Everything man makes turns to dust right?

I don't believe in tempting fate. There are plenty of low quality UPS and
surge protectors out there. I will generalise and say most low cost consumer
stuff is complete rubbish until I am proven otherwise.You can have a *good*
surge protector for as little as $US30. Many surge protectors are only good
for 1 surge!A good true online UPS for an average power computer can cost
$US250 or less.

RAID 1 costs 1 extra disc drive and a controller capable. It will protect
you from drive failures.

There is no replacement for quality proven backups kept off-site. This is
most important.

My sisters house got blown by lightning - oven, fax, x computers, TV's etc.
The only thing that worked afterwards was the traction engine.

Prevention is better than cure.



"notritenoteri" wrote in message
...
YOu want to worry about something? Worry about your data. Your MB is
obsolete, Your OS is obselescent and going obsolete and the only thing
that's of any value is your data. All the stuff about UPS's is theory.
Are
you running NASA and a lunar lander mission? If you are you should be shot
for having only a single system. Given enough time EVERY piece of
equipment
will fail including $1000 UPS's.
I power my system on and off all the time. I don't shut down when
lightening
storms are overhead and I never worry about the telephone lines or cable.
But I live where the power wiring is fairly new ~15 years and its above
ground. If lightening is going to get you its going to get you. I have
heard claims that buried power and phone cables are susceptable to
problems
but I've never seen proof.

"Paul" wrote in message
...
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