the parts that often fail are hard drives and fans, so eliminate those. maybe an embedded pc (think router) with huge ssd+ram is stable at ambient room temperature. and almost never breaks (AC power adaptor normally will break first).

if google can subsidize internet with her routers (with huge ssd+ram), she basically outsources the power and maintenance to local people around the globe.

if such router can direct queries into its huge ssd+ram cache (think squid + LRU?), then search can be faster