How many years should a custom PC last?

[01Tech]

I have been building computers for a while and most of them last 5+ years with little to no trouble running almost 24/7, how long a life is considered industry standard?

[James_PCD]

I do not believe that there is an industry standard for how long a PC should last.  I would say that the PC's ability to last is dependant on how it is used.  For example if a system is used for gaming or multimedia projects, then within 3-5 years the hardware would be considered old and antiquated.  Also, installed software and OS updates could make the system run extremely slow, compared to how it ran when it was build.  These two things alone would drive most users to upgrade to a newer system.

Now if the system is being used for nothing more than emails, browsing and some office use, then the system could last for quite some time.  I have just a system at home, that the family uses.  This system is over 7 years old now and while it drives me nuts (slow boot times etc) the family is much more patient with it.  They understand that it is running slower than it used too, but they also see that it is very useful to them.  When talking about an upgrade, they say it could wait a year or two, which would make the system roughly 10 years old.

[01Tech]

James_PCD,

Thank you, I figure that anything less than 3 years is a disgrace.  I built a PC in 2007 for my business based on an Intel Q6600, I overclocked it to 3.6GHz, ran it 24/7 and it's still running like a beast.  I see a lot of computers come in that are new and the Quality Control is terrible on so many of them.  I believe all the parts I buy have at least a 3 year warranty on them, so other than labor there isn't a reason not to pass the warranty on to an end user.  With my new build, I opted for socket 2011 i7 3820 and quad channel ram with the hopes of an Ivy Bridge CPU and PCIE 3.0 for a TITAN later this year.  I build high end computers as a hobby but it is my first love and something I wouldn't mind doing more often if I could lock down Quality Control for all the parts.  I am a Seagate channel partner and I had to drop their products for now, after many consecutive hard drive failures in different models / sizes of their drives.  Thermaltake has also been tough to get consistent quality from.  I end up feeling a sense of loyalty to these companies but you can only get burned so many times before you take  your money somewhere else.