I have to admit, when I first started looking at AllStar, the idea of a computer running the repeater seemed a bit risky. Several decades of keeping things running on hilltops made me leery.
But now with my first node approaching it's third (or is it fourth?) anniversary, I've realigned my stance.
In that time the only times that I've had to make an "emergency" run to that site is : 1. The repeater went dead in the middle of the day. When I got to the site, I found that someone had turned the breaker off in the electrical distribution panel. 2. Some dummy (me) wasn't paying attention to which remote console session he was on when he typed "poweroff <enter>".
I have had some problems though with one of the repeaters (two seperate nodes operating as a split site 10m repeater), but that has turned out to be a hardware problem that I didn't catch before putting that computer into service.
Now I do have each box execute a controlled shutdown and reboot once a week in the wee hours of Sunday morning. And while I haven't been extravagant on the computer hardware, I haven't cut things to the bone. Each of my boxes are at least a 3.0 Ghz P4 with a gig or two of memory. (each bought on Ebay for about $75)
They sit there hour after hour, running the repeater, ID scripts, weather alert and observation scripts, on schedule jumping between WAN-RS, Alaska Morning Net, and the Insomniac net. Running AR Newsline Monday and Friday nights. And running other housekeeping scripts (rsync the custom nodename list, rsync new versions of my scripts, and so on). Oh, and servicing a handful Asterisk extensions with attending IAX trunks between the repeaters.
On the other hand, at work I have a fairly expensive dedicated broadcast remote control (like a repeater "controller") on our TV translator about fifty miles away, on top of a mountain with a nasty access road, that drives me NUTS!
WB3AWJ Robert A. Poff Loganville, PA. "Lieutenant, target the offending power boat and launch photon torpedoes"