General shelf life of unused PC components

[Wu Jie]

Was building my first desktop when the whole graphics card issue surfaced … now that I’m stuck without one, how long can my components last? Considering that I have not remove them from their boxes. 
 

Also, over at my side, 1650s and 1660s are widely available but I don’t know if they can outperform my laptop with a 2060 super.

 

My setup consists of a X570 Aorus Elite Wifi and Ryzen 5 5600x

 

[Dedayog]

They can last for years.  You have time to wait out the GPU shortage, though you may be a generation behind when all is said and done.

[C2dan88]

There is no shelf life for components. They are not perishable like fresh food. 

[8tg]

Anything with wet capacitors will fail over a long period of time, though even this depends on the quality of the capacitors.

Some ROM chips will suffer a sort of bit rot over a long, long time. This can lead to things like bios corruption in hardware that’s left alone for too long.

 

I have a large variety of old hardware, some which has and most which hasn’t suffered any form of failure related to age. Everything from new in box 20 year old power supplies to motherboards that weren’t turned off from 1991 to 2019, gpus from basically every year since the mid 80’s, etc

Hardware can last a LONG time provided it’s stored respectably.

 

[emosun]

25 minutes ago, C2dan88 said:

There is no shelf life for components. They are not perishable like fresh food. 

Ignore this as it isn't true. Capacitors have a shelf life and contain chemicals that eventually break down their casings and leak.

[Cyracus]

Almost all modern computer components should last 10+ years in storage. Most of the wear and tear on pc hardware is from power/thermal cycling

[Blue4130]

@Wu Jie they will last a long time BUT I would suggest getting some sort of display adapter and build the machine so that you can test that every part is working while you are still in the warranty period. It would really suck to be outside the warranty and find out that you have a dead motherboard or ram. 

[adarw]

i mean if their in the boxes why dont you return them?

[Rusty Proto]

9 minutes ago, adarw said:

i mean if their in the boxes why dont you return them?

Perfectly valid point. Though electronics can usually sit for a decade or two before needing serviced, and that's usually involves capacitors and batteries, the state of the art may have moved on enough so that your build is equivalent to a launch edition Nintendo NX. It may be better to free the cash, then order all your parts when you can actually get everything.

 

...though if the OP is mostly just waiting on a successful hit auction, or similar, it makes sense to hang onto everything.

[Wu Jie]

10 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

@Wu Jie they will last a long time BUT I would suggest getting some sort of display adapter and build the machine so that you can test that every part is working while you are still in the warranty period. It would really suck to be outside the warranty and find out that you have a dead motherboard or ram. 

Any suggestions? I’m quite new to these so it would be awesome if you have any in mind

[Wu Jie]

10 hours ago, Rusty Proto said:

Perfectly valid point. Though electronics can usually sit for a decade or two before needing serviced, and that's usually involves capacitors and batteries, the state of the art may have moved on enough so that your build is equivalent to a launch edition Nintendo NX. It may be better to free the cash, then order all your parts when you can actually get everything.

 

...though if the OP is mostly just waiting on a successful hit auction, or similar, it makes sense to hang onto everything.

Well yes I have thought of returning them but it would be quite a hassle as most of my components come from overseas

[Rusty Proto]

1 hour ago, Wu Jie said:

Any suggestions? I’m quite new to these so it would be awesome if you have any in mind

You may have to just choose another graphics card until you can get the one you want, even if it isn't but a 1080p card.. Is that all you're waiting on?

[Wu Jie]

12 minutes ago, Rusty Proto said:

You may have to just choose another graphics card until you can get the one you want, even if it isn't but a 1080p card.. Is that all you're waiting on?

Yes indeed, the card is all I'm waiting on. I've got a few choices in my local market such as the 1650 and 1660

[Rusty Proto]

11 minutes ago, Wu Jie said:

Yes indeed, the card is all I'm waiting on. I've got a few choices in my local market such as the 1650 and 1660

I'd say pick one up and build as soon as you can, then you can go back and get the card you are wanting once it becomes readily available. There are a LOT of people doing that with our current graphics card shortage.

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, Wu Jie said:

Any suggestions? I’m quite new to these so it would be awesome if you have any in mind

Where are you located? That will help narrow down what is available locally.

[LogicalDrm]

Your "new" hardware becomes obsolete before it becomes dead.

[da na]

Technically forever. With the use of solid state caps, and with no power flowing through anything, nothing can break (if it's not too hot, humid, or dry in the storage area). However with older stuff, caps and batteries can leak and render things unoperational. 

[Vishera]

On 8/30/2021 at 8:28 PM, Wu Jie said:

Also, over at my side, 1650s and 1660s are widely available but I don’t know if they can outperform my laptop with a 2060 super.

My desktop GTX 1660 outperforms the RTX 2070 Super laptop of my brother...

[rockyroller]

On 8/30/2021 at 7:28 PM, Wu Jie said:

Was building my first desktop when the whole graphics card issue surfaced … now that I’m stuck without one, how long can my components last? Considering that I have not remove them from their boxes. 
 

Also, over at my side, 1650s and 1660s are widely available but I don’t know if they can outperform my laptop with a 2060 super.

 

My setup consists of a X570 Aorus Elite Wifi and Ryzen 5 5600x

 

cmos and laptop batteries tend not to last that long, switches and USB slots also can die and need replacing, but we are talking years

[rockyroller]

31 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Your "new" hardware becomes obsolete before it becomes dead.

actually that isn't always true. Sometimes peripherals will only work with an OS of that PC's generation. For instance a printer only fit for my DOS based 386, printer that only works in Win95/98ME so that's the Pentium era as well as a MS slider controller, a vibrating joystick and scanner. Same with certain components, be it hardware or software, if you want to play/use them you have to use the older PC.

I wonder how many items Win11 might break?

[airborne spoon]

its not like computer hardware is milk and it'll go bad if you leave it too long. Just store your stuff in a room temp area and avoid large swings in temps, (although even from 50f to 100f isn't much a swing for stuff that is just sitting on a shelf not in use).

[dalekphalm]

On 8/30/2021 at 2:28 PM, Wu Jie said:

Was building my first desktop when the whole graphics card issue surfaced … now that I’m stuck without one, how long can my components last? Considering that I have not remove them from their boxes. 
 

Also, over at my side, 1650s and 1660s are widely available but I don’t know if they can outperform my laptop with a 2060 super.

 

My setup consists of a X570 Aorus Elite Wifi and Ryzen 5 5600x

 

Realistically, if left in good storage conditions? Years. Literal years. Decades even for most of the components.

[-CLASSIFIED-]

capacitors will generally fail over years , and if there's any battery for cmos etc that will fail and damage the mainboard. also CDs and tape disks have a finite life as they will eventually degrade

[sub68]

The only things you have to be concerns moving parts as the lubricants for them breakdown and capacitors.

On 8/30/2021 at 2:59 PM, emosun said:

Capacitors have a shelf life and contain chemicals that eventually break down their casings and leak.

Don't solid Caps last longer? its been awhile since I remember.

[dalekphalm]

7 minutes ago, -CLASSIFIED- said:

capacitors will generally fail over years ,

True - how quickly will depend on a ton of factors, including their original quality. It also depends on the specific type of Capacitor as well, as some fare worse than others.

7 minutes ago, -CLASSIFIED- said:

and if there's any battery for cmos etc that will fail and damage the mainboard.

What are you talking about here? A CMOS battery, in almost every case, is a standard CR2032 coin battery. If these fail, you just replace them. A failed CMOS battery will not damage the motherboard (mainboard) unless something else is going on.

7 minutes ago, -CLASSIFIED- said:

also CDs and tape disks have a finite life as they will eventually degrade

This is definitely true - but it varies wildly, and in most cases will be outside of the scope of the OP's timeframe waiting for a new GPU.

 

You can also purchase CD's, DVD's, Blu-Rays and Tapes that are rated for specific timeframes (example: archival grade CD's that will last around 100+ years).