Which component breaks down the most?

[just tilt]

So, I was wondering which components break down most frequently, and which component is most likely to not work as expected (I'm forced to RMA it) when I buy it? Excluding water coolers and custom loops. No physical damage like dropping the hard drive etc, but including temperatures within the limits of the component.
I only know of PSUs lasting a really long time, and HDDs and SSDs capable of lasting upwards of 5 years.
*Brand new
*No OCing

[TAHIRMIA]

The only thing you would have a problem with is if your HDD fails. Temp wise if something gets too hot it will thermal throttle or shut down by itself

[just tilt]

1 minute ago, TAHIRMIA said:

The only thing you would have a problem with is if your HDD fails. Temp wise if something gets too hot it will thermal throttle or shut down by itself

I know, but if used like a regular user, what component breaks down the most?

[Pachuca]

4 minutes ago, just tilt said:

I know, but if used like a regular user, what component breaks down the most?

for desktop or laptop? In my experience for laptops the mobo tends to go if you use the performance setting in windows all the time. 

[TAHIRMIA]

5 minutes ago, just tilt said:

I know, but if used like a regular user, what component breaks down the most?

I would say HDD since it is used the most, but I've only ever had 1 fail on me. HW is very reliable now compared to a few years ago

[just tilt]

4 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

for desktop or laptop? In my experience for laptops the mobo tends to go if you use the performance setting in windows all the time. 

Desktop
I've already had MOBO pins in me laptop go on me

[dizmo]

The only component I've ever had issues with is the PSU. I've had 4 of them die.

[Bananasplit_00]

SSDs, they have the shortest lifespan of all the components

[just tilt]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

The only component I've ever had issues with is the PSU. I've had 4 of them die.

Probably not the highest quality? My friend has a SeaSonic PSU that ran for the last 10 years with no problems whatsoever
 

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, just tilt said:

Probably not the highest quality? My friend has a SeaSonic PSU that ran for the last 10 years with no problems whatsoever
 

They were pretty top end.

However two of the apartments were older.

It's more about environment than component quality.

[just tilt]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

They were pretty top end.

However two of the apartments were older.

It's more about environment than component quality.

Oh wow. Okay, thanks for the memo.

[Lord Nicoll]

31 minutes ago, just tilt said:

So, I was wondering which components break down most frequently, and which component is most likely to not work as expected (I'm forced to RMA it) when I buy it? Excluding water coolers and custom loops. No physical damage like dropping the hard drive etc, but including temperatures within the limits of the component.
I only know of PSUs lasting a really long time, and HDDs and SSDs capable of lasting upwards of 5 years.
*Brand new
*No OCing

Fans, AIOs, and HDD's, the rest either are DOA, die quickly or last a long time, although there are a few exceptions 

 

[CtrlAltELITE]

2 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

SSDs, they have the shortest lifespan of all the components

I strongly disagree. Whilst they do have a very much measurable and finite life with modern nand and controllers SSDs have the capability to easily outlive a HDD with its fragile moving parts.

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, CtrlAltELITE said:

I strongly disagree. Whilst they do have a very much measurable and finite life with modern nand and controllers SSDs have the capability to easily outlive a HDD with its fragile moving parts.

they have the shortst lifespan. harddrves, fans, CPUs, GPUs, Cases, RAM, Motherboards all live longer then SSDs. sure some SSDs can last 5+ years but even motherboards with electrolytic capacitors live longer then that, the only thing i can think of that may have a shorter lifespan would be AIOs

[CtrlAltELITE]

54 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

they have the shortst lifespan. harddrves, fans, CPUs, GPUs, Cases, RAM, Motherboards all live longer then SSDs. sure some SSDs can last 5+ years but even motherboards with electrolytic capacitors live longer then that, the only thing i can think of that may have a shorter lifespan would be AIOs

Your putting a timescale based lifespan on a component which life is entirely based on usage case scenarios. In a high wear data centre environment where hundreds of gigabytes of writes can be occurring every week I would agree with your 3-5 year estimate. However in the same environment I would bet on a modern SSDs still out living a high speed spinning hard disc (lower speed archival drives can last longer but normally with an entirely different usage case).

 

In a domestic environment where the drive is powered up and only receiving small write levels there is no reason an ssd couldn't last in excess of 10 years alongside other silicon based components.

 

Moving parts will always be the first port of call where points of failure are concerned.

[gcubed]

5 hours ago, just tilt said:

Probably not the highest quality? My friend has a SeaSonic PSU that ran for the last 10 years with no problems whatsoever
 

If you size a good quality power supply properly and keep the dust bunnies from breeding in it, it is likely to last until the sun goes nova (barring some manufacturing defect).

 

If you never clean it, expect it to fry.

If it is of a substandard quality, it won't last long.

If it is forced to supply more wattage than it is rated for, it will whimper as it dies.

 

Store bought prebuilds, typically have power supplies of dubious quality and are pushing the limits of their wattage ratings. Drop one more component into the computer or swapping a component (like a video card) with a higher power draw, pretty much will slowly kill the PSU.

 

 

 

 

[Gaub]

Puget Systems wrote a cool publication showing the kinds of failure rates they saw in the equipment they sold in 2016:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Most-Reliable-PC-Hardware-of-2016-872/

They say motherboards have some of the highest failure rates because of their complexity. Hard drives (of course) and video cards also have very high failure rates. ECC ram and Xeon processors stand out as being quite significantly more reliable than the variants sold to consumers.

[ARikozuM]

I want to say SSDs and HDDs since I burn through those like no tomorrow, but I think I've had more case speakers die.

[bob345]

ram and hard drives

[chrisholland03]

In our workplace:

 

#1 - Laptop Batteries

#2 - HDDs

#3 - Desktop Fans/PSUs (almost always die due to dust bunnies)

 

The component most likely to be DOA - RAM

 

[TheGeekOnABudget]

motherboards usually die before there CPUs

[arbellason55]

For me psu's, mice and headsets. 

[just tilt]

4 hours ago, arbellason55 said:

mice and headsets

Those are not components buddy, those are called peripherals. Thanks for the memo tho
I will be going for a "SafeSonic" PSU, so I don't really worry about it too much

[SpaceNugget]

3 minutes ago, just tilt said:

Those are not components buddy, those are called peripherals. Thanks for the memo tho
I will be going for a "SafeSonic" PSU, so I don't really worry about it too much

They are components if you look at what the word means. People make the distinction arbitrarily.

 

I mean graphics cards are peripherals too, they plug into "Peripheral Component Interfaces"

[NoCarrier]

16 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

I want to say SSDs and HDDs since I burn through those like no tomorrow, but I think I've had more case speakers die.

case speakers?  whoa haven't seen those in a while.

 

I can safely say that every single seagate HDD i've ever owned has failed.  EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.

 

First was a Seagate ST251-1 , 40mb MFM from the late 80s.  That died in 2 years from stiction.

 

Most recently, had a handful of portable USB ones die as well as a stack of 1.5tb barracudas. 

 

Ever since those, i haven't had a single Seagate HDD fail on me, mostly because i stopped buying seagate out of principle.

 

I have several 10k RPM raptors and velociraptors that have been absolute workhorses, as well as some WD Reds and HGST enterprise drives.

 

it's a shame now that Seagate/WD/HGST are all the same company now.