[SOLVED] How Long Can I Expect My PC To Last

[atif93]

Hello Tom's Hardware,

On April the 11th 2018, I built myself a computer with the following specs.

1. Gigabyte AX370 Gaming K5 Motherboard.

2. 16GB RAM.

3. NVIDIA GTX 1050 Graphics Card.

4. AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU 6 Cores With 12 Threads.

I use this as my main PC and gaming rig, it has so far lasted 3.5 years with no issues. I just want to ask how much more longer, can I expect the PC to last before serious issues start occurring. What's a reasonable timeline. I spent £866 back then.

 

[Theresa N]

Hello Tom's Hardware,

On April the 11th 2018, I built myself a computer with the following specs.

1. Gigabyte AX370 Gaming K5 Motherboard.

2. 16GB RAM.

3. NVIDIA GTX 1050 Graphics Card.

4. AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU 6 Cores With 12 Threads.

I use this as my main PC and gaming rig, it has so far lasted 3.5 years with no issues. I just want to ask how much more longer, can I expect the PC to last before serious issues start occurring. What's a reasonable timeline. I spent £866 back then.

Depends on what you want to do with it. For gaming it's pretty dated already. For general home office duty it may be usable for another six years or until there is a fatal failure.

 

[Bazzy 505]

it very much depends on your expectations. If you are happy with gaming between 1080p to 1440p,
asides from graphics card, which was a budget offering from nvidia to begin with, rest of the system
should hold up just fine for at least another 2 years.
As for the next upgrade going forward i would recommend saving up for 3060Ti which will significantly prolog the useful life of your machine.

 

[lvt]

I use this as my main PC and gaming rig, it has so far lasted 3.5 years with no issues. I just want to ask how much more longer, can I expect the PC to last before serious issues start occurring. What's a reasonable timeline. I spent £866 back then.

It's time to replace the CPU and GPU's thermal paste/pads.

After that I don't see why your compute won't last another 3.5 years.

 

[Ralston18]

Valid question and concern.

I will start by asking if you have all important data backed up at least 2 x in different locations? And the backups being proven recoverable and readable?

As to a specific quantifiable answer - that is probably not knowable.

If the system has been treated well, not heavily used for gaming or high intensive (i.e., heat generating) purposes, kept cleaned of dust and debris, you may get a quite a bit more use from it.

On the other hand, any given component could just "give up the ghost" and take the system with it. PSUs are always a concern.

Many people get by for years using an older PC. Others get a new PC that simply fails within months if not sooner.

Take care of the system, hope for the best, expect the worst.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[atif93]

Valid question and concern.

I will start by asking if you have all important data backed up at least 2 x in different locations? And the backups being proven recoverable and readable?

As to a specific quantifiable answer - that is probably not knowable.

If the system has been treated well, not heavily used for gaming or high intensive (i.e., heat generating) purposes, kept cleaned of dust and debris, you may get a quite a bit more use from it.

On the other hand, any given component could just "give up the ghost" and take the system with it. PSUs are always a concern.

Many people get by for years using an older PC. Others get a new PC that simply fails within months if not sooner.

Take care of the system, hope for the best, expect the worst.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

I do have my important data backed up to two locations, I even have a NAS system. I was just generally asking, because I play House Flipper and Euro Truck Simulator 2, I sometimes feel a little glitch here and there, so just in general I was asking how long can it last!

Thanks!

 

[Bazzy 505]

It is vital to bear in mind, that people's needs and expectations vary greatly from person to person. It is not hard assemble a system for top dollar from the top of stack. The true skill is to find a balace between percieved performance and user's needs.

If we set aside mobile, half of all the gaming revenue by volume is done on consoles, that have their titles locked at 30-60hz, and many people are perfectly happy with the experience. Smooth user experience is just as much about about consistent frame rate as it about refresh rate.

 

[atif93]

it very much depends on your expectations. If you are happy with gaming between 1080p to 1440p,
asides from graphics card, which was a budget offering from nvidia to begin with, rest of the system
should hold up just fine for at least another 2 years.
As for the next upgrade going forward i would recommend saving up for 3060Ti which will significantly prolog the useful life of your machine.

What components do you think will hold up fine for another 2 years?

 

[atif93]

Will I even get Windows 11 with my hardware, I know Microsoft is locking out first gen processors, so is my computer already dated?

 

[geofelt]

With reasonable care and occasional cleaning, I would expect your pc to last 15 years.
But...
It will be long obsolete by then and no doubt your needs will make that point sooner.

The real answer is when the current pc no longer serves your needs/wants.

 

[atif93]

With reasonable care and occasional cleaning, I would expect your pc to last 15 years.
But...
It will be long obsolete by then and no doubt your needs will make that point sooner.

The real answer is when the current pc no longer serves your needs/wants.

What that be when I get too many glitches in gaming and in PC use? Does that also mean the USB front panel could fail as well or when the performance is inadequate?

 

[geofelt]

Mechanically, a pc can last a very long time.
You might have to replace a fan which wears out in 5-10 years.
Insertion of usb sticks hundreds of times a day may wear out the port, that would be unusual.
I don't know what you mean by glitches.
Games may need patches.
What works well today can be expected to work similarly in the future.

More likely, you will want to play a game that needs more cpu,ram or gpu than your current pc can deliver with acceptable performance.
That is when you need to upgrade.

Graphics upgrade is easy if you have a quality psu of sufficient power.
CPU centric games can get a stronger processor.
But, your r5 1600 and motherboard are already old.
If you buy new, new gen from amd and intel is on the horizon and that will likely be what you want.

 

[atif93]

Mechanically, a pc can last a very long time.
You might have to replace a fan which wears out in 5-10 years.
Insertion of usb sticks hundreds of times a day may wear out the port, that would be unusual.
I don't know what you mean by glitches.
Games may need patches.
What works well today can be expected to work similarly in the future.

More likely, you will want to play a game that needs more cpu,ram or gpu than your current pc can deliver with acceptable performance.
That is when you need to upgrade.

Graphics upgrade is easy if you have a quality psu of sufficient power.
CPU centric games can get a stronger processor.
But, your r5 1600 and motherboard are already old.
If you buy new, new gen from amd and intel is on the horizon and that will likely be what you want.

I am very happy with it, I spent £866 back then let's see how long it lasts? It does everything well hopefully I'll get maybe another three to 4 years.

 

[Fl1cks]

So there are many factors to look at but here are some words to give you some ideas. Temperatures, Vibrations, ESD, Age of the components / components bought as used or with an opened box

 

[atif93]

Okay, I know it's a difficult question but I can still carry on gaming with the GTX 1050, AMD Ryzen 5 1600, because I was a student when I built this computer, now I am unemployed. So if I continue using the PC without upgrade, already at 3.25 years, how much more longer am I looking at, the useful life as some mentioned here?

 

[Bazzy 505]

Okay, I know it's a difficult question but I can still carry on gaming with the GTX 1050, AMD Ryzen 5 1600, because I was a student when I built this computer, now I am unemployed. So if I continue using the PC without upgrade, already at 3.25 years, how much more longer am I looking at, the useful life as some mentioned here?

That very much depends of the kind of games you like to play. If it's mmo's you can easily play them at moderate settings for years to come. Lot of people play games like wow or FFXIV on 4-5 year old laptops with IGP even now. Same goes for most slower paces genres like strategy or rpgs; with some limitations i would say 2 years reasonably.
If you prefer FPS games, 1050 has been on trailing edge of things for a while. there's not much life left in it, maybe a year 1080p at medium settings in current games.

There's however one option you may consider, NVIDIA is cutting support for kepler based GPUs this summer. Whenever NVIDIA does this, people typically start dropping these cards on Ebay like hot lead, while in reality it only means they will not be receiving game ready optimizations for new games or have new API level features implemented, but all those cards are often perfectly fine to use for another 3-4 years. If you can set aside something 50-70bucks ( i know it can be hard, but not impossible even when unemployed) you can easily find something like 770 or 780 GTX. If you are lucky and can snipe on of those in 4GB or 6GB GDDR5 ( i would avoid 2 and 3GB variants) versions, which can give surprisingly pleasant experience at resonably high settings even with demanding games like Doom Eternal on a dime. Keep an eye out on ebay listings for the next 2 months, it'll be worth it.

 

[hang-the-9]

Okay, I know it's a difficult question but I can still carry on gaming with the GTX 1050, AMD Ryzen 5 1600, because I was a student when I built this computer, now I am unemployed. So if I continue using the PC without upgrade, already at 3.25 years, how much more longer am I looking at, the useful life as some mentioned here?

You will know when you come to that point. Worrying about what may happen at some point in the future is just wasted mental activity. Are you going to be staying up all night biting your nails about it? Why get the thought in your head when you can't do anything about it anyway?
As new more demanding games come out, lower settings. At some point if that does not work for you, then you can think about replacing parts.

 

[atif93]

Hello All,

What's the next best affordable graphics card after the NVIDIA GTX 1050 please?

 

[hang-the-9]

Hello All,

What's the next best affordable graphics card after the NVIDIA GTX 1050 please?

1050 Ti, 1650 , 1650 Super, of course this is going by the old "normal" prices. I would not upgrade from a 1050 to anything under a 1650 super, and any upgrade now is not really worth the cost unless you can get a card at regular prices.

 

[MMorris666]

i'm still on a gen 4 i7 and use my machine for gaming only, works great. dropped 4k on it several years ago and have just upgrade the gpu twice.