder > > "I want ASUS mb, nVidia video, XXX memory, etc, etc" .. and if I don't > > get it, I don't pay, and I don't use that builder again. > > I can do that here, but only from quite limited choices. If I wanted > specific parts that they didn't have, I'd have to buy them directly from > some supplier, if I could find one, not from a shop. They won't deal > with anything else, and will give you all sorts of excuses about why. I > really don't beleive that they couldn't buy anything that I could, nor > that they can only buy parts in quantity. And that's if I just want > parts to build a box. > > On the other hand, if I was to get them to build me a box, it's quite > common for you to choose a 128 meg video card, a 140 meg hard drive, but > they'll pick the particular parts, and they may well be different from > what they told you while you were negotiating the package. Sometimes > that's because they found what you wanted to use didn't work with each > other, sometimes it's because they'll just do whatever they want to. > > -- > Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. > I read messages from the public lists. Emigrate <g> -- Tony
