How long should I expect an MB to last

[DEY123]

I bought an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe MB in late 2006. I would say that I use my PC on average 5 days a week for an average of 4 hours a day. I shut down after using it so basically I don't leave it on but I am booting up frequently.

I have Upgraded / Replaced my power supply, Heatsink, RAM, CPU, and GPU over the years. The two components that are quite old are the HD and MB. I have had my system OC'd with a voltage increase most of that time. I am also not good about cleaning the inside of my system. That probably happens at best yearly.

I plan to replace the whole system late next year (Fall of 2013). However, I am wondering if I am already on borrowed time and am at high risk for a system failure in the next year. Part of me hopes that a PC should last like 10 years but I am guessing that is not the norm especially given my OCing and my lack of regular dusting.

Any feedback / thoughts would be great.

 

[itzdanielp]

OCing will not affect the HDD's lifespan at all, and neither will dust as the drive is completely sealed.

HDD's can easily last over 10 years, or less than a year. It depends a lot of time on use. One thing that can lower the life expectancy is constant powering off and on the machine.

What model HDD do you currently have?

 

[Wisecracker]

Always a good idea to back up critical files you do not wish to lose regardless of the age of your hard drive.

 

[itzdanielp]

ohhhh, I just re-read the title and saw you were asking about the MB not the HDD :/ my bad lol.

Generally a motherboard that has decent cooling over the voltage regulators (like yours does) will not be affected by overvolting. Generally a CPU will go bad long before the MB (If the MB ever does go out)

I would say you should be fine, but I can't guarantee that

 

[DEY123]

I am a bit more worried about the MB (but maybe I should be worried about the HD).

I'll have to check the model of HDD (I am actually running two now as the one that was my primary and had XP became my secondary when I installed Win 7 on another drive that is a bit older but had not been used for 4 years).

 

[geofelt]

Electronics, in theory should last forever.
I would not expect your motherboard to fail at all.

But, since you do shut down and reboot frequently, you are putting more stress on your components. Constant heating and cooling causes expansion and contraction of parts which might eventually lead to premature failure.

As a suggestion, instead of shutting down, why not just use sleep to the S3 state? That puts the pc in a very low power state, and keeps the contents in ram. When you wake up, it is much faster, perhaps 4 seconds.
That way, your parts will last longer, and you will not have startup delays.

 

[ram1009]

IMHO, you are pushing your luck with a HDD older than 3 years although they can fail the first day. It's the nature of electronic components to fail either shortly after use begins (called infant mortality) or never. Most of the time the physical life of a MB is longer than it's technological life which is the case with yours. OCing will only affect the CPU. My advice for you would be to replace the HDD immediately. The MB is your call.