In article URjEd.32449$3m6.5163@attbi_s51, "Travis King"
wrote:

What's probably the life expectancy of my A7V333 motherboard if I take good
care of it? It has 2 years on it right now. I run the computer for the
most part constantly except when I leave town or do something with the
inside of the computer. Current MB temperature is at 30 C.

If the case temp is not excessive, the electrolytic caps should
be good for 10 years. Solder joints under stress, could be
anyone's guess (more likely to happen with a P4 retail heatsink
and its high clamping forces).

In ten years, you can expect several PSU failures, and any one of
those PSU failures could damage the motherboard.

If you have a lot of lightning storms, or bad quality power,
that could influence how long the mobo lasts. Look carefully
at any modem, cable modem, ADSL wires etc, to see if there are
any protection devices to take a (nearby) lightning hit, before
it gets to the motherboard. For example, on a phone line, there
may be a carbon block at the entry point, and you could enhance
that by using a second protection device nearer the computer.
For the really paranoid, a wireless network would reduce the
wiring exposure to just the power lines. A real ($1K purchase
price) UPS would reduce the risk of an AC power event from
getting you, and would help protect the PSU from getting
damaged. Cheap UPSes offer no protection at all, as they are
actually SPS (standby power supplies) - they are a "straight wire"
to power spikes, and the unit only cuts over to batteries if
the AC power dies for enough milliseconds.

On the motherboard itself, the Vcore circuit is the circuit under
the most stress. If the MOSFETs are cool to the touch, that is
a good sign. I've never read any MTBF estimates for switching
regulators on motherboards, so don't know whether they are
good for a 1 million hour MTBF or not.

Large BGA packages also have a rating, for solder joint
reliability. For example, a BGA with 750 pins, will last for
about 10 years, with a certain daily temperature variation.
From the Via web page:

* 552-pin BGA VT8366A North Bridge
* 376-pin BGA VT8233 South Bridge

so you have little risk of a failure there (caps will fail
first).

Handling the processor a lot (removal, regrease, reposition
heatsink) will cut into the life expectancy, if say the
processor gets cracked, and it happens to overload the Vcore
circuit. If the processor has the rubber bumpers on the top
of the chip, that will cut that risk a bit.

I would say your biggest exposure, is to external factors.

Paul