Date: 10/04/06 (Computer Geeks) Keywords: no keywords http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_motherb Motherboard voltage regulation uses electrolytic capacitors. These capacitors exhibit aging effects which depend on the temperature of the parts, since their water based electrolytes slowly evaporate leading to capacity loss and motherboard malfunctions due to voltage instabilities. While most capacitors are rated for 2000 hours at 105 degrees Celsius (life formula [1]), their expected design life roughly doubles for every 10 degrees Celsius below this. At 45 degrees Celsius a lifetime of 15 years can be expected, which appears reasonable for a computer mainboard. In the past, many manufacturers delivered substandard capacitors, which would reduce this life expectancy figure. With inadequate case cooling this can become a serious problem. It is, however, possible to find and replace broken capacitors on PC mainboards. For more information on certain types of premature capacitor failure on PC motherboards, see capacitor plague. 15 years is a lot longer than I expected to hear. Even 10 years is pretty long. My older computer is 5 approaching 6, and I was kind of expecting the limit to be around maybe 8 instead of 10 or 15. Perhaps it's worth it for me to upgrade the CPU after all... No sense in ditching something that's been working flawlessly. Since I don't overclock the main board and never plan to do so in the future, I expect the lifespan to be average (instead of below average, like the previous computer which was constantly overclocked and is pretty much good as dead right now with all the reliability problems). Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/987698.html
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