But you really, really have to work at it.
Certainly setting things up for a dust explosion can create one: I knew one guy who put his grinder on his DC. Nasty little fire one day while he was sharpening kitchen knives for his wife.
Charlie Self If God had wanted me to touch my toes he would have put them higher on my body.
My dad used to have a haulage business, and one of his regular clients was a specialist flooring / panelling workshop. They lost several vacuums to this, whilst vacuuming up gypsum dust (which is about as inert as you can expect to get). Turned out the stuff was getting contaminated with wax from a surface coating process, and it was the wax that was flammable.
I really don't like MDF dust. Damn stuff is so fine that all sorts of sources can set it off.
-- Do whales have krillfiles ?
So how many people would have their computer in the same room that they do their finishing? What is the flash point of many solvents?
Shawn
I was going to agree but then I remembered that none of my light fixtures or light switches or electrical outlets are explosion proof. So, I guess I wouldn't wory about it although I do not think I would because of other reasons. All those solvent fumes can't be good for all the little contacts and exposed boards, wires, circuits, etc.. Wonder how hot a monitor gets?
I would guess just as hot of alt.sex.binary.(whatever your perversion) group you frequent.
Yes, but how does that change anything? Wood dust is made of wood. Big pieces of wood, little pieces of wood, what difference does it make what the flash point is?
Go with Seagate drives. My wife works for Seagate here in Minneapolis, and when I needed to replace a failing driving in my workstation in a hurry, I bought a couple of high-performance IBM drives. You should have heard the clucking from my wife over this. And the gloating a year later when first one failed, and then the other. The WD drive in our TiVo started to fail also, so I replaced it with a pair of Seagate drives. They run much, much quieter than the WD ever did, which is nice for the TV room.
(To be fair to my wife, I can't say I've ever had a Seagate drive fail. Lots of IBMs and WDs have failed on me, but no Seagates.)
So buy Seagate drives -- it'll drive up the value of our nest egg :-)
Greg wrote:
Seagate produces bad drives as well. In fact that's all they made for several years, until lately.
There are no guarantees but your best bet is to ignore the latest models and install one, any brand, with a proven track record.
Not at all. I've been using nothing but Seagate drives now for 3 years, and have never had one fail. (I've got twin internal drives on my workstation/webserver/mailserver that have run 24/7 for three years in a very hot [unairconditioned] environment, another in a separate server, another on my daughter's "play" computer, one in a laptop, and now two in the TiVo and one in an external backup drive. They run fast and quiet and have all been reliable thus far -- *knock* *knock* on wood :-)
Sorry, but I've never had problems with any OTHER brand. Had 2 Seagates, both failed after about a year.
Charlie Self "Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves." Dorothy Parker
If you're worried about HDD failure, your best bet would be to opt for the older, slower 5400-rpm models (they're still available). Folks want faster HDDs, but faster drives (7200-rpm is standard now) produce more heat and noise. Most oem computers don't handle heat very efficiently, so you end up with hot HDDs and premature failure.
If you want a fast HDD to be reliable, keep your system cool (it helps to have case fans blowing on the HDD).
By the same token, if your HDD fails on you, it can sometimes be temporarily revived by placing it in the freezer for a few hours, then reconnect it to your system long enough to get your data off of it.
My TWO boxes (8 total over the years) run 24/7, a website and downloading and have done so since 1995.
13 HDs total and only one failed. An IBM 75 gig 3 days after I got it. I have Maxtor, WD, IBM, and my oldest was a Seagate. Three years ago Seagate would have been my last choice.
I run twin 160 gig drives in a Antec server case with five case fans and one HD fan and it still gets warmer than it should when the video card warms up..
mr dancer responds:
Both my Seagates were 5400. Went TU anyway.
Charlie Self "Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves." Dorothy Parker
Just to be contrary, I'll point out that the *only* HD failure I've had in more than 20 years of home computing (ie I don't deal with huge amounts of hardware) was a 5400 RPM Maxtor that took a dump after one year.
I was in the computer biz for a long time and I have seen hundreds of dead hard drives. I suspect the best pattern would be the ones someone mistreated are most likely to fail. You can be as careful as you like but if the guys at the store were playing soccer with the boxes you can expect early end of life.
You do not want sawdust accumulating in your monitor. They do get fairly hot, AND there are big voltages to be found there. Further, dust accumulation will increase heat. Additionally, the number one cause of monitor failure is cracked solder joints, because manufacturers can not solder monitors correctly (it would drive the cost up). These cracked, or weakened joints, can produce very high heat, sparks, and outright fire. Combine that with some MDF dust, and you have real fun.
If you don't have a compressor then buy compressed air in a can. The big cans are about $5 at your local TV repair shop and last months. I use it once or twice a week.
I've had a computer in my shop for years.
17inch monitor for the last year with no cover at all. Cordless Logitech keyboard wrapped in Handiwrap. 5 years old. Plain old ball mouse also cordless. I have the mouse pad in a big glad freezer bag. I just stick my hand in the bag to use the mouse.I have zero problems and the computer runs 24/7.
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