To all the veteran builders, how often do you get defective parts?

[lord hircine]

I was planning on building my first rig but i keep seeing reviews on newegg, amazon etc about how the graphic card failed after 6 months, 2 weeks, or even 4 days. So now i don't even know if i should just buy a pre built one from cyberpower. To everyone that has build multiple pcs or even just one, did you ever got a bad graphic card or any of the parts you ordered? Thanks in advance

 

[abCasPeRR]

I've never had parts that I've ordered be DOA or fail later on. As long as you take the right precautions, and be careful you should be fine with what you pick.

 

[Kari]

I once had a doa memory stick that gave me graphical glitches and hard crashes while gaming, windows desktop run fine though...
I've build 3 rigs, 2 of which are still running, and upgraded couple pre-built ones as well. So the chances are quite low.
Stuff that have failed after prolonged use includes couple really old HDDs and either a mobo or a psu (never found out which one, didn't really care at that point), and 1 psu that was still barely under warranty. HDDs failing is something to be expected and electrolytic condensators will eventually dry up and fail so that explains the mobo/psu issue for the old parts.

Anyways this isn't really a reason to go with a prebuilt, vast majority of the suff sold is ok. Just dont skimp on the psu and you'll be just fine.

 

[hedwar2011]

No DOA parts here and I've been building for 15+ years or more. It usually is poor habits when building that cause a part to fail early such as not paying attention to static electricity (it really does exist). If you want to be double sure, get you a anti-static cable and wear it while you're building and it will help keep you grounded.

HERE is one at Newegg that I personally use all the time because I am a very staticy person.

 

[bigshootr8]

No DOA parts here at least for a while although I'm sure its bound to happen at some point but as others have said its all about the care you take with your parts.

 

[determinologyz]

Also alot of people not everyone but the people that comes in tells us the problems they never tell the fully story i dont think. They say my gpu isnt working and im not saying everyone does this but some i believe do not tell us everything that happen and they say need help quick something is broken. Yes stuff does die out to or doa but its not something that happens to much

 

[Wolfshadw]

10+ years of system building, I've never received a DOA component to my recollection. I've had numerous components fail on me, but only one (a Viewsonic monitor) within it's warranty period.

-Wolf sends

 

[Pyree]

No DOA so far for new parts that I picked. Touch wood.

But scavenger part and free parts from local classified is a complete different story. They fail very often. But then again they are for playing around.

 

[RetiredChief]

Close to twenty years.
.. Before newegg was newegg they were a brick and morter stor called Egg head. Next door was a Outlet store for QVC (My wifes favorite Channel - LOL) so worked great.

Any way the ONLY problems I've had is Compatability:
1) Older laptops were VERY fussy.
2) Agility III SSD, bought when they first came out would NOT work in laptop (SB) - But then the SF22xx had BIG problems for several months after release.

Failures:
1) With in warranty - Only one's have been a couple of HDD. External that had a little help from Be as I knocked them over when ON - Quess they just do not like the "shock" test.
2) Past warranty - a Couple of MB's. One I attempted to modify a circuit. Another one, the Keyboard port self distructed (well past warranty).

Still have two "shelved" systems that I periodically use - Predates SATA, quessing at least 8->10 years old.


Added:
I'm in the camp that feels a good percentage (20% or >) DOA's and parts that die prematurly are user inflicked.
Also feel ESD is a big contributer. Remeber 1) you do NOT even know (feel) you have a few Hundered Volts charge. ESD can cause what appears to be DOA, BUT it also can cause what are referred to as "Walking Wounded", that fails 1 day, a week, a month, even a year later.