Practical computer life.

In article ,
says...

On Fri, 04 Oct 2019 07:41:38 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

I have retired my 9 yo computer after many troublesome adventures with
faulty Sata sockets and/or a worn-out motherboard.

What is a reasonable life expectancy for an off-the-shelf computer
these days?



Computers don't really have "life expectancy." They don't die.
Components within them die. Components can usually easily be replaced,
often at a very modest price. So a computer can last forever if you
just keep replacing dead or failing components.

And by the way, its being off-the-shelf doesn't really affect the
point I'm making. Whether it's off-the-shelf or custom-built,
components die and components can be replaced.

So for example, in your case, you could have replaced the motherboard
rather than the whole computer.

Much the same is true of cars; they can also last forever if you just
keep replacing dead or failing components. The big difference between
computers and cars is that car parts can be much more expensive, and
replacing them may not be a wise thing to do.

I haven't yet seen any computer part fail because of rust though That
is what usually eventually causes a cars demise,

On Fri, 4 Oct 2019 17:53:17 -0300, pjp
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Fri, 04 Oct 2019 07:41:38 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

I have retired my 9 yo computer after many troublesome adventures with
faulty Sata sockets and/or a worn-out motherboard.

What is a reasonable life expectancy for an off-the-shelf computer
these days?



Computers don't really have "life expectancy." They don't die.
Components within them die. Components can usually easily be replaced,
often at a very modest price. So a computer can last forever if you
just keep replacing dead or failing components.

And by the way, its being off-the-shelf doesn't really affect the
point I'm making. Whether it's off-the-shelf or custom-built,
components die and components can be replaced.

So for example, in your case, you could have replaced the motherboard
rather than the whole computer.

Much the same is true of cars; they can also last forever if you just
keep replacing dead or failing components. The big difference between
computers and cars is that car parts can be much more expensive, and
replacing them may not be a wise thing to do.

I haven't yet seen any computer part fail because of rust though That
is what usually eventually causes a cars demise,


You're talking about body rust? Even body parts can be replaced--but
that's a good example of something expensive enough that it often
isn't worth doing on a old car.

And by the way, body rust usually occurs only in climates with cold
weather--where the roads are salted to melt the ice. It's the salt
that removes the paint and causes body rust. In warmer places, where
there's very seldom ice on the roads, body rust is rare.

On Fri, 04 Oct 2019 09:10:19 -0400, default
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Oct 2019 12:50:41 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

On Thu, 03 Oct 2019 18:41:55 -0400, default
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Oct 2019 07:41:38 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

I have retired my 9 yo computer after many troublesome adventures with
faulty Sata sockets and/or a worn-out motherboard.

What is a reasonable life expectancy for an off-the-shelf computer
these days?

P

Nine years ain't bad.. The OS, and drivers are in planned
obsolescence by then. I still use XP and Linux myself, and since the
computer does what I need, I have no burning need to get the latest
and greatest...

There is no life expectancy that I'm aware of. The drives are usually
specified as "mean time between failures" of so many months, or
operations (reads or writes). But the motherboard has no components
that should fail on a schedule - you may get problems with a bad batch
of electrolytic capacitors, or tin dendrites forming on lead-free
boards. But leave the MB alone, clean the dust out once in awhile and
it should go for a very long time.

Mother Board sockets have an almost unlimited life expectancy because
they aren't intended to be used very often, if at all. The only thing
on the mother board that is going to fail is the CMOS battery and that
will only fail if the computer is disconnected from the mains for a
protracted period.

If you find yourself plugging in hard drives frequently, for some good
reason... consider using an external hard drive connector or a USB 3
adapter if the mobo supports it. The connectors on the back of the
box are rugged and designed to take some use, but the internal ones
are intended to see only a few uses their entire lifetime.

I have gone with an NUC i7 computer (very portable) with a large
powered USB hub. All my other HDDs are in an external 8-bay USB3
itself connected to a power source and one of the USB ports on the
hub. It is all working very well and I notice no loss of speed
compared to the old full-tower unit.

I've been lusting after some of those little NUC boxes. What model did
you get and what do you like/dislike about it? (and, dare I ask? What
did you pay for it?)

I've fooled around with a few EEE boxes, but they aren't in the same
league as the NUC. But I figure they are nice to have around if the
main computer goes down. Lightening has already eaten a couple of
modems, a KVM switch, several wall-warts, etc.. I'm a retired
electrical engineer and like to tinker with a lot of different stuff.

I bought an Intel NUC817BEH4 (i7) with a fresh Win10pro & 16GB
Kingston RAM. This NUC $AUD750 has space for another internal SSD if
reqd.
It was all a panic buy because the old full-tower unit had trashed my
backups & current OS. But I had separate backups on USB drives.
Since the changeover I've had no trouble with HDD/SDDs whereas before
this was a constant problems necessitating endless CHKDSKs.

Possibly things are headed towards USB connections, completely (via
powered hubs) replacing the old horrible tangle of the Sata cables &
wonky sockets.

I am not a gamer though, and the i3 and i5 units are cheaper.

Peter Jason asked:
I have retired my 9 yo computer after many troublesome
adventures with faulty Sata sockets and/or a worn-out motherboard.

What is a reasonable life expectancy for
an off-the-shelf computer these days ?

A PC loses half of its value each year.
After 9 years, it's lost 99.8% ( 1-.5^9 ) of its value;
inflation devalues it further.