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Comment by swiftcoder | Hacker News Reader

> You don't realize how much savings we used to extract by progressively upgrading the same desktop PC for two to three generations instead of throwing away the whole PC and buying a new one each time

Do you actually realise any savings doing that? Pretty sure I never have.

Typically by the time I get around to upgrading, they've changed both the CPU socket and the RAM, so I need a whole new motherboard. And I certainly don't trust a 5-year-old PSU to run a higher-watt load at that point. So most of the time all I'm reusing is the case and maybe a couple of auxiliary SSDs (which aren't a major part of the cost)...

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Aren't part of the cost Yet :) actually upgradeable components were priority when motherboards and CPUs were too expensive to upgrade, it was ram ssds and memory that were changed out...

Soon, now actually, it is the inverse. Ram, ssds, high speed network, consumer GPUs, and anything else that needs a modest amount of DRAM.

AMD sockets last nearly a decade, and power supplies come with up to 13-year (or longer) warranties. It's just that it can be difficult to stay the course for the sheer amount of time it would take for you to realize those savings.

> power supplies come with up to 13-year (or longer) warranties

Unfortunately, those warranties don't tend to cover the rest of your components, if the PSU happens to take out a motherboard or GPU as it dies, you are up the proverbial creek.

Having had a couple of older PSUs die spectacularly, I'm not risking re-using a ~$100 component, on the off-chance it fries ~$500 of brand new motherboard/GPU/etc post-upgrade.

Why do people think newer components are more reliable? Is it the same thinking that says newer cars are more reliable? Newer computers? (The answer to all is no.)

Clean the dust out of your PC once a year. It'll last longer than it has any right to.

> Why do people think newer components are more reliable? Is it the same thinking that says newer cars are more reliable?

I'm not making any statement about newer models being more reliable, I'm saying that electronic components age, and hence the risk of failure goes up over time.

If you buy the exact same model of power supply, but one that is manufactured 5 years later, it will (statistically) be more reliable than the unit that's already been in use for 5 years.

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