Overall Component Life

hey all, so this is a question/comment regarding the overall life of all components and the laptop in general.....

my current understanding:

the enemies of a laptop:
1) heat
2) dust
3) pro-longed use (why, i am guessing heat buildup)

4) what else is there?

the main reason i bring this up, is because like everyone else, i want my notebook to last as long as possible, running at the best possible state it can....

so, my main question, what is the real damage i do to my laptop by leaving
it on 14-16 hrs at a time?
- during which, the temps stay well below danger
- the load on the processor is minimal (just downloading)
- and dust is continually cleaned out?

i can only come up with the fact that all components have a life span, something you cannot stop, so the more you use it, the "faster" it will die on you......but if (and i am not sure) notebook components (ram,vid card, processor, hd, etc...) are built to the same standards as desktop
components -- why would leaving your notebook on for long periods of time
be an issue?

also, once you have used your notebook for such a period of time, what
is an appropriate "cool down" period for everything, i settle for 1-2 hours....

any want to chime in?

 

Well laptops cool down pretty quickly. After I finish playing a game I notice my temps drop within 1 minute. After about 5 minutes my temps are back to normal. I would download a program like Notebook Hardware control so you can see the temperature readings for yourself.

You shouldn't have too much to worry about if you leave your laptop on that long. Download Notebook Hardware control like I said above and you will be able to see your temps. If they seem high (60-80C) definitely get a laptop cooler. That will help the temps drop by about 5-7C. Check out this guide by Chaz for more info.

I think that your hard drive will get the most wear and tear when downloading stuff. I have an external hard drive and I make sure to back up everything that I want to keep just in case my hard drive dies on me. However I have been running this laptop for a year and I haven't had any problems with that yet...

Those are pretty much the main enemies to your laptop. Make sure you get a can of compressed air and blow out your fans every month or so. I just recently got a can of compressed air and blew out my vents and I noticed a 7C drop in temps. Just make sure you do it monthly otherwise your laptop will start to overheat like mine did.

I hope that helps.
Tim

 

If you keep it clean, and you are just downloading most of the time, then the laptop should never get very hot, just the hard drive, as Tim said. Then, keep backups, and just replace the hard drive, but for the rest of what you do, it should last until you think you want a new computer.

 

I read somewhere that the average life of notebooks is 14 months. Macs are the most reliable but they are also the most expensive.