Computer woes

Well I am working on this from my work computer. Here is the story, along with some ideas to help all of you, maybe prevent something similar.

A few days back we had a computer crash, I am hopeful that it is just a motherboard that needs replaced. After a few test I have isolated it to the board, I do not have another computer to try the CPU on to insure that whatever caused the board issue did not also fry the CPU; however I am hopeful.

So what caused the crash? I cannot be 100% certain; however the placement of the tower in our desk may have had a lot to do with it. How you may ask? Well here goes... First I hope that this is not to simplified...disclaimer....any techies may want to skip this part...

The CPU, power supply, chipset, and other elements in your computer generate a lot of heat that has to be dealt with. Hence the fans that are in the case. There are several reasons to deal with the heat. The main one being performance. Computers being electronic devices that operate with changes in voltage at the milli volt range, and the fact that resistance through a current will affect the voltage, and resistance changes with temperature, you can see why computer manufactures have to deal with the temperature. Now in all my wisdom, and after more than 2 years in the same location I pulled the computer out did the yearly blow out of all the dust, (note this should be done at least once a year) moved, the case to a new position in the desk. Without thinking at the time I blocked the fan for the power supply, and the other two case fans completely. No supprise that this failure came only a few months after being in this new position. I had overheated the board and caused something to fry. Warning blow the dust from your computer regularly, and do not block the fans, do not put in a closed small space that limits airflow around the computer. This also applies to any electronic devices, especially high performance ones like TV's; gaming systems; receivers; and tuners/amps.

Well there is my computer story I hope this helps someone prevent a similar problem. No we are in the process of determining what we will be doing about a computer, maybe a mac, I would be leaning to the 13" mac book pro, or the Imac; however we will be making this decisions later.