Longest running components you have

[Psittac]

Today I took apart my friend's computer to do some repairs and was amazed that the AIO was still running and it got me wondering what everyone's longest running components are that have been in use the majority of the time.

 

My longest running build is an asrock z77 3570k 16g ballistics ddr3 and Antec Kuhler 620.  This machine has been in almost constant use since being built back in 2012 and the case is my longest running, Corsair Air 240 when ever that came out.  The last 5 years it has been running 24/7 because my friend that uses it never shut's it off.  I have newer computers I could give him but because he is blind he doesn't need raw computing power, the snappiness of the 3570k with it's ddr3 and very fast mb boot time is exactly what he needs, doesn't use a gpu either.

 

 

My absolute oldest component though is a power supply, an Antec True Power 2.0 550w that has been in daily use almost completely since 2003 with the most recent stretch being the past 4 or 5 years with 24/7 up time.  It has lived through almost half a dozen computers and every few years along the way I would open up a friend or family members computer and go  OHHH YEAH!! I still have that.

 

With how short of a life cycle most tech has these day's it's refreshing to see some parts that stand the test of time.

[BondiBlue]

Currently that's probably the Dell OptiPlex 755 that is serving as my media NAS. It was built in 2008, used as a file server for several years (with 24/7 uptime), then I acquired it. I immediately put it to use as my main computer (it was fine for my needs at the time - I did more demanding tasks remotely), and after a couple years it became my NAS. It's been running nearly 24/7 for the entire time I've owned it, and the only thing that has ever failed in it is the original power supply. It still works, but it's a bit weak, and can't start if there are more than just a couple hard drives in the system. I swapped that out with an identical PSU from another OptiPlex about two years ago, and it's been fine ever since. The last time it was off was in October 2020, and it was only off because of a power outage that was too long for my UPS to hold. 

 

I do have other components that have much more uptime, but the OptiPlex is the best example I have of a computer that has basically never let me down. It's old, but it's still overkill for a basic file server. 

[RONOTHAN##]

The longest thing I've personally used is a Logitech G700S that I got refurbished ~8 years ago. It was my main mouse for ~4 years, and was my spare mouse until recently when I lost the wireless adapter and just got a G604 to replace it as my spare. That said, if you're just talking about the oldest thing I have that's had long term use, I've got a few other options. 

 

I bought my first PC late 2016 off Craigslist, a X58 system that was put together new. I have since parted it out, but I did keep a couple things from it, two Corsair Force 3 120GB that I've been running in random applications ever since. Currently, they're the boot drives of my server and show no signs of stopping. They're over 10 years old, and since they're (pretty sure) SLC drives, they'll live practically forever

[mariushm]

A WD Black 1 TB with 84K hours of usage (because i leave computer running 24/7) :

 

That's 3498 days of operation, or 9.5 years... but it sat unused (the whole computer) for around 6-9 months while I was working with just a laptop away from home, so I probably had it for more than 11 years..

 

[it_dont_work]

Dodge old CM GX750 psu, or maybe an older WD green drive 

[Kanna]

For part it would probably be this Geforce 8800 GTX. Probably have something older I'm forgetting about but this is what I remember. And for build it's probably this old XP computer from 2007 or something

[emosun]

the oldest would be my amp which is a sansui 210 from 1972

[Arika]

My boot SSD from 2013

[DigitalHabit]

My longest running component is the HP envy 23" All-in-One I bought back in 2012 with an i7-3770s.  I have since upgraded the RAM from 8gb to 16gb, I have also replaced the HDD with an SSD  for the OS and relegated the existing HDD to be a starter NAS.  I can say thankfully it's not my daily driver anymore but still gets consistent use. 

[Windows7ge]

The Kingwin LZ-1000 PSU that I bought back in 2012~2013. It's been through hell and back. To this day it has been the most reliable and still active in use PSU I've ever owned.

[jaslion]

My medion md8008 pc. It's been used intensively as a personal system from 2003-2012 after as a nearly 24/7 store pc for 3 years and afterwards as a 24/7 machining computer.

 

The only thing that broke was the psu. The og hdd has been replaced by a kingston force 3 ssd with a sata add in card. But the core p4 and radeon 9600 xt are still going.

[Pixelfie]

My WD Scorpio Blue 750gb from 2010/2011. Still working great, but for the past few years I used it as an external drive with some cheap USB to Sata adapter I got on Aliexpress.

 

The drive was taken out of my old Asus K53S (2011 or 2012), which works but not great. Everything works but every few months I have to remove the keyboard and push the power button cable (connector burned and lost plastic piece holding the cable in place). The battery also completely died, because I was stupid to leave it at 0% for months. Sometimes there's weird colors all over the screen and the laptop freezes, I think it may be RAM related but not sure. It doesn't happen very often.

[WhitetailAni]

My Seagate ST33232A 3.2GB from 1998. It sounds like it will die but hasn't given up yet.

[adarw]

57 minutes ago, Psittac said:

My longest running build is an asrock z77 3570k 16g ballistics ddr3 and Antec Kuhler 620.  This machine has been in almost constant use since being built back in 2012 and the case is my longest running, Corsair Air 240 when ever that came out.  The last 5 years it has been running 24/7 because my friend that uses it never shut's it off.  I have newer computers I could give him but because he is blind he doesn't need raw computing power, the snappiness of the 3570k with it's ddr3 and very fast mb boot time is exactly what he needs, doesn't use a gpu either.

 

can i ask, what does he do? like on the computer, i cant think of anything.

[Tamesh16]

850 Evo I got in early 2015 going strong 7 years later 

[adarw]

3 minutes ago, Tamesh16 said:

850 Evo I got in early 2015 going strong 7 years later 

2015 was 7 years ago!!?! 

[Sprawlie]

There's this HP server in my datacenter that predates me by a lot. It has never gone down.. It cannot go down. I have no access. the server came from a merger and contains historical data. The merger happened in 2004.

 

Everytime I ask the executive if I can shut it down and dispose of it "no".

 

I have explained numerous times that I cannot protect it. It's unsupported and I cannot guarantee it'll ever start again.

 

For now, I just unplug it from the network when they're not using it.

[LloydLynx]

A PCI Creative Live! Soundblaster 5.1 sound card. Early 2000's, possibly very late 90's, idk much about them. I've never had an issue with it. 

[Psittac]

56 minutes ago, adarw said:

can i ask, what does he do? like on the computer, i cant think of anything.

He has a screen reader so even though it support's a mouse he doesn't have a framework of what it would be doing.  Everything is keyboard based so any program or website that doesn't have everything in readable text he can't use.  But he does stuff like youtube and facebook.  Does a lot of reading of text.  Music as well as audio games.  Basically anything you or I would do that is auditory or text based.  He likes to research a lot of things too.

 

*edit: He likes to watch a lot of TV shows and movies esp if they're in audio descriptive.  Regardless of where you live or your political views Obama did something great for the blind community, every new DVD or BD released after a certain date needs to have an Audio Description track available on it, it's kind of like a french or chinese audio track but it's english and has a narrator.  If it's something that doesn't have descriptive available it needs to be something that doesn't rely heavily on visual queues, something like Futurama is actually excellent for the blind, the majority of it is vocalized.  One thing that I do find odd is that while netflix offers descriptive audio tracks...... their website and interface is apparently difficult to navigate, he can't watch netflix And turn on the descriptive audio.  Bonus fact, descriptive audio tracks aren't in surround, they are just stereo.

[adarw]

37 minutes ago, Psittac said:

He has a screen reader so even though it support's a mouse he doesn't have a framework of what it would be doing.  Everything is keyboard based so any program or website that doesn't have everything in readable text he can't use.  But he does stuff like youtube and facebook.  Does a lot of reading of text.  Music as well as audio games.  Basically anything you or I would do that is auditory or text based.  He likes to research a lot of things too.

 

*edit: He likes to watch a lot of TV shows and movies esp if they're in audio descriptive.  Regardless of where you live or your political views Obama did something great for the blind community, every new DVD or BD released after a certain date needs to have an Audio Description track available on it, it's kind of like a french or chinese audio track but it's english and has a narrator.  If it's something that doesn't have descriptive available it needs to be something that doesn't rely heavily on visual queues, something like Futurama is actually excellent for the blind, the majority of it is vocalized.  One thing that I do find odd is that while netflix offers descriptive audio tracks...... their website and interface is apparently difficult to navigate, he can't watch netflix And turn on the descriptive audio.  Bonus fact, descriptive audio tracks aren't in surround, they are just stereo.

thanks for the info, i kinda have a personal question that i dont mind if you dont awnser, how did you guys meet? also another question, can he work, like what kinds of things is he able to work? im sorry im asking these weird questions, im just really curios.

[Psittac]

21 minutes ago, adarw said:

thanks for the info, i kinda have a personal question that i dont mind if you dont awnser, how did you guys meet? also another question, can he work, like what kinds of things is he able to work? im sorry im asking these weird questions, im just really curios.

Yeah no problem.  I was teaching a tech class at the center for people with disabilities.  I had been taking care of a mentally challenged woman for a few years at that point, met her because she came into the pet store I was working at asking about a computer and so I started giving her lessons.  At some point her case worker suggested that I teach a class.  I only went to one of them and all I did was answer some questions.  I mentioned that there was a "party" for disabled people at the mega church I went to at the time and the only person interested was Joe.  He also needed tech help because his laptop that was even old at the time was essentially non functional.  He came over to my parent's basement the first time we got together and we spent something like 8 hours getting to know each other while the ancient laptop did a reinstall of windows.  This had to have been 12+ years ago at this point but we started hanging out and as my means started to grow so did my ability to help him with tech and other thing's.  Today he lives in the first house I moved into 10 years ago with his mom and they pay rent equal to a 2 bedroom apartment 5 years ago before the rates went up.  They take good care of the house that my dad owns and that works for us, it pays taxes HOA insurance and repairs and we don't have to remodel the house every year.

 

Joe isn't able to work or rather he hasn't found anything that his skill set fit's that someone is willing to take him on.  Honestly everything gets far more complicated when you can't see.  He gets SSI and SSDI and his mom works so they get by.  He has tried to get jobs doing phone work and such, but no one is interested so far.

[Vishera]

2 hours ago, FakeKGB said:

My Seagate ST33232A 3.2GB from 1998. It sounds like it will die but hasn't given up yet.

Seems like hard drives are starring on the longest running components thread...

My longest running component is also a hard drive,

It's a 2006 60GB TOSHIBA 5400RPM SATA I drive that i use on a 11 years old gaming PC

The PC has a FX 8120,2x4GB Kingston D3N9 1333MHz DDR3 and a HD 6970.

[DarkEnergy]

My longest running "consumable" type device is my Logitech g502 from 2016. Used daily for hours, it's gone through it's gaming and associated sweat-all-over sessions but still runs like new. 6 years for a mouse is pretty good.

 

Apart from that, my current rig (except for the graphics card) is my longest running bunch of components. My OS SSD switched recently from the Samsung 840 (pre "evo" days) to the 840 evo I had laying around because the 840 SSD became unbearably slow. Apparently 65% wear leveling is enough to tank the performance and freeze up the computer when I want to do file transfers. 

 

I'm hoping to upgrade at the end of the year after the new Ryzen desktop CPU's come out. Running a decent graphics card on my shit-tier PSU (Corsair CX series) for the past couple years has been a bit nerve-racking. Also my fx 8350 is struggling a bit.

[adarw]

35 minutes ago, Psittac said:

Yeah no problem.  I was teaching a tech class at the center for people with disabilities.  I had been taking care of a mentally challenged woman for a few years at that point, met her because she came into the pet store I was working at asking about a computer and so I started giving her lessons.  At some point her case worker suggested that I teach a class.  I only went to one of them and all I did was answer some questions.  I mentioned that there was a "party" for disabled people at the mega church I went to at the time and the only person interested was Joe.  He also needed tech help because his laptop that was even old at the time was essentially non functional.  He came over to my parent's basement the first time we got together and we spent something like 8 hours getting to know each other while the ancient laptop did a reinstall of windows.  This had to have been 12+ years ago at this point but we started hanging out and as my means started to grow so did my ability to help him with tech and other thing's.  Today he lives in the first house I moved into 10 years ago with his mom and they pay rent equal to a 2 bedroom apartment 5 years ago before the rates went up.  They take good care of the house that my dad owns and that works for us, it pays taxes HOA insurance and repairs and we don't have to remodel the house every year.

 

Joe isn't able to work or rather he hasn't found anything that his skill set fit's that someone is willing to take him on.  Honestly everything gets far more complicated when you can't see.  He gets SSI and SSDI and his mom works so they get by.  He has tried to get jobs doing phone work and such, but no one is interested so far.

thats a sweet story  (well other than the fact that hes blind). i wish you the best!

[freeagent]

Still  using my G15 from 2006 or so.. never had a problem with it. Its been rinsed with boiling hot water a few times and everything still works lol.. I always thought the keys were a bit soft though.. I have a G9something upstairs on my kids machine, I like mine better..