Sorry to hear of your troubles. Good luck with tracking down/solving the problem. I like the image BTW!!

As far as the batch que is concerned. It is a good idea to use that option for anything taking more than a couple of hours. You never know when you are going to need that computer for something else.

I have a couple of dedicated render boxes. 4200+ X2's. But even with them being dedicated, there are times where one client takes precedence over another. If I need to shut a render down, then I dont lose anything.

Power outage is another thing to consider unless you have a dedicated UPS, but with a long outage it might not matter. The batch que is your friend. If you only have one computer, the batch que is even more advantageous.

Best of luck!!