PC ageing faster as gaming and streaming PC?

[_Grid21]

I have a really nice powerhouse rig, at least to me anyway, that I use for gaming, Twitch streaming, video editing, and general use. But a question crossed my mind recently, does constant streaming and gaming age your hardware faster than someone who just plays games, makes videos, or uses their PC for general use? I feel like I heard either Linus or someone said it does, but I decided to get educated instead and ask. If it does, is it worth building a streaming PC just for twitch so my main rig doesn't "age" as fast. 

 

My system

• Case: Corsair Graphite 760T White Full Tower
• Motherboard: Asus Z87-A
• Processor: Intel i7-4790 3.6Ghz Quad Core
• Ram: Corsair Vengeance LP 1600Mhz 16GB.
• Graphics card: EVGA GTX 980 Ti FTW 6GB
• Inateck USB 3.0 to PCIe expansion card
• Elgato HD60 Pro
• USB 2.0 to PCI expansion card
• Dual SATA to PCIe expansion card
• Power Supply: EVGA G2 Supernova 750watt 80+
• Gold
• Hard Drive: 2 WD Blue 1TB RAID 1 for OS, 2
• 2TB WD Black, one for images and one for
• video editing,
• 1 WD Blue 500GB for rendering,
• 1 Seagate 1TB for resource files.
• 2 3TB for more storage
• 2 Corsair AF 120mm Blue LED Fan
• 1 Corsair AF 140mm White LED Fan
• 2 Noctua NF-A14 Black 140mm Fans
• 1 Corsair ML120mm Fan

[JaegerB]

Ageing? Nah. Make sure you look after your rig, dust it regularly, keep temperatures low, and you should be fine. Use of a PC will not damage it, but temperature stress will. If you take good care of it it will last you years.

[_Grid21]

4 minutes ago, JaegerB said:

Ageing? Nah. Make sure you look after your rig, dust it regularly, keep temperatures low, and you should be fine. Use of a PC will not damage it, but temperature stress will. If you take good care of it it will last you years.

I remember that Linus talked about micro fractures in the solder joints of a motherboard and other components, that's why I was asking. Does that statement still stand true with that in mind? 

[JaegerB]

Just now, Josh_Grid21 said:

I remember that Linus talked about micro fractures in the solder joints of a motherboard and other components, that's why I was asking. Does that statement still stand true with that in mind? 

That's definitely a thing, but iirc it's caused by heat and/or vibrations. Keeping your temps reasonable would help you avoid that, but bear in mind that there can be extremely tiny and minor defects in parts that originate at the factory, so it is a bit of a lottery. However unless you have janky parts from some sketchy manufacturer, I doubt there would be any major issues with your components.

[_Grid21]

4 minutes ago, JaegerB said:

That's definitely a thing, but iirc it's caused by heat and/or vibrations. Keeping your temps reasonable would help you avoid that, but bear in mind that there can be extremely tiny and minor defects in parts that originate at the factory, so it is a bit of a lottery. However unless you have janky parts from some sketchy manufacturer, I doubt there would be any major issues with your components.

Thank you for the information. I am very picky when it comes to taking care of my computer and all our workstations at my house. I thought I'd ask to get a better idea of the concept. Thanks!

[SageOfSpice]

Solder fractures are usually caused by thermal cycling.

Electromigration is usually what ends up killing computers from "age", presuming they ever die in the first place before they become obsolete. It's accelerated by higher temperatures which increase the resistance of the conductors.

 

Realistically, the most likely things to die are going to be your harddrives, and your PSU. Literally everything else could last 20 years so long as you aren't pumping silly amounts of power through it, or allowing it to overheat.

[Kagajaki]

In general you can think of any PC like an engine form your car. There are no visible moving part's but there are electrons that move an over time pic away material from your components. It's called electro migration if i'm not mistaken. The more electrons flow throw your system the more they will reduce the lifetime of your components. BUT  as stated in a lot of videos online and on my own experience, that is negligible. The temperature is fastening this process that is why they tell you to keep your components cool.

If your are able to run your components cool than they shout as long under high load as under low load. Miningrigs for Bitcoin and Editing rigs run usually hotter because they are under constant load. ( temperature again ^^ ).

Another important thing is your condensator on your motherboard. These have a lifetime under load and a heavy load and high temperatures reduce this lifetime faster. 

 

All together, however you use your motherboard under normal working conditions (not 100% workload 24/7) they last at least a few years (5-10). And by the time you reach the point where it starts to matter, it is time to upgrade anyway today, so don't think to much about what component you shout use or if they will life long enough and see this video about fans and cooling and go for the low temperature and you will be fine

 

[LogicalDrm]

It won't have anything that you would notice. You would reach limits faster if you would run components at hot temps or high voltages. But putting more stress doesn't do anything by itself.

[iBabySlapper]

It probably does, heat and voltage doing the most 'damage'. But not enough that it'd make a big difference in life expectancy of your bits.

[_Grid21]

17 hours ago, ibabyslapper said:

It probably does, heat and voltage doing the most 'damage'. But not enough that it'd make a big difference in life expectancy of your bits.

Well, when my CPU hits 50 *C and my GPU hits 70 *C is this electromigration accelerating the process? 

[_Grid21]

11 minutes ago, L.Lawliet said:

Everything will age if u use it. DEAL WITH IT.

In the end they will die anyway but unlike other things PC wont die that easily unless u screwed up or unable to take care of it.

A lot of people still rocking 4670k/4790k or old gpu like 650,680,780 and i am sure they wont use that RIG for office workloads only looking at u Ms,word/excel.

 

How to take care of your pc is already been described by LTT members above.

Yeah and I do. I just wanted to understand better how that process worked.

[CoalitionGaming]

If you build a stream PC or wanted to try it, OBS with the NDI plugin is pretty useful! If you're not sure what that is, i go over it (and how to set it up) here. 

 

 

 

In my opinion, no it wont noticeably age your PC more to "stress" it more, unless like everyone above says, your temps are out of control. Thermal cycling is what kills solder joints as mentioned, so keeping everything cool under stress is pretty much the key to longevity. 

[RubSchneider]

On 11/6/2017 at 2:40 AM, LoGiCalDrm said:

It won't have anything that you would notice. You would reach limits faster if you would run components at hot temps or high voltages. But putting more stress doesn't do anything by itself.

False. The fans will wear out faster.

 

[LogicalDrm]

13 hours ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

Well, when my CPU hits 50 *C and my GPU hits 70 *C is this electromigration accelerating the process? 

 

Those are normal temps. High temps would be over 90C on both.

 

7 minutes ago, RubSchneider said:

False. The fans will wear out faster.

 

Not really. Fans are rated to run X hours at full speed. Ofc running them lower than full speed will increase lifetime. But you can run them at lower speeds while still have normal temps.

[RubSchneider]

6 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Not really. Fans are rated to run X hours at full speed. Ofc running them lower than full speed will increase lifetime. But you can run them at lower speeds while still have normal temps.

Not unless you have overkill cooling. Fans in a system under 60% load 24/7 will last longer than under 100% 24/7.