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From: keith@ux.acs.umn.edu (Keith MaloneyHuss)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Leave it on?  Or once a week?
Message-ID: <1161@ux.acs.umn.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 90 14:22:47 GMT
Reply-To: keith@ux.acs.umn.edu (Keith MaloneyHuss)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Minnesota, Academic Computing Services
Lines: 20

There is one consideration that has not been mentioned in this thread so far.
That is thermal cycling.  It gets quite warm inside most "boxes", and
I feel that it is better to keep it warm rather than cool,warm,cool,warm,cool,
warm,cool,warm...  The expansion and contraction must strain the joints
in the little IC buggers.  I thought I read on one of these notes a while
back that the purpose of the ceramic vs plastic cases for ICs is at least
partially to relieve the strain of thermal cycling on the tiny connecting
wires between the IC pins and the silicon chip inside.  Is there anything
to this?

No one thinks twice about leaving a MicroVax or a Sun workstation powered
up, but somehow when it is a "personal" computer, it needs its rest.
Are they really so much weaker?  Or is it simply that the workstations
take so much longer to boot...

Anyway, I vote LEAVE IT ON.  My macIIx at work stays on 365 days a year,
while the SE at home is turned on only while I use it (only because it
lives next to my bed and I can't stand the noise.)

--keith