I have an eMachines M5312 Notebook that is on 70%-80% of the time on a weekly basis. I have been doing this for 3-4 months now and have put a Notebook Cooler under the notebook. You can see examples from Notebook Cooler Google Search.

I purchased mine for under $20.00 from a local Electronics Store. I do not have any HD intensive applications running continuously, but there are some monitoring programs running in the background accessing information over the internet at different times of the day.

Although I have had no problems, I also have the notebook in a well ventilated area with no major heat source around (printer, light, etc). I also do not know what the life cycle of the notebook components will be – I presume less than a desktop.

I agree with Scott , just be very careful about the heat issue. I am currently using a Dell Latitude D410 and it gets quite warm. When at work I connect it up to a flat screen, keyboard and mouse and it pumps heat out when I am cranking through various applications which are processor hungry. I have to ensure that cables, coffee cups, books etc are not in front of the exit vent.

I had a Hi-Grade laptop that I used to go with as it had one of those noisy fans that used to kick in and then step up its speed incrementally

If you are keeping your laptop on mains power ‘permanently’ you may want to look into the question of whether you should remove the battery, or not, or take it out for a period of time and replace it for a period of time.

For the requirements you appear to have, I would reckon that an ordinary PC would fit the bill rather better – cheaper, probably more powerful, and with fewer compromises. But of course that would depend on how often you want to use a computer when away from home!

John

I’ve got an older IBM Thinkpad on my desk at work that has been on 24/7 for the past 7 months. It acts as my secondary PC as I perform most of my work on a newer Lenovo Thinkpad. The IBM unit runs many scheduled tasks, and monitors various databases. It hasn’t had a problem with overheating (yet??).

It should be noted, this unit was basically rebuilt 18 months ago under warranty (3 year onsite / next day service). It was having problems with various components on the mainboard. Not bad for almost 3 years old at the time. I’d still be using it as my primary, however the employer’s policy is to replace PCs every 3 years (with the same warranty package noted above). Working in the IT Department, I am able to “hang on” to the replaced unit for a *few* months to ensure I’m not missing anything in the migration .

I think it’ll be returned in another 18 months .