How long does a motherboard last?

[fishymamba]

Hey guys! I was just wondering how long does a motherboard last on average? I run my computer ~8-10 hours a day mostly doing word processing and browsing and I have my CPU OC'd to 4.5Ghz boost with a 1.26Vcore. Running like this how long should I expect it to last? 2 years? 5 years? more?

 

BTW My motherboard is an Intel DZ77RE-75K.

 

I know older motherboards usually died due to bulging capacitors, but to my knowledge the "solid" capacitor do not have this problem. 

Thanks!

 

Also what is usually the first thing to "die" in a computer under normal conditions? I know that CPUs are pretty much bomb proof, but what about PSUs? GPUs? 

I'm guessing the answer would be a hard drive(even though I have a 80GB 2.5 inch drive form 2004 that still works great). Let me know what you think!

[dklhs90]

All computer hardware die when you lose the love and affection for them because a more up to date/ more advance hardware had surfaced into the market. But seriously, I don't see me using my Rampage 4 Extreme for more than 5 -10 years...

[Glenwing]

Hardware usually lasts until long after the computer is obsolete.  Hard drives are probably the thing you'd have to replace 4 or 5 years down the road if anything.  Some fans might wear out depending on the bearing type, sleeve bearing especially probably will last only a few years.  Ball bearing or fluid dynamic will last basically forever.

[bradscoolio]

Depends on the quality of the components on the board. if you cheap out, you can get a board that lasts 2 years or if you spend a nice amount on a reputable brand it could last 15 years if you didn't push it to its limits.

[Nit3Rid3R]

I would say around 2-4 years, my dad's computer is almost 5 years old, and he runs it at more than 12 hours a day. And it really depends on conditions, I lived on an island before I moved to the city, and the power used to cut all the time, so that was the main killer for everyone's computer. If you have your computer hooked up to a UPS, and you don't have any overclocking done to it, I would say it can last for a few years before any of the parts start giving in. 

[Quaker]

Consider this - server farms run 24/7 for years without a great number of failures of any kind. (There's always some failures though)

 

Under normal conditions - no extremme OCs - there is no particular reason for a motherboard to ever fail - there is nothing to "wear out" (other than a chipset fan, where used.)

 

The real problem is obsolesence - they become less useful because they have no facility for connecting newer hardware.

[Flamewalker]

My Rampage formula (775) still works, i got it when it was just released so i would guess thats 5 years already (running 24/7 for the first 3 years)

 

It really depends on what kind of quality it is, if you buy a cheap motherboard it won't survive as long as a high end one, but most of the time it's going to be you upgrading it before it actually dies, i got a cheap old socket 462 motherboard lying around that still works.  

 

Personally the first thing that dies for me ,is a fan, then my gpu (i have a bad luck streak with my graphics cards i think :P)

[kn100]

I've got old cheap 775 boards here that still work. As long as you're not pushing it ridiculously hard and are keeping it relatively cool, it should survive at least 5 years. Higher end boards I think will last a lot longer, like my Sabertooth 990fx r2 has a 5 year warranty. 5 YEARS.

[physX]

I have my lga775 old chipset for years with a pentium 4 overclocked to 3.8GHz.

[fishymamba]

Thanks for the info guys! This  reasured me that my motherboard will last for a long time. I have a pretty high end Intel motherboard, so I am guessing it has pretty good components on it.

 

Also I keep on hearing things like, 2K capacitors, 5K capacitors, and 10K capacitors. What exactly is this a measure of? And how can I tell what kind my motherboard has? 

Does the color have anything to do with it? My old cheap motherboard had blue capacitors, this one has black ones. 

 

close up of the capacitors on my motherboard: 

 

The only reason I am wondering about longevity is that I do not have a warranty on this motherboard because I won it in a sweepstakes. 

[XiaoPigs]

Thanks for the info guys! This  reasured me that my motherboard will last for a long time. I have a pretty high end Intel motherboard, so I am guessing it has pretty good components on it.

 

Also I keep on hearing things like, 2K capacitors, 5K capacitors, and 10K capacitors. What exactly is this a measure of? And how can I tell what kind my motherboard has? 

 

close up of the capacitors on my motherboard: 

 

The only reason I am wondering about longevity is that I do not have a warranty on this motherboard because I won it in a sweepstakes. 

The motherboard looks like it just came out of the factory. 

[Glenwing]

5K/10K etc. capacitors, I can't explain exactly what it is but it has to do with the capacitor's longevity and endurance.  I believe black is 10K caps which are very high end.

 

You know you're getting something nice when Intel uses a black PCB... :P

[Art Vandelay]

The worst case of CPU degradation I have heard of was one guy who had his CPU running 24/7 for seven months at 4.7GHz 1.408V. He needed 1.45V to keep stable at 4.7GHz after that. Realistically, I don't think you're going to see much degradation to any of the parts of your system, with the possible exception of RAM, unless you have a board with really crappy MOSFETs, like the MSI G45 or Asrock Extreme4.

[Yun4xGaming]

Good Motherboards will last 3-7 Years.(ASUS,MSI,Gigabyte and more) but i don't think you will use an 6yr old or 7yr old computer.

[Liam-Wabbit]

BIOS battery usually the first thing you need to replace.
I've still got a working Gigabyte socket 7 motherboard
I've only had 1 mother board die on me before it's time and it was a socket a ASUS motherboard
plenty of CPU's and ram die on me, mostly socket A CPU's.
Personally I think it the design of the heatsink mounting
The whole weight of the CPU heatsink was on the socket A socket itself, so just moving an older socket board around could damage the cpu

[Maverik5124]

My oldest motherboard is a 7 year old asrock board with the am2 socket (used it with an athlon x2)

[Cheesebaron]

My parents Socket A computer was still running pretty strong until last year when they decided to get laptops because it was more handy for them. That computer was bought when Barton CPU's were released so sometime in 2003. So it held up very nice and I would assume that it had more life in it, just running a bit slow :P

 

But now that vendors are using solid capacitors and better components I would not think much about how long it will last. I don't think 10 years is unrealistic as long as you don't pressure the components 24/7.

[spike_ttp]

i still have a Pentium 4 socket 478 running and its been on 24/7 almost its whole life

[Liam-Wabbit]

those barton CPU were the 333/400 fsb versions if I remember

I've got 2 socket A boards with CPU and ram still running

1  939 w with a single core CPU & 500mhz ddr1 , the ram made it last longer. huge difference in performance on this chip with higher spec ram. Was a great little thing, I was running cod4 with a 7600GT 512mb

I upgraded it when GTA 4 came out, that struggled

 

My mother or brother tend to get my old build's , they're ok with it.
all of us wait till games are lower in price and my mothers gaming is mostly browser games any how

 

I then went to AM2 dual core 3 gig of ram 960gt 512mbs to a AM3 2core 550 and unlocked the 2 hidden cores 560 ti. now I am on a AM3+ 8 core cpu 8 gig of 1600mhz cl7 ram and a 660ti
the whole list of computers have are still running with the exception of the 7600gt 512mb.
the core was crush in travel under the heat sink :(
 

[MzCatieB]

i had a motherboard that lasted 6 months, and another one that lasted 5 years.... id say it is dependent on your upgrade cycle and PSU