The more I use my computer the less it lasts?

Question

I would like to know your opition about the relation between the following 2 variables and 2 outcome measures.

The variables are:

• Time a computer/laptop is on, carrying normal tasks/processes (word processor, surf the web, etc).

• Time a computer/laptop is on, carrying intensive/heavy tasks (anti-virus, defragmenting, data mining/processing).

The outcome measures are:

• Probability of some sort of malfunction

• Baseline performance (assuming it can decrease without a fatal malfunction due to easier over-heating, bad disk sectors, etc).

That is, in one sentence, the more I use my computer the less it will last?

To give you some context, I'm currently using my laptop to process big chunks of data in Matlab. In the last weeks, the laptop spends 12 hours days processing various kinds of matrices. During this, CPU usage is about 50%, Memory usage is about 40% and the fan is always on.

Do you consider that this kind of usage will make the laptop last less by making its performance degrade faster and/or increased probability of malfunction?

Thanks beforehand, José

Answer 1

First factor is heat. If your laptop is hotter, longer, that will slowly increase chance of failure.

Make sure all vents are unobstructed and the laptop can generally breathe. most laptops are designed to handle loads and disipate heat as needed (think of a gaming laptop, it was designed to get hot).

Second point of failure I see is the hard drive. Default laptop hard drives are usually less robust than their 5" counterparts. High loads may wear out a typical 3.5" internal drive faster. Might considering upgrading, or using external drives (if esata or usb3 are options). Operations like full AV scan or major defrag will use the hard drive intensively. All normal operations will likely use the HD some, but are more likely to stay in ram.

Laptops cram more into smaller spaces and will never last as long as workstation (in general). That being said, I run some of my laptops pretty hard and generally dont have problems, but I also clean it often, and avoid moving it all the time. (one good bump while its in your backpack is more lillkely to damage something than no bumps).