Laptop as Music Server - Wear?

I would think you'll be just fine, though I'm no expert like
Al. I stream movies from my laptop over the network from
time to time. No problems, no failures as yet. It's been on
most of the time for about a year now.
All of my PCs including laptop stay on 24/7. How about using
an eSATA hard drive over the USB or FireWire? That's if your
laptop has an eSATA port?

I've read it is much faster at data transfer theoretically,
up to 3 Gbps per second verses USB 2.0 of 480 Mbps or
FireWire's 800 Mbps. This may come in handy when you need to
transfer large music files.

Another plus using eSATA quoted from a webpage is
"Unlike USB and FireWire interfaces, eSATA does not
have to translate data between the interface and the
computer. This enhances data transfer speeds, while saving
computer processor resources and eliminating the need for an
extra off-load chip."

If your laptop doesn't have an esata port. You can buy a PCI
card to add on to it.

The new USB 3.0 through put, due out next year will be
faster and bi directional at 5 Gbps.

If you want to get elaborate, you could run your entire
operating system off the external eSATA HD. The majority of
the wear and tear would be on it and not the internal. Just
thinking out loud now. lol

"Backing up my music library on my main PC using E-SATA
takes under two hours. Backing up using USB2.0 takes 12-14
hours."

This is good to know! Just ordered a new 1 TB eSATA/USB
drive ($70 after $20 rebate) to use with my system. I have a
little more than 400 Gbs of Music and Movies that I need to
transfer to it. I plan to use it with eSATA port instead of
USB 2.0.

I'm hoping it helps with my streaming of movies more than
music. Since the movie files are massive by comparison, some
as large as 8 Gbs! Just 43 minutes of Blue Planet Blu ray on
hard drive is 5 Gbs!

That Fit PC is one neat little unit! That would make a great
little music server. Just not enough processing power for Hi
def movies in my opinion.