Can you imagine using your present PC for 20 years?

[keithpeter]

Hello All

"I've had my current desktop for a little over two years. I want to continue using it for another 20. I mean that literally: this computer, this keyboard, this mouse, these three monitors. 20 years. There's no technical reason the hardware can't last that long, so it's a matter of whether there will be useful software to run on it."

http://mark.pilgrim.usesthis.com/

Any thoughts on this? I'd imagine it might be possible soon as people tend to use mobile devices for web/phone/games/apps and real desktops become niche products for Serious People.

For the tasks I actually do on this PC (mostly Web, then Office, then a little messing about) this dual core 2.4GHz box is fine.

[tom66]

I don't think it's possible, not with the quality of components in computers these days. Your average capacitor on the motherboard might do around 5,000 - 10,000 hours (this is an optimistic estimation; voltage/current surges and higher than average usage will reduce this), that's a little over 1 year of continuous use. If you factor in daily usage you might just get 13 years out of one cap (this assumes you use the computer for 2 hours a day.) Remember, there are at least 6 (big electrolytic) capacitors on the main board, sometimes as many as 20; only one has to fail to cause a problem.

Other components such as CPUs, chipsets, controllers, devices will last a very long time; on the order of millions of hours.

[Hyper Tails]

wow..... he has an insanely powerful machine

9.5 terabytes, Holy S**T!

that will last you 20 years for sure!

[cariboo]

I've had my current system for about 3 months, and I'm already thinking about a new system.

[Hyper Tails]

I've had my current system for about 3 months, and I'm already thinking about a new system.

lol

I Had my pc for 2 years

I'm putting 8 Gigs of ram (I currently have 2 gigs)

[keithpeter]

Your average capacitor on the motherboard might do around 5,000 - 10,000 hours (this is an optimistic estimation; voltage/current surges and higher than average usage will reduce this), that's a little over 1 year of continuous use. If you factor in daily usage you might just get 13 years out of one cap (this assumes you use the computer for 2 hours a day.)

Food for thought there tom66. Perhaps we'll see desktops with Auricaps or other audiophile brand capacitors at twice the price

[earthpigg]

how does he have zfs on ubuntu 64?

[nubimax]

I have been using this computer for 10 years now. I have had to replace a few parts but it does every thing that I want it to. I have a laptop that is one year old, much more powerful, but I can't stand using it so only use the feature on it for down loading photos from my camera.
M.

[J_Stanton]

Your average capacitor on the motherboard might do around 5,000 - 10,000 hours (this is an optimistic estimation; voltage/current surges and higher than average usage will reduce this), that's a little over 1 year of continuous use.

where do you get your info from? my computers last for years being on 24/7. you fail.

[tom66]

Even good caps don't last that long. Audiophile caps just have low ESR (equivalent series resistance) and sometimes low ESL (equivalent series inductance) so they aren't any more reliable; I'd bet in fact they are just overpriced cheap capacitors that people are willing to stomp up money for.

An electrolytic capacitor is amazing in how it manages to work given the chemical and electrical stresses that it is typically put under. For example a motherboard's processor section (typically) deals with voltages from 1 volt (low Vcore) to 5 volts, so 6.3 volt capacitors are used. But for best reliability you should choose capacitors with at least three times the voltage rating you might expect them to be subject to (10 volts to 16 volts). But these higher voltage capacitors are much more expensive; about 25 cents a piece more, so lower voltage caps are used - the result being of course lower reliablity.

An electrolytic capacitor is an awful component. I've heard people calling them a "necessary evil"; useful for smoothing power, but used sparingly for fear of them causing premature failure.

So I don't think that a motherboard could last 20 years.

This is not including the power supply, which is typically under much more stress component-wise, and I wouldn't expect more than 10 years out of even a good PSU.