[Qasim]

Of course there will be some long-term problems but nothing right away. Netbooks aren't designed to be on all the time. It might also depend on your network adapter, if it can handle all the port listening and connection managing.

[Daniel15]

Why don't you just turn it on when you need it? Some routers have wake-on-LAN support, meaning you can log in to the router remotely, and use it to power on a machine on the network. Not sure if the BIOS on a netbook would support wake on LAN though.

[Tobias]

I've had a netbook running at home for at least a few years now with no issues (and it only uses ~13 watts, so it's that power hungry)

Provided you're sensible about where you keep it (e.g. not somewhere with poor cooling and the vents blocked) and it's not one of the laptops whose batteries tend to explode, the worst case scenario is that the laptop dies.

Leaving it on for a prolonged period of time could potentially even improve the life span compared to turning it off. For example, the internals of it won't suffer thermal stress due to heating/cooling as much as they would be if turned on a daily basis.

Also, 4-8GB RAM seems a bit ridiculous given what you want to be doing, are you sure you'll ever use it? I'm not sure mines ever hit the 2GB it has

[callumacrae]

1GB is more than enough for a correctly configured server. I use half of that on my server, and I get a fair amount of traffic.

[SapporoGuy]

Take out the battery.
Lifespan is well like anything, it'll die eventually and probably better having it on that getting moldy in closet.

[callumacrae]

SapporoGuy, on 30 April 2012 - 10:26 AM, said:

Take out the battery.
Lifespan is well like anything, it'll die eventually and probably better having it on that getting moldy in closet.

This, but check that the netbook won't explode before you do.

[SapporoGuy]

Explode?
Hmm, not sure about notebooks/laptop batteries but I've smashed nicad, niso, and lipo batteries around and against walls doing about 60+km/hr (granted taped in) but never seen one explode! A guy today just split his lipo battery case in 2 today. Sure the cell swelled up but ... Nada!

Lipo batteries are extremely dangerous during charging! I put mine in a protective bag while charging just to prevent a huge fire!

Lots of cool exploding lipo batteries on YouTube! Love the plane ones.

I drive (I should say control) a yokomo BD5 wx chassis still 3 seconds behind the national champ

[callumacrae]

SapporoGuy, on 30 April 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

Explode?
Hmm, not sure about notebooks/laptop batteries but I've smashed nicad, niso, and lipo batteries around and against walls doing about 60+km/hr (granted taped in) but never seen one explode! A guy today just split his lipo battery case in 2 today. Sure the cell swelled up but ... Nada!

Lipo batteries are extremely dangerous during charging! I put mine in a protective bag while charging just to prevent a huge fire!

Lots of cool exploding lipo batteries on YouTube! Love the plane ones.

I drive (I should say control) a yokomo BD5 wx chassis still 3 seconds behind the national champ

Smashing is completely different - it's perfectly safe to throw a brick of thermite about, but you don't want to set it on fire! xD

[SapporoGuy]

Sort of like dynamite then
As long as you don't light the fuse you can do all kinds of crazy stuff with it.

Thermite is that aluminum and iron powder/filing stuff, right?

Love those videos too

Hehehehe, I do like things that go boom, however not coming from the back of your car had that happen once! Boom, Ka-boom, slight acceleration (think rocket launch) and then a horizontal mushroom cloud! Holy crap Batman! Type of thing ... Stupid distributor blew funny as all hell afterwards

People looked at me funny seeing me staring at the engine with the back lid open

[JustinP]

Just so you know most netbooks won't accept more than 2 gb. You may be able to insert it, but it may not get used....

[TheMaster]

JustinP, on 02 May 2012 - 08:57 AM, said:

Just so you know most netbooks won't accept more than 2 gb. You may be able to insert it, but it may not get used....

Yeah true. Will probably only get an extra GB anyway seeing as I can get it for like $10...

[gushort]

SapporoGuy, on 01 May 2012 - 01:11 AM, said:

Sort of like dynamite then
As long as you don't light the fuse you can do all kinds of crazy stuff with it.

Nothing at all like dynamite. Dynamite sticks are nitroglycerin-based and very volatile, especially if they are over a couple of years old. You would be better off playing with a grenade, pin removed, rubber band restraining the release lever.

[SapporoGuy]

You grow up in post war Europe?
I heard that the kids back then had some crazy times messing with bunkers!

Hmmm, maybe I'm in the wrong line of work! I do like things that go boom, in a controlled manner!

[gushort]

SapporoGuy, on 04 May 2012 - 05:51 AM, said:

You grow up in post war Europe?
I heard that the kids back then had some crazy times messing with bunkers!

Since 19th century, dynamite has not really been used by the military, too unstable. I think you are mixing up dynamite with other types of explosives (TNT, RDX, PETN, etc), as I said, dynamite is a Nitroglycerin based explosives.

[callumacrae]

Quite a lot of explosives can be burnt quite safely :-)

[gushort]

callumacrae, on 04 May 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

Quite a lot of explosives can be burnt quite safely :-)

Yup, but dynamite isn't one of them

[SapporoGuy]

Maybe, my father made a mistake in translation. He's not a native English speaker

He and a couple of friends played with left over ordinances in West Germany.

[TheMaster]

Update: said netbook is (after switch to Debian - see my other thread), running at 54°C constantly. Should that be ok?

[Daniel15]

Might make the parts wear out quicker (as they're not designed for continuous operation), and the cost of electricity for running a computer 24/7 would probably cost more than just getting a VPS

(having said that, netbooks are pretty low power, so the electricity cost might not be as bad. How many input watts is the power adapter rated for?)