SERIOUS Question: How many years can a motherboard work?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Sort by date Sort by votes
Really depends on the quality of components used on the board and sometimes just sheer luck. I've got an old Pentium-III (Asus) that still works. We had a 386 in the attic that would still boot up.

I had capacitors in a Core 2 Duo system explode and render the board (Asus) useless. A P4 board (MSI) died when a cheap USB card shorted out the motherboard.

Have a Dell laptop with a bad graphics chip that otherwise works ande is 6 years old; the replacement board (brand new) knocked out the power circuit in a year, rendering that one useless.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


The power delivery for the CPU is on the motherboard, and pushing an OC pushes those components harder, which will shorten their life. Having said that, there are so many components on a motherboard, many of which have nothing to do with OCing, and any of those could go at any time and render the board useless.

The bottom line is, no one is going to be able to accurately predict the life of you system... it'll last as long as it lasts. OCing raises the chance of an earlier demise... but by how much... who knows!?

FYI, voltage has a much, much greater impact on the life of your system than CPU frequency. Usually when you OC you start to raise the voltage as that makes the CPU stable at higher clocks. It's that voltage which pushes everything harder. So spending extra time trying to find the lowest stable voltage for your OC is probably worthwhile if you care about system longevity. Of course though, if you really care about system longevity, don't OC at all. But it's all balancing risk vs reward, and in the end you need to decide how highly you value the rewards of OCing, against the extra risks it introduces.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks!

My motherboard says "Ultra Durable 2 motherboard design" so does this mean that'll last a long time?

I'm trying to find how long this particular motherboard has longer for other people.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
also, are u sure u can oc that chip significantly to have a major performance boost???
if its not a drastic leap, i will refrain from doing that as it seems to be a old unit, lacking the kind of punch that todays cpus can deliver through ocing...it will only shorten the life more...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Actually plenty of LGA775 CPUs were much, much better overclockers than most modern CPUs. On something like a 2.4Ghz Q6600 a 25% OC was usually super easy, sometimes even at stock voltage and cooling. 40-50% OCs were not uncommon with the right cooling. Compare that to the fact that a 20% OC on a 6700K to 4.8Ghz is considered excellent, and requires a lucky or binned CPU, and I'd say things were much more exciting back in the LGA775 days.

As you say, it will absolutely increase the risk of failure, so there's that to consider. But in terms of risk vs reward, there's a good deal of (potential) reward there if OP is willing to accept the risk.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote


Fans of any sort will increase the airflow... as long as you avoid ultra-budget junk fans, then more expensive models tend to offer lower noise rather. The chance that any particular model or brand of fan is going to impact the life of the motherboard is getting ridiculously unlikely.

Just do the basics: ensure decent airflow, make sure it never gets clogged with dust, keep the voltages as low as possible.

Beyond that you're left with prayer, crossing your fingers regularly, placing four leaf clovers on top, etc... it's really out of your control.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
i will agree with rhysiam on that...just to add my 2 cents...
do it on a test basis initially to check how much volts and frequency it can sustain while monitoring the temps...if u feel its making a difference but the temps are firing on the higher ranges, then change the stock cooler to an aftermarket powerful one...something like the hyper evo...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm really new to PC hardware so I'm not even sure what fans or other devices I should be looking for to reduce the temperature of the motherboard.

Can you someone show me an example of one?

Thanks!

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


You need to by following a decent overclocking guide. Unless I've missed it you haven't ever told us you specific CPU. So just google "How to overclock [CPU]" and try to find a decent looking guide to follow.

Do you have an aftermarket CPU cooler, or are you still running the stock one? While some people seem to have managed an OC on LGA775 CPUs on stock cooling, it's not a great idea and I'd strongly advise you start by purchasing a CPU cooler (if you don't have one). Your case airflow is much less important. Unless you're running a very hot graphics card, you're probably just fine with at least one intake and one exhaust fan.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Let me put it to you this way. You can spend a lot of money and do everything suggested in this thread and your old motherboard may fail tomorrow morning. You could do absolutely nothing and it may last you another 10 years. There is no sure way to extend the life of any computer component. I have an old EPOX EP-BX7-100 (Circa 1997) with a PIII-800 processor that if I got new memory for, it would probably fire right up. I've got an ASRock 939Dual-SATAII (circa 2006) that died on me years ago.

-Wolf sends
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks!

I'm more focused on keeping the motherboard working as long as I can more than my CPU/RAM/Graphics card because it's easier for me to buy another CPU/RAM/graphics card than another socket 775 motherboard.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Wolfshadw, I thought that by buying a CPU cooler that's compatible the recent motherboard sockets like 2011, 1155, 1156 I'd be able to take the CPU cooler with me when I stopped using this Q9400 socket 775 socket.

The PSU is a "Thermaltake Smart 750W Bronze."

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Correct, which is why a cooler isn't a bad investment. If it has different mounting brackets, just make sure you keep them for a future upgrade.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Probably true until Intel redesigns the Intel CPU socket so that it's no longer compatible.

-Wolf sends
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Well that's a fair point. And we've been on the same mounting points since LGA1156, perhaps things will change. I'm a big advocate for Noctua coolers because they commit to providing a new mounting bracket free of charge to their customers who upgrade to a mobo with an incompatible socket. I was going to recommend one, but the U12S & U14S don't seem to come with the LGA 775 bracket by default, so OP would then have to claim or buy a bracket for the new cooler... probably not worthwhile.

That is a risk, I agree.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom