Ever think you abused a PC to death?

I'm starting to think it doesn't make any difference what condition you keep a computer in. My gaming PC just died right in the middle of a game, seems to be a bad mobo. It used all top-of-the-line parts (the mobo alone cost more than a typical consumer laptop and used solid-state capacitors), had a very good cooling system (positive-pressure air cooling w/ all filtered intakes), always ran on UPS filtered & backed power (network was fully surge-protected too), wasn't overclocked, was professionally built & maintained by myself and looked like a show piece. The costs of the last overhaul...well you could have fully funded a Challenge entry with that money.

Still died suddenly after a little over 6 years, and I was pretty much only on it when gaming. It sat turned off most of the time. So buy the sketchiest no-name parts you can find, plug your PC right into the socket with a bad ground and let the dust bunnies and roach corpses build up inside 'cuz it really doesn't seem to hurt.

What, you don't remember SNDS? Sudden Northwood Death Syndrome. While it mostly applied to overclocked chips, I ended up replacing several back when they were new and I was working in the computer shop. I never had to replace a failed CPU other than Northwood core chips.

Look at the bright side. If you had bought a 360, you'd be on your 10th by now :p

shhh.. my computer is on it's 6th year.. granted, the HD died two months ago and at the same time I upgraded from Xp to 7.. so it is running like a new computer

Just buy an iPad

I just built a new box. My last one was (mostly) five years old. Had to replace the Abit mobo after 2 1/2 years (it warped under the CPU socket), my VelociRaptor died and was replaced under warranty in October, and recently my old Radeon HD 3850 starting dying. So, I bit the bullet and built a new box. Intel G2020, MSI ZH77A-G43 mobo, 8Gb RAM, gold certified 450w power supply. I reused my DVD burner, case, and both hard drives. No discrete video card. I went with Windows 8 since I grabbed a license when they were on mad sale in January. Dunno if it's the 8Gb RAM or Windows 8, but this is the first time I've built a box and not immediately wished it was faster. I'm very pleased with this build.

I'd never pay more than $500 for a desktop itself or the parts in it... except for the GP, but those can easily be transferred to other computers.

turboswede wrote: Just buy an iPad

leave this conversation MEOW!

I feel like all PC parts are sketchy and it's just luck of the draw no matter the manf. I built my last PC about 7 years ago and it's still running strong. I had to reformat because my ex downloaded something with a nasty piece of malware. Luckily I always kept a backup of all important docs on a external drive.

That computer sat on carpet for years, collected it's fair share of dust, sat on for hours on end, played numerous games, and an ex that did retarded stuff on it.

I'm ready to build a new one but with a wedding coming up, a baby that was just born, and my desire for a project car thats on the back burner. I ordered one from ibuypower because they had some wicked deals and I just didn't feel like building it myself. I was willing to pay the extra dough but cancelled and said I'll put that money in savings instead.

Not enough porn. PCs run on porn.

In reply to turboswede:

Yeah! Then you'll never have to worry about your computer dying, because you won't actually own a computer!

I used to build PC about 5 years ago. They would be great for a while and they were fun to build but I got bit a few times with them. My last purchase was a reman HP desktop from Microcenter. I just got the processor and HD size I wanted then threw some more RAM in it and a good video card. I couldn't be happier with it.

Wanna borrow my eMachines desktop that I bought in '98? Makes a few funny noises, but still works.

In reply to Jamesc2123 & DirtyBird222:

Sheesh, some folks can't take a joke. Maybe a little less coffee/Monster/etc?

Said, while typing on my 6 year old HP tower.

Shopping around for parts, it doesn't look like I'm going to get away from changing the CPU and RAM too, which sucks because they absolutely weren't lacking by any means. I think the new CPU will be an Intel i7-3820, hope I can get a ton of RAM for cheap like last time, less than 12GB would be going backwards.

Built ours 3 years ago, is literally used everyday for Netflix, gaming, internetz browsing, music....that we aren't on vacation with only a sector on one hard drive failing.

I'm sure I will return home to a dead computer now.

Ain't no ryhme or reason. I built an OK-level machine right after XP came out. It still works flawlessly. My current machine that I put together right after win7 came out, first time I went with an Intel cpu, hasn't so much as hiccupped. The one I built for my folks last year, where they spent more that I did for fancier components, has been a giant PITA. It's on its 2nd motherboard, I've had to go over there any number of times to fix various issues, I've spent more time googling obscure problems for that machine than I have for all the other ones I've had put together. if it's born under a bad sign, well, that's it....

mad_machine wrote: shhh.. my computer is on it's 6th year.. granted, the HD died two months ago and at the same time I upgraded from Xp to 7.. so it is running like a new computer

my Mac mini was bought in 2007

Except my laptop, all my rigs are used. My usual M.O. is to get whatever desktop machine a family member is casting off because it's "Old and too slow." Then reformat and install a fresh copy of XP to get rid of all the spyware and viruses. Upgrade it with as much halfway decent RAM as it will take, throw in a mid-range video card, and put in a reliable power supply... I end up with a rig capable of handling pretty much any game at reasonable settings for about $200.

Derick Freese wrote: What, you don't remember SNDS? Sudden Northwood Death Syndrome. While it mostly applied to overclocked chips, I ended up replacing several back when they were new and I was working in the computer shop. I never had to replace a failed CPU other than Northwood core chips. Look at the bright side. If you had bought a 360, you'd be on your 10th by now :p

I used to love those old Northwoods. Way better than the Pres-HOTS that followed.

What are 'solid state capacitors'? Never heard of that term... Do they have vacuum tube type capacitors or some kind of electro-mechanical cap? (I'm being a little snarky but I genuinely want to know if I'm missing something )

I abused a PC to death once. It was having performance issues, mostly related to the fact that it was just underpowered and old, so I was overclocking the crap out of it. Eventually, after a summer in a non air conditioned dorm room, it fried.

I think a lot of parts just go without warning or reason. I replaced that old computer with a new build (roughly around when the i7's came out) and the only thing i've had to replace was a couple power supplies. I've also replaced the video card, but only because I needed more power. The old one works just fine. I let it get FULL of dust between cleanings, and leave the thing on 24/7. My friend's current build is only 2 years old, he leaves it off when not it use, and keeps it religiously clean. he's on mobo#2, video card #2, power supply #2, and solid state hard drive #2. In my case I did somewhat splurge on certain parts, but not challenge money. I think more like half challenge money, though I did reuse a few parts from the old one.

RossD wrote: What are 'solid state capacitors'? Never heard of that term... Do they have vacuum tube type capacitors or some kind of electro-mechanical cap? (I'm being a little snarky but I genuinely want to know if I'm missing something )

Basically they use some kind of plastic-like material to replace the battery-acid-like goo that the usual electrolytic capacitor has in it.

Oh I decided the new mobo will be an EVGA X79 FTW and I'll either re-use the current RAM (leaving me with 8GB) or get 16GB depending on how much money I have to work with.

Nothing really to add, but about a year ago my ancient desktop at work died. I thought maybe it was just the power supply until I cracked it open and most of the capacitors on the mobo were blown up like balloons. I had never seen that before!

In reply to 16vCorey:

That's actually pretty common. Believe it or not, there was a case of industrial espionage years ago that lead to counterfeit capacitors being produced, and they ended up in a lot of PCs and related hardware. Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague#Industrial_espionage_implicated

My dell just died a couple of weeks ago. I began getting the "blue screen of death" while playing World of Tanks a few months ago. The failures began to get more frequent over time.

All the testing I did said that the HD was dying. So I picked up a 1TB HD. Installed it and a day later the mobo E36 M3 the bed. It won't even leave the BIOS screen.