My older hardware seems to outlast my newer systems

[crosscourt]

Already in the last year Ive lost two systems to failures, both newer systems, like my Alienware R10. Motherboard issues took their lives but I still have Dell 7010 Optiplexes running with no issues at all and no parts replacements have been done other than hard drive upgrades to ssds. In general I can go down to the swap shop buy an older pc and start using it without issues but as my friends remind me they have had many issues with newer systems including laptops. Even my older laptops are still going strong. The internet has had a fight over this for years but is older hardware more reliable than newer hardware?

[crosscourt]

To give you an idea, my Alienware R10 burned up as the mobo died. My Asus gkd10 has bios issues and no fix in sight, my Dell XPS 8940 has had intermittent bios issues and somehow it burnt up the cmos battery, not sure how, replaced it and so far no issues. Only my HP Victus 15L is running without issues and all these systems are either Ryzen 5600x/g or Intel 11th gen cpu systems. When you compare that to my older systems like the Dell Optiplex 7010 thats been used for 10 years and had no issues at all, it makes you wonder.

[crosscourt]

Modern systems biggest issue is bios followed by voltage regulation. All three of my modern systems have bios issues and at times the bios completely stopped the system from functioning properly. Voltage regulation is poor and heat causes issues on top of poor bios and components burn up. My hope is a bios update will be coming as using older bios is a mixed bag. Tired of dealing with this as I may pick up a Dell Optiplex 7010 MT which uses a larger case and upgrade to play most of my games.

[CaptNoize]

I took your advice many years ago, and bought a used Dell Optiplex 7010 with an I7 CPU in it. I didn't have any HD in it, but it had 16 gig of Ram. The case was almost mint, with the exception of a few scratches. Big deal. I got this for $75 off of Ebay, with free shipping. Like you told me, I installed a Kingston SSD, installed Linux MX, and this unit has been running flawlessly, for 6 years. I use this for my shop computer, looking up parts, doing invoices, printing schematics and answering emails. Plus, this runs Clementine playing music, all day,when I'm in the shop. I couldn't be happier with older hardware. I loved it so much,I bought a second one,but the desktop version, and installing Linux AV on it, as a dedicated studio computer. Haven't used that one as much, since the whole home studio went down the drain, when I lost 3 of my musician friends last year, who would have been an integral part of my band. But, that computer works stellar, since I maxed out the Ram, and bought a large external HD. I'm totally happy with all older hardware..!

[bin]

Everything is built to a price.

If the price of the unit is to remain competitive - i.e. lower than it was, or not a lot higher, and if component and mfr costs are going up then quality of components will have to go down.

My Optiplex 7040 is about 6 years old - I think. It was ex-corporate refurb. My laptops are all at least 10 years old, one is from 2007. They all still work. 'nuff said

[wove]

I am in a phase of using older hardware. Most of what I am enjoying is using software that has served me well for years and has either become abandon or needs updates. I have always been something of a sucker for the odd hardware that never seems to catch on or stick around for long. I like the rotating spinning screen of my old x230 as it changes from tablet to laptop.

It seems to me that electronics that lasts for a year will most likely last for a decade and that good quality devices will remain serviceable for many years. Much software like office software and a lot of image editing software still does a great job, with a great many of the newer features being kind of edge case and not really essential.

My oldest computer is a Commodore 128, which is nearing 40 years old. It has needed repairs over the years, but it is easy to repair and keep going. Some newer hardware is not impossible to repair, but with my eyes and the components getting smaller it is harder to work on. We have certainly moved beyond replacing components with a soldering pencil.

[crosscourt]

Working on newer hardware, in particular newer motherboards is difficult because of the many flaws the designs have overall. Even experienced micro solderers like Northridgefix admit modern hardware has many issues and much higher failure rates. Proprietary items, its tough to find replacement parts let alone schematics, so all you can do is borrow parts from no fix items, if you can find them. Bios issues abound with newer hardware and in my case my Alienware R10 motherboard actually burned up and wasnt repairable. The warranty had expired a week earlier.
Older hardware has the advantage of being able to repair it, parts are actually available as well as schematics. Agree with wove, as I hope my eyes will get a lot better after the cataract surgery, but older eyes and repairs are not a good match.

[wove]

One of the problems with the higher clock speeds and the microbial soldering used on newer systems is the higher frequency will cause stress fractures in the solder resulting in bad connections. This is ultimately a problem of design in the either the soldering is not properly done in the factory or the wrong type of solder is specified.

A fellow brought me a LG Smart TV, which is know to suffer from this problem. (And yes this generally shows up soon after the warranty expires. This can at least be temporally fixed by reflowing the solder. Pull out the board, place a small stack of coins on top of the processor. Stick in a cold oven, set oven to 350ºF when the temp is reached turn off the oven, let the whole thing set until it is all cold again. Typically this will reflow the solder and the device will work again. It is generally a temporary fix, because the problem is the solder used is not of proper specifications.

This in Minnesota anyway it referred to as a "Jack Leg" fix. (Seems silly, relies on nothing specialized, and can be done while having a beer and talking with friends at the kitchen table.) Comes with no guarantee, but then the device did not work anyway. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[crosscourt]

Its also the higher power usage and voltage regulators having issues. VR failures are a primary cause of motherboard failure and on top of that many boards dont even have VR heatsinks. Many people have paid huge amounts of money for performance mobos only to have VR and bios issues causing catastrophic failure with some taking out the cpu as well. There is a channel on Youtube called Northridgefix and he has spent a lot of time fixing and pointing out the issues with more recent hardware and the fact that older hardware is easier to repair and maintain.