[SOLVED] How long do motherboards last

[Pc6777]

How long will the avarage Mobo last if used a few hours per day? I have some older hardware and I'm wordering how much longer it will keep on going. Also, do more expensive "z series" motherboards last longer and use better capacitors, or are they just more expensive beacuase more features/expansion/vrms.

 

[Koekieezz]

How long will the avarage Mobo last if used a few hours per day? I have some older hardware and I'm wordering how much longer it will keep on going. Also, do more expensive "z series" motherboards last longer and use better capacitors, or are they just more expensive beacuase more features/expansion/vrms.

it should be good for along time as long as you use it on stock, im still using my B75 mobo which is manufactured 9 years ago. Also yeah, a Z series motherboard usually have better caps since its the TOTL chipset.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Doesn't matter how much or how little you use them, although, of course, it DOES matter, but in reality you can "expect" a motherboard on average to last 5-7 years. Some last longer. Some don't make it to that point. And usually, the better the board, the better the chances it is going to last longer.

That's pretty much as good of an assessment as you're going to get to be honest. Nobody can can tell you "X" amount is how long it will last. AND, having a really good power supply makes a BIG difference in how long ANY hardware will last. ESPECIALLY motherboards and graphics cards, which are typically very prone to problems with the power supply.

 

[Pc6777]

Doesn't matter how much or how little you use them, although, of course, it DOES matter, but in reality you can "expect" a motherboard on average to last 5-7 years. Some last longer. Some don't make it to that point. And usually, the better the board, the better the chances it is going to last longer.

That's pretty much as good of an assessment as you're going to get to be honest. Nobody can can tell you "X" amount is how long it will last. AND, having a really good power supply makes a BIG difference in how long ANY hardware will last. ESPECIALLY motherboards and graphics cards, which are typically very prone to problems with the power supply.

The psus in my main systems are tier A and B, and the psu in my throwaway media center system with an i3 6100, RX 460 and Asus h110m board is okish(evga GD v1 non modular, 5 year warranty). I got rid of all my w1s and replaced them recently. And I have an extra Mobo sitting in a bin(it's compatible with all my cpus in all my PCs, convenient that way), will it degrade over time sitting in a bin or will it be good as new if I use it in a long time to replace a board in one of my PCs? And the caps in z series boards, how are they "better", are they rated for more work, different types of caps, better soldering? And I don't overclock anything, I experimented with it a little, but I would rather have my stuff last longer than be a little faster, I do use xmp tho which probably doesn't matter.

 

[Pc6777]

it should be good for along time as long as you use it on stock, im still using my B75 mobo which is manufactured 9 years ago. Also yeah, a Z series motherboard usually have better caps since its the TOTL chipset.

How do the caps in h110m/non oc Intel boards compare to z series chipset boards? Is there a big difference?

 

[Bazzy 505]

really depends who made the board, but for the most part we're past the days capacitor plague of the early 2000's . Even most chinese caps are of reasonable quality these days. The biggest impact nowdays lays with operating temperatures.

Of course there still some weak spots like Realtek's ethernet nics from late 2000's that like to die by 1000 cuts around 7 year mak , but that's nothing can't be solved by pci-express addon card from intel which will work work even if you stick them in the mud🤣. I've had that problem a few times in the past and these never failed to solve those pesky network dropouts.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...dapters/gigabit-ct-desktop-adapter-brief.html

 

[BFG-9000]

All of my 386 and 486 boards from the 1980s are still functioning perfectly, as are the Pentium I boards from the 1990s (they have very few, or no, electrolytics). Most of my Pentium II-III boards circa 2000 are still working, but nearly all of the Pentium 4 and Athlon boards have died. I had to recap some A64 boards but those are all now working too.

Anything with all polymer caps will probably last longer than most people will need.

 

[jay32267]

How long will the avarage Mobo last if used a few hours per day? I have some older hardware and I'm wordering how much longer it will keep on going. Also, do more expensive "z series" motherboards last longer and use better capacitors, or are they just more expensive beacuase more features/expansion/vrms.

I have two motherboards where I work that have been functioning continuously since 1991.
They have only been powered down to replace the power supply and the hard drive.

 

[Bazzy 505]

All of my 386 and 486 boards from the 1980s are still functioning perfectly, as are the Pentium I boards from the 1990s (they have very few, or no, electrolytics). Most of my Pentium II-III boards circa 2000 are still working, but nearly all of the Pentium 4 and Athlon boards have died. I had to recap some A64 boards but those are all now working too.

Anything with all polymer caps will probably last longer than most people will need.

my experience is pretty much the same, although there is one thing that quite expertly kills the all boards pentium and older, those pesky NiCd cmos batteries. In regards to Pentium 4, a big part of the problem was how hot those chips run, particularly prescotts and pentium Ds. I have never seen pcb heat damage around socket area before and after that grimm era. Athlon boards be it socket or slot1 onwards generally suffer from bad caps. Like you said, nothing a soldering iron can't fix

 

[Math Geek]

i still have a 13 year old q6600 system running 24/7 with no issues. it's a dell oem one.

i've also had expensive systems i built myself die in a couple years. luck of the draw it seems like. but as noted above, a quality psu will extend the life of the system as it will provide clean solid power and not kill it with weak/pulsing power.

 

[Pc6777]

my experience is pretty much the same, although there is one thing that quite expertly kills the all boards pentium and older, those pesky NiCd cmos batteries. In regards to Pentium 4, a big part of the problem was how hot those chips run, particularly prescotts and pentium Ds. I have never seen pcb heat damage around socket area before and after that grim era. Athon boards be it socket or slot1 onwards generally suffer from bad caps. Like you said, nothing a soldering iron can't fix

I don't have anything that old, mostly Skylake stuff.

 

[BFG-9000]

I did change out the NiCd on the 386 boards before they leaked. Most of my Pentium 1 boards have a Dallas Realtime Clock box with integral battery that someday I'll have to grind the tops off of and glue a coin-cell holder onto.

I think one of the issues with Pentium 4 was the mobo manufacturers were simply not used to designing for that kind of power draw. I had the top-of-the-line ASUS Rambus boards and they only had 2-phase power VRMs for the CPU--all of them burned out during the warranty and the warranty replacements also died quickly. By the time those were redesigned the Prescotts arrived and promptly began desoldering components.

I have to say though that two of my still-operating P4 systems are laptops that originally came with desktop Prescott chips. I quickly changed those out to Northwoods because the heat output was just insane.

 

[Pc6777]

i still have a 13 year old q6600 system running 24/7 with no issues. it's a dell oem one.

i've also had expensive systems i built myself die in a couple years. luck of the draw it seems like. but as noted above, a quality psu will extend the life of the system as it will provide clean solid power and not kill it with weak/pulsing power.

All my psus are at least decent now, got rid of the garbage I used to use, it seems good power will make it so the motherboards filtering caps will have to do less work, which extends the mobos life beacuase burden is taken off it.

 

[Pc6777]

I have two motherboards where I work that have been functioning continuously since 1991.
They have only been powered down to replace the power supply and the hard drive.

They weren't hit by the infamous cap pluege?

 

[Pc6777]

I did change out the NiCd on the 386 boards before they leaked. Most of my Pentium 1 boards have a Dallas Realtime Clock box with integral battery that someday I'll have to grind the tops off of and glue a coin-cell holder onto.

I think one of the issues with Pentium 4 was the mobo manufacturers were simply not used to designing for that kind of power draw. I had the top-of-the-line ASUS Rambus boards and they only had 2-phase power VRMs for the CPU--all of them burned out during the warranty and the warranty replacements also died quickly. By the time those were redesigned the Prescotts arrived and promptly began desoldering components.

I have to say though that two of my still-operating P4 systems are laptops that originally came with desktop Prescott chips. I quickly changed those out to Northwoods because the heat output was just insane.

Will using lower power cpus also help a motherboard last longer? I have one k series chip(6700k) but I use that with a z series board at stock, my other cpus are an i5 6500 and i3 6100.

 

[BFG-9000]

They weren't hit by the infamous cap pluege?

1991 is quite a bit earlier than the industrial espionage of Rubycon in 1999, so they probably had real Japanese or USA made caps.

Will using lower power cpus also help a motherboard last longer? I have one k series chip(6700k) but I use that with a z series board at stock, my other cpus are an i5 6500 and i3 6100.

Probably, but is 50 years really better than 45 years? My Pentium 1s have been overclocked for 25 years now.

 

[jay32267]

They weren't hit by the infamous cap pluege?

I have no idea.
I just know they're still running as we speak.
There are two production assembly lines using one each.

 

[Bazzy 505]

cap plague was mostly a thing between between 2000-2007ish, and maybe little here and there for a little while after that,
most of those caps were either from taiwan or china, but to be frank mobo board manufacturers share fair bit of blame. I still have
a vivid memory of a sales rep presentation as late as 2005 'japanese quality, chinese price". On the boards (not pc) we were producing
at the time, it meant almost 3 bucks saved per board. Which may seem like pennies, but on factory level numbers that's quite a lot.

 

[Pc6777]

cap plague was mostly a thing between between 2000-2007ish, and maybe little here and there for a little while after that,
most of those caps were either from taiwan or china, but to be frank mobo board manufacturers share fair bit of blame. I still have
a vivid memory of a sales rep presentation as late as 2005 'japanese quality, chinese price". On the boards (not pc) we were producing
at the time, it meant almost 3 bucks saved per board. Which may seem like pennies, but on factory level numbers that's quite a lot.

How do modern caps compare? Are cheap modern caps still well designed enough to last a while?

 

[Bazzy 505]

How do modern caps compare? Are cheap modern caps still well designed enough to last a while?

I wouldn't worry about capacitors too much, if the chasis is adequatly ventilated, they'll last till the hardware they're in becomes a paperweight. But like some folks suggested earlier, the best way to extend the lifetime of motherboard is to use a good quality power supply, polymer caps really don't like voltage spikes.

 

[Pc6777]

I wouldn't worry about capacitors too much, if the chasis is adequatly ventilated, they'll last till the hardware they're in becomes a paperweight. But like some folks suggested earlier, the best way to extend the lifetime of motherboard is to use a good quality power supply, polymer caps really don't like voltage spikes.

Ok good, my worst power supplies are middle of the road and my best ones are tier A and B so I don't think my psus will effect my Mobo lifetime.