How long can be the life of Motherboard

My EVGA SR-2 is 10 years old, looking for a new home

apart from having removed the chipset fan, because it was too noisy, it’s still a fantastic board, but I don’t think all boards are of this build quality
 
I don't think there is anyone that can tell the definitively answer. It varies not only manufacturer from manufacturer, but also product lines of the manufacturer. While high end motherboard should last longer, it also depends on the operating condition (heat, dust, air flow, overclock, etc). It is really a guess work, so just buy what you need and enjoy it.
 
I've got an Intel PR440FX motherboard and a couple of Pentium Pro processors that work just fine. Motherboards, like most computer hardware has an effective service life of around 5 years. However, that's not set in stone. Many motherboards die sooner, but most die later. It all depends on a variety of factors. Design, quality, environmental and usage conditions and so on.
 
I've got a couple of 12 year old boards that I use, one is used daily and runs 24/7.
My Amiga 3000T which I sold a couple of years ago was almost 28 years old and still ran fine.
 
One of the biggest problems in the industry has been the use of cheap capacitors (caps).
They would work for the warranty period but that's about it.

The problem was just terrible 10-20 years ago, and it's improved a lot over the years but it can still be an issue sometimes.

Quality built electronics should last and run for many years. Doesn't surprise me that Zepher's almost 30 yo Amiga still ran fine.
Generic PCs made during that same time are almost certainly all dead. They were much cheaper than the Amiga.

You'll see some manufacturers advertising "Quality Japanese Capacitors" for mobos and PSUs, that's what that's all about.

Stick to the major brands and don't buy their cheapest boards.

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I saw the crappy capacitors continue from a few brands long after the big OEMs and motherboard makers stopped doing that. I recall seeing everything from graphics cards to monitors dying due to using cheap knock offs of Japanese capacitors. ABIT was one company that was known for using these at the time. Virtually everything that was made in the early 2000's is probably dead now as a result of this. I saw Dell and Apple using these capacitors years after others stopped this practice.

There was no shortage of crap for me to fix back in those days. That said, even the cheapest motherboards I've seen don't use capacitors like that. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you are buying super low end chipsets on $40 motherboards or something like that.
 
>> I saw Dell and Apple using these capacitors years after others stopped this practice.

Yep. I used to see a lot of low end Dell servers have failing RAID controllers due to bad caps.
In their servers. LOL

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I've gotten 15 years out of a motherboard, but the average would be closer to ten years.

Also, you might need to recap after the 10+ year mark.
 
I've run cheap OEM boards for 10+ years. Caps start to swell after that. Or maybe I just punished them a bit.
 
I've only had a handful of cheap boards fail, usually they go in the first year. The rest seem to have easily 5-10 years of usage (or longer) depending on upgrade cycle. As others have said, caps are most likely the first to go before the other components. Routine maintenance of keeping things clean certainly goes a long way but that's not to say I haven't witnessed dirty boards last 10+ years...
 
My main rig and plex servers boards are nearly 6 and 7 years old.
Asus Sabertooth Z97 and Sabertooth Z87. They were advertised as having Military Grade components in them and 5 year warranties.
 
Bro, my Packard Bell Pentium Pro system is still running.
 
Things made before and after 1999-2009 should last a long time, if treated well, but that's a lost decade between bad capacitors and early lead free solder.

Of course, you might want your 6 year old motherboard to die so you have an excuse to upgrade.
 
There was a wave as toast0 said that had bad caps. Older tends to run fine, newer tends to run fine forever. I've got an old PhenomII still going, and a Bulldozer from 2011... etc. But I don't have anything from the mid-2000s that still go, yet I know of a few mid-90s boxes still going fine too.
 
I bet this probably still works, I just don't have the rest of the hardware to hook it up and test it.

IMG_8676.jpg
 
I've had really great luck with motherboards over the years. The only motherboard that I ever had come close to dying was an old VIA KT133a Socket 462 motherboard that I used in ~2001. It never actually died, but so many of the capacitors were bulging and/or leaking that it got to the point where I was afraid to continue using it. I also have an older NForce chipset Phenom x4 OEM system where the SATA controller failed, but still works using an add-on PCIe SATA controller. The motherboard in my retro system is a Dual-Xeon E7505 chipset motherboard from ~2003 which still works fine. I also have several Macintosh systems from the 80's and 90's that still work fine.
 
I have a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 socket 775 running in my server which I purchased in December 2006. I've never once had a problem with it and it's still running like a champ. I also have an Abit IP35-e socket 775 that is probably still good. I retired it August 2019 because I thought it was dead as I couldn't get it to boot up no matter what. Since then I have had the same non-booting issue and have tracked it down to my mouse of all things. Thus, that motherboard is probably still perfectly good with the exception of one of the SATA ports in which the middle plastic connector busted somehow at sometime.

While I haven't started it up in several years I also have a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H AM2 sitting around which I have no doubt works fine yet. That one was purchased in November 2007. I've been tempted to start it back up simply because that was a really smooth running system and my only A64. While it wasn't as fast as my overclocked E6400 it felt smoother in daily tasks even under full load with half as much RAM and using the integrated graphics on the motherboard.

Due to multiple moves over the years I don't have anything older than that.
 
I either burn up the motherboard due to OCing (a few cheap MB with bad VRMs) or just throw them away after they sit too long on a shelf. Never saw one die of old age.
 
How longer one motherboard can be used ? 5-6 Years or more ?
I bet this probably still works, I just don't have the rest of the hardware to hook it up and test it.

View attachment 266068
My department surplused a couple of those a few months ago that, I believe, still worked.

It would be pretty cool to build a modern Threadripper setup using the case from one.
 
My department surplused a couple of those a few months ago that, I believe, still worked.

It would be pretty cool to build a modern Threadripper setup using the case from one.

someone made one into a PC back in the day. I was planning on doing the same.
sgi_back.jpg
 
I have a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 socket 775 running in my server which I purchased in December 2006. I've never once had a problem with it and it's still running like a champ. I also have an Abit IP35-e socket 775 that is probably still good. I retired it August 2019 because I thought it was dead as I couldn't get it to boot up no matter what. Since then I have had the same non-booting issue and have tracked it down to my mouse of all things. Thus, that motherboard is probably still perfectly good with the exception of one of the SATA ports in which the middle plastic connector busted somehow at sometime.

While I haven't started it up in several years I also have a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H AM2 sitting around which I have no doubt works fine yet. That one was purchased in November 2007. I've been tempted to start it back up simply because that was a really smooth running system and my only A64. While it wasn't as fast as my overclocked E6400 it felt smoother in daily tasks even under full load with half as much RAM and using the integrated graphics on the motherboard.

Due to multiple moves over the years I don't have anything older than that.
I picked up a brand new Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3 a few years ago to use in my Plex Server.
IMG_0429.JPG
 
I was forced to bin a lot of old stuff to keep the peace.
But I've still got a working 14yr old NForce 4 Asus 8NE socket 939, running an Athlon XP 2500+.
Sadly not the mobile chip, I sold that, but still a decent piece of kit that came in handy as a second PC when my main had a problem.
Hmm it must be a different CPU, the 2500+ is socket 462.
I'll dig it out and check.


Unless you buy absolute crap, a new mobo will last a lot longer than 6 years.
 
I was forced to bin a lot of old stuff to keep the peace.
But I've still got a working 14yr old NForce 4 Asus 8NE socket 939, running an Athlon XP 2500+.
Sadly not the mobile chip, I sold that, but still a decent piece of kit that came in handy as a second PC when my main had a problem.
Hmm it must be a different CPU, the 2500+ is socket 462.
I'll dig it out and check.


Unless you buy absolute crap, a new mobo will last a lot longer than 6 years.


I had several DFI NForce 4 boards, all died within 5-6 years.
No surprise there I guess. lol

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I had several DFI NForce 4 boards, all died within 5-6 years.
No surprise there I guess. lol.

Although, in that era, even decent mfrs were slain by the bad capacitor scandal.
Abit were my favourite board mfr, they fell at this sword and also because their customer service was too good, it cost them more than they could sustain.
Too sad.
 
How longer one motherboard can be used ? 5-6 Years or more ?

Tell us a bit more, what you want to buy or what you got.
Because as I see from other your topic you will overclock something old and in this situation " the duration" of your mobo/CPU are different and depend :)
 
There was a wave as toast0 said that had bad caps. Older tends to run fine, newer tends to run fine forever. I've got an old PhenomII still going, and a Bulldozer from 2011... etc. But I don't have anything from the mid-2000s that still go, yet I know of a few mid-90s boxes still going fine too.

First rule of Bulldozer, do not talk about Bulldozer.
 
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