How often do you recommend changing the PSU, CPU, GPU, Motherboard and other components?

[JustANewUser]

How often do you recommend changing the PSU, CPU, GPU, Mobo, HDD, SSD...?

 

[Guest]

Everyday

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Do you mean how often do we tell people to change them, or how often should they be changed.

If the former, then pretty much every day.

If the latter, it depends on which component and what you're doing.

 

[manofchalk]

When they need replacing.

There is no easy answer because if your only doing spreadsheets, then chances are you will never need to upgrade. If you want to game at 4K max settings in all the latest games, then yeah you will need a shorter upgrade cycle to handle that.
Depends on whether the rig performs to your satisfaction or not.

 

[JustANewUser]

PriCho: -.- I'm not going to spend that money everyday.

Someone Somewhere: Huh, let's say a PSU and gaming? I meant the second one

 

[Roxas_Boy]

I say upgrade when you aren't happy with the performance of it anymore

 

[Someone Somewhere]

PSUs should be good for at least 5 years, though it depends on if a new connector standard comes out or if you need a larger one. Note that that's a good PSU, with decent caps.

 

[JustANewUser]

Manofchalk: But when they need replacing... Let's guess... I wait to change my PSU... And when it "dies", it gets fried and fries my other components lol. It wouldn't be the first time that happens.

And the plan would be gaming in 1080p (not 4K lol) in high-ultra... However, not the latest games... At least I think that now ;o

 

[Ra_V_en]

There is no straight answer I personally still have a Core2Quad on one of my PC's with 8GB DDR2 and 7850 and I'm more than fine playing BF3 in multiplayer on that PC. So it really depends how often you buy and play new games. In my scenario ill be changing that rig just before a Star Citizen will be for sale, because its the one i want to play for a very long time.
If you just want a top notch gaming PC then 1-2 years is max for some, in that matter CPU+MOBO+GPU+RAM is the most fragile parts in this matter.
PSU, HDD, SSD have an MTBF or better Life Expectancy, just look at the part you have and you will know how long it can be used.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

If it's a good PSU, it would fail gracefully. I.E. just stop turning on.

 

[Roxas_Boy]

If it's a good PSU, it would fail gracefully. I.E. just stop turning on.

My PSU is on tier 2b on your list. Is that bad?

 

[manofchalk]

As for actually replacing because it deteriorates.

CPU, GPU and Mobo's can last forever given the right conditions. By the time they would break you would have gotten new parts anyway. Dont overclock too hard, store in a decent place.
PSU, would say between 3-5yrs you should replace it.
RAM, more than likely is going to outright fail before it deteriorates.
Case, its a hunk of metal, not much can go wrong there.
HDD, very iffy on how long they last. Just make sure that your keeping important stuff on newer drives.
SSD, modern ones will last forever given your not thrashing the thing in its daily usage.

 

[Ra_V_en]

I say upgrade when you aren't happy with the performance of it anymore

LOL'd... that will be every time they send out new game title..... ridiculus.
If you like to play the same game for a very long time you don't have to do that.
The question is how bad you really want to play each crappy title comes out and are you willing to surrender to a fact some title you actually like can't be played on your PC at the moment.

 

[de5_Roy]

short answer: only when you need to replace a part.
long answer: it depends on your upgrade cycle. an upgrade cycle depends on your requirements, be it reliability, performance, experience, budget or all of those.
some industry standards change every 5 years like pcie. some change when the existing one has run it's course like ddr3 and gddr5. if you want to keep up with those, you will need to replace parts accordingly.
as for psus, it depends on psu quality and load. both cause the capacitors and other components age.
hdds, you need to watch out for noises and drop in performance.
as for cpu and others, there is no fixed timeline.
i still have 2 old 32bit single core intel based pcs (11 and 9 yrls old resp.) that can do most of the daily tasks. both have cheap codegen and thermaltake psus running 2 hdds each. i added parts but yet to replace any of those. well.. i changed the gfx card in one of them but that's it.

edit: disclaimer: i never recommend people buy codegen and tt psus despite owning each from both brands.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

As for actually replacing because it deteriorates.
PSU, would say between 3-5yrs you should replace it.

I've got a pair of telecommunications-grade 300W switch mode float chargers. Those still run beautifully, despite the fact that they're 20+ years old and probably ran their first decade or more on 24/7 load, passively cooled.

It all depends on the build quality.

 

[AshyCFC]

Once you feel they do not perform to an adequate level for your purpose.

 

[JustANewUser]

Manofchalk: I won't be overclocking it. In fact, that's why my CPU will be non-overclockable.

Someone Somewhere: Wow, 20 years and still working? That's awesome!

de5_Roy: Hm... And which brands do you recommend?

 

[de5_Roy]

Manofchalk: I won't be overclocking it. In fact, that's why my CPU will be non-overclockable.

Someone Somewhere: Wow, 20 years and still working? That's awesome!

de5_Roy: Hm... And which brands do you recommend?

power supplies? seasonic has quite solid reputation. antec, corsair, xfx use seasonic-built psus in their lineups. enermax is another one.
temperature and load are two external factors that affect psu's reliability and longevity. both vary from user to user.

 

[gumbykid]

Any good brand PSU usually won't fry your other components, but it is safe to replace the PSU after ~4-5 years.

Other than that, replace parts when they become faulty or you desire a significant upgrade. The only other part that you would need to monitor well is the HDD, because you can't replace the info stored on it, so once it starts making weird noises or slows significantly in performance you should move your files. I've seen them last from a year to..since they existed.

One of my motherboards lasted for ~5 years, then one day I pulled it out and powered it on and it fried. Basically at the 5 year mark you'll be wanting to upgrade your parts anyways to keep up with technology, so I would put that as your rough estimate.

 

[Charles05]

Never thought about replacing them regularly every 4~5 years. But, I wanna share my experience with my desktop PC.

For the hard drive, I replaced it with an SSD ever since I've encountered "Blue screen of death" for several times. Plus, it boost the load performance 8~10 times faster.

For the video card, I had my AMD Radeon HD 6970 for 5 years until last week. Then, I replaced it with AMD Radeon R9 390 because some of the AAA games today demand heavy-duty graphics.

For the processor, I'm still using Intel Core i5-2500. But, I'm a bit worried since it's already old. I asked from other forums, and they told me to buy a liquid cooling system and patch up a thermal paste on it.

For the power supply, I'm still using Thermaltake Litepower 600W even though I'm already using R9 390 that needs 750W as mentioned in the box. (What's the trick? They're just telling you to get a PSU that can handle the overclocking of the video card. Actually, R9 390 requires 250W in normal clock, while in overclock requires 505W. The 245W are for the processor, hard drive(s), optical drive, connected fans, and other hardware that requires electricity.)

And remember: To get the best airflow system inside the chassis/CPU case, TOP and REAR fans are EXHAUST, while FRONT, SIDE, and BOTTOM are INTAKE.

Last, but not the least, clean it from dusts. I use 2-in-1 vacuum-and-blower and a soft brush.
Been taking care of it for 5 years now.