Hardware deterioration question

[matt_fsr]

Lately I've been wondering, does hardware deteriorate over extended use?
(in terms of years rather than months)

For example, we have a lot of old tech where I work, where a P4 with 512Mb of RAM is considered adequate for full Office 2007 usage etc

However, my question is does anyone know if said P4 "scrapheap" is slower now than it was when it was new, and would one that had lain in storage for the past 6 years outperform the old, heavily used PC?

 

[matt_fsr]

No-one got any ideas at all about this?

Cant be bothered putting a PC away in a cupboard for 2 years to test the theory!

 

[DeadMan]

Capacitor ageing and dry joints in solder are the main culprits but generally as long as the machine is keep in a cool well ventilated case and is free from dust it could last decades.

HDD's and any other mechanical parts will wear out first.

 

[matt_fsr]

HDD's and any other mechanical parts will wear out first.

But would that mean 'wear out' as in complete and total failure, or gradual slowdown with use over time? Any idea?

 

[StevenRaith]

Well, over time, even the hard drive is just spinnng and isn't in use, it's bearings will lose thier tightness so they might introduce read errors -on a used PC though, bad sectors and fragmentation are more likely to be the main cause of slowdown.

Basically, anything with moving parts integral to it's usage will slow over time, perhaps not perceptibly [or not perceptibly compared to other factors - bad sectors, etc] but it will happen.

Whether it affects the usage of the machine is entirely subjective really - some people just 'expect' it and don't care, others [like us, I suspect] would get narked and replace the HDD.

solid state components such as RAM and CPUs, etc shouldn't have a problem over time.

Caps and other heat/physical or EMF load [coils?] bearing parts might suffer - coil whine, for example.

As to whether something will 'break' one day or just slow down - depends on teh component, it's quality, and the conditions it's stored in.

[the above is based on working with far too many PIIIs and PIIs which worked perfectly well with a new HDD in them and some extra RAM in my time in a london borough council, as we were replacing them with P4Ds]