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How long will my laptop last? (i never turn it off)

GoAsusGo_
Level 8
I have an ASUS ROG 750jx built in 2013. I'm using it as a media server, so, it is never shutdown or put to sleep... how long will it last?


(my concerns are ...the fans, will the ball bearings wear out... the screen, will the LED burnout... inside, will the thermal paste dry up.. etc etc etc)
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26 REPLIES 26

Nonpossible
Level 7
Depends on how cool you're keeping it. I have a Dell from 2008 that runs nearly non-stop without a hitch.
These G750s are pretty sturdy and cool pretty well, you will probably be fine running it nonstop. I would suggest
getting some sort of software to watch your CPU/GPU Temperature and fan speeds.

If you're not using the laptop you can always set your power setting to "do nothing" when you close the lid.
That way windows will run just fine and you wont have to worry about burning out your screen.

Nonpossible wrote:
Depends on how cool you're keeping it. I have a Dell from 2008 that runs nearly non-stop without a hitch.
These G750s are pretty sturdy and cool pretty well, you will probably be fine running it nonstop. I would suggest
getting some sort of software to watch your CPU/GPU Temperature and fan speeds.

If you're not using the laptop you can always set your power setting to "do nothing" when you close the lid.
That way windows will run just fine and you wont have to worry about burning out your screen.



the computer idles most of the day, so i dont expect the temperature to rise.
but
closing the lid is a good idea, thanks.

Maxter
Level 9
Actually, closing the lid is not the best idea for laptops. Part of the heat is released through the keyboard area.
The laptop should last maybe 4-5 years constant 24/7 being on... I'm assuming the CPU/GPU will fail first. If too much dust, your fans could suffer too. Clean every 6 months. I would remove the battery in that case (just as a precaution for the battery never undergoing charge-discharge cycles)

Maxter wrote:
Actually, closing the lid is not the best idea for laptops. Part of the heat is released through the keyboard area.
The laptop should last maybe 4-5 years constant 24/7 being on... I'm assuming the CPU/GPU will fail first. If too much dust, your fans could suffer too. Clean every 6 months. I would remove the battery in that case (just as a precaution for the battery never undergoing charge-discharge cycles)



yeah, ill keep the lid up, for ventilation.

4-5 years.. where did you come up with that,
if you dont mind my asking?
and
how does a cpu fail?

I own a number of computers, some of them from the 1990's,
and they all still work...though i have never kept one on 24/7.


when you say "clean" every 6 months.. you mean open up the laptop and clean the fans?
how about putting some mesh infront of the vent, to stop the dust?

and lastely, the battery.
i had a long thread about what to do with the battery and
how to store it. but in the end, we all agreed it was best left in the laptop.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?58762-should-i-put-my-battery-in-the-fridge

but id be happy to hear more about what you think on that topic.

this is super fun

GoAsusGo! wrote:
yeah, ill keep the lid up, for ventilation.

4-5 years.. where did you come up with that,
if you dont mind my asking?
and
how does a cpu fail?

I own a number of computers, some of them from the 1990's,
and they all still work...though i have never kept one on 24/7.


when you say "clean" every 6 months.. you mean open up the laptop and clean the fans?
how about putting some mesh infront of the vent, to stop the dust?

and lastely, the battery.
i had a long thread about what to do with the battery and
how to store it. but in the end, we all agreed it was best left in the laptop.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?58762-should-i-put-my-battery-in-the-fridge

but id be happy to hear more about what you think on that topic.

this is super fun


Server's CPU lifespan is 10 years for being constant on. Will they last longer? likely... but they are made for 10 years. Since these laptops do not have server quality CPU, I assumed ~50% of server life. I got the info from a friend that works at intel. He explained to me that there is a physical change in the CPU as electricity pass through it constantly (I'm no engineer, so I didn't understand much of the exact reason). The CPU will fail when the electrons stop being able to cycle through (that physical change).
Clean every 6 months: use the canned air to clean fans and heatsinks. I do a bi-monthly keyboard/screen cleanup with a screen cleaning solution I got on BestBuy. Dust accumulating in the heatsink of the CPU and GPU are the worse enemy of laptops as they don't allow air flow and this increases the overall working temp of the laptop. With higher working temps, the physical change is exacerbated.
In terms of the battery, once charged, the laptop shouldn't over charge it. There are Lithium based batteries known to overheat from a failure in its chemical stability. It is, however, not common. I would remove it just because I wouldn't be using it. But truth is it doesn't matter.

Maxter wrote:
Server's CPU lifespan is 10 years for being constant on. Will they last longer? likely... but they are made for 10 years. Since these laptops do not have server quality CPU, I assumed ~50% of server life. I got the info from a friend that works at intel.


Most servers can run much longer than 10 years, lol, or at least servers built over 10 years ago could.

Very few actually maintain this sort of epic uptime with extremely high availability. Mostly because of downtime caused by software faults, not caused by hardware faults.

I don't know where this "10 years" figure comes from. Xeon CPUs have 3 year Intel warranty. Xeon Phi cards have 1-2 year Intel warranty. Workstation (Xeon-chipset) mobos have (usually 2-3 year, sometimes 5 year) manufacturer warranty. GPU cards (workstation and consumer) have 3 year NVIDIA/AMD warranty. Server-grade PSUs have (at least 5 year, sometimes 7 year or 10 year) manufacturer warranty.

In fact, most enterprise hardware isn't even "owned" by the end-users, components and platforms are leased over a contract period (typically up to 3 years) from an OEM like ASUS, Supermicro, or Dell. The apparently high hardware purchase cost is actually divided up into a per-year hardware cost, it includes full service and support from the OEM, it ends up costing almost exactly the same in the accounting as purchasing the hardware asset up front then depreciating the value of the asset (as the hardware becomes "obsolete") over time. Hardware problems are fixed "for free". Hardware upgrades are frequent (every new lease). Depreciated hardware doesn't need to be stored (ongoing expense) or liquidated (below actual value). It's a multi-billion-dollar industry, they OEMs have exhaustively calculated every penny and every detail (even not-yet-invented computing technologies) with exacting precision, and they make their money by making this sort of leasing model the most "affordable" way for corporations to access enterprise machinery.

The stuff is built to last, sure, unexciting but proven reliability and redundancy and scalability. A typical rack holds a bunch of blade units which are each packed with multiple (modestly or massively multi-core) Xeon CPUs, multiple (modestly or massively GPGPU) workstation GPUs, and/or multiple (very large or very fast) storage devices, along with error-correction and mirroring and power backups built into every major block. They emphasize stability and reliability over security or performance or longevity (although these are all parameters linked to reliability), and could hardly care less about cosmetics because an industrial heatsink or generic green PCB works better or costs less than stylized consumer parts anyhow. A properly-configured stable server can last 10 years, even 20, maybe more - but hardly any of them are kept running that long or even kept out of the landfill that long.

The last few generations of high-end consumer mobos have been using server-grade components along with very robust VRM designs, socket/slot enhancements, DIMM placements, thermal management, etc. They might last just as long as enterprise gear, at least if they're run within rated spec (not overclocking anything). The "~50% of server life" assumption seems reasonable in the absence of real data. Then again, I've got an ancient computer (875P mobo, Pentium 4 CPU, 4GB DDR, HD4670/1GB AGP, a mighty gaming beast back then) which has been running continuously (with many reboots) since 2008, and I had another ancient computer (780G mobo, Athlon II X3 CPU, 8GB DDR2, strange HD7870/2GB GPU) which ran nonstop for over 4 years before a power outage then would never restart again (dead mobo, not worth fixing lol). Gaming mobo companies like ASUS are now building gaming mobos with extreme performance and excellent reliability, while enterprise companies like Supermicro are building gaming mobos with extreme reliability and excellent performance - the lines were never clearly defined before, but now they're just downright blurry.
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[/Korth]

I wouldn't put any mesh or filter in front of your vents. That could restrict airflow and just cause overheating. Sorry about the misdirection with closing the lid. I hadn't though about the heat dissipation through the keyboard.

Nonpossible wrote:
I wouldn't put any mesh or filter in front of your vents. That could restrict airflow and just cause overheating. Sorry about the misdirection with closing the lid. I hadn't though about the heat dissipation through the keyboard.


Nonpossible, the G750 keyboard is sealed, there is no airflow through it. The G750 is pretty much closed to airflow except through the bottom vents.

You should be able to leave the screen lid down and not affect the cooling or CPU/GPU temperature.

Filtering the intake air with a mesh can be done without causing air flow problems - as long as you keep the outside of the mesh clear from obstruction - wipe the dust off.

Use hwinfo64 to monitor the CPU/GPU temps while the keyboard is covered with the lid down, and when the lid is up, see if it makes a difference. Same for the mesh.

hmscott wrote:
Nonpossible, the G750 keyboard is sealed, there is no airflow through it. The G750 is pretty much closed to airflow except through the bottom vents.

You should be able to leave the screen lid down and not affect the cooling or CPU/GPU temperature.

Filtering the intake air with a mesh can be done without causing air flow problems - as long as you keep the outside of the mesh clear from obstruction - wipe the dust off.

Use hwinfo64 to monitor the CPU/GPU temps while the keyboard is covered with the lid down, and when the lid is up, see if it makes a difference. Same for the mesh.



thanks for the info 🙂