hardware aging?

So this post got me wondering, since powersupplys "decay" by losing 10 percent of their power per year... I'd like to know how much other computer hardware parts "decay" or lose their efficiency in this manner.

 

Responding here just for the heck of it, no expert at all. Remember that Antec builds & sells power supplies, so there is most certainly a vested interest in their authoritative comment. If that statement was true then all of yesterday's 100W power supplies would have been dead in 10-12 years, depending on how you calculate the 10% degradation. 'T'isn't so, not even close!

I drive a 43 year old truck and have personally put over 1,000,000 miles on it. I often buy spare parts from the wreckers, taken off of trucks that only saw 150,000-200,000 miles. Made in the same factory, same parts, same vendors, same assemblers.

There's things that can stress computer parts; like not having enough memory stresses the memory and all the devices it supports. Continuous crashes or hard reboots are really hard on your hard drive. Forcing a monitor to run at the wrong resolution will fry it fairly quickly. Using a weak system to run hugely graphics-intensive stuff stresses most everything. Mismatched components regularly cause problems. Power outtages/restores do a number on everything in your little black box.

Best insurance is to overbuild and understress and keep the innards spotless clean with all the cooling you can manage, plus protect from power surges. Surge protectors are okay, but the very best is a magnetic contactor inline before computer. Physically impossible to surge equipment on power restore.

 

I agree with your logic, LocknLod; my experience leads me to the same conclusion. I'm typing this from a computer given to me and then upgraded in several ways by me; it's a Compaq d530CMT. As nearly as I can determine, this computer may be over 6 years old. It's a Pentium 4, 2.66GHz and now has 2GB or RAM and is running Windows 7.

It still has the original power supply which is only 240W. If it had lost 10% of its capacity each year, it surely would not be running now. Perhaps I should mention that this computer was not used much for at least a year but, still, a 10% annual loss clearly appears to NOT be happening.

I did have to replace a power supply in another computer which I still have and use but I saw signs of imminent power supply failure with that system. The main sign of a problem developing was failure to start when the power button was pressed. I would have to try again and it would usually start the second time. I have not yet noticed any signs of degradation with this Compaq d530CMT.

 

Yep, I've been an I.T. Tech for 22 years, (roughly), and you just can't quantify and generalize like <10% power per year. Some run with no power loss for decades, if you still use the said machine and P.S.U. for long enough. As said, over-spec'ing somewhat will avoid a lot of component strain. And, of course keeping dust and so-forth out.

 

Yes, and my very recently retired and dismantled computer was a smoking fast '98-'99 build with no hardware problems that I could find. That drive is now the slave in this machine. I'm going to search out a hot board for its 'antique' processor, a Coppermine Pentium III 847Mhz, performing very near as well as my current 2.8Ghz! I only notice a very slight difference. Every person that used that faithful old machine commented the same, "MAN! This thing is FAST for being so old...." Yep!

We all know by now that many of the forced upgrades and 'New & Improved!' are all about corporate cashflow and shareholder dividends, not efficiency & amazing technological advances...