by Red Bull

Created on: March 24, 2009

A personal computer might last from a few months to a few decades. Sometimes even days...

In the old times computers used to last more than they do now. Why is that? Because technology was not so improved like it is right now, companies had extra care, because also the manufacture was not so common like it is today, they paid more attention to the product than what they do right now. This is because they also used more material, now they just want to cut costs so they will just take less care and quality. If one gets damaged you can also get another part new so why matter? Why bother?

The average CPU lasts about 15 years. I have never seen a CPU getting damaged in my entire life! I use the computer since I am very young, so you can see that I for sure know about what I am talking here about. If you make an over clock or if you remove the fan, you can be sure the CPU will last only a few months. However, if you treat it well, if you take care of it, if you use it only under the best conditions, you can be sure the CPU will take pretty good care of you.

Now let's see the RAM. This thing even lasts more than the CPU. However since people find it easy to switch and replace it, this thing might crash sooner than the CPU. In case I have seen too many times the RAM failing and I never saw a CPU failing. The CPU offers 3 to 5 years of warranty and the RAM up to life time, so the RAM should fail less, but this is not what happens. I have a theory for it, maybe it's because you only see two manufacturers of CPUs and you see dozens of RAM manufacturers. That's the only explanation.

The average hard disk lasts about ten years if you take good care of it. If you use the hard disk too much either because your computer also acts as a server or the hard disk runs too hot most of the times, you can be sure the hard disk will last much less time than it should. Sure the warranty is just one year. But it's very rare a hard disk failing in that soon time, so the problem might or better must be something you are doing with it. Keep your hard disk cool and add more RAM to reduce virtual memory usage which means using the hard disk as a RAM. You will have a faster system and a faster hard disk too.

Finally we have the mother board. Again I have never seen one failing unless you do not know how to use it. The motherboard will almost never over burn and only if you smash it that may crash.

And overall the computer lasts about 6 years.

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