Matt Zimmerman wrote: > Anthony Towns wrote: > > Where I come from, old hardware is unreliable hardware. > > This would really only apply to disks, which have moving parts and small > tolerances. When was the last time you had a motherboard, or CPU, or > network card, or a video card die because it was "too old"? This stuff > isn't exactly perishable. It lasts long beyond its obsolescence in most > cases.
About a year ago a venerable GeForce 256 of mine had a D/A failure causing bad video output. I neglected to recycle it and left it on the workbench. About six months ago a newer video card had the fan on it die. I was able to salvage the fan from the first and fix the second with it. Just two weeks ago another newer video card fan died. Wish I had a source for those thin pci card fans... Two cases of moving part death with a fan. One case of silicon death which was also probably a moving part if you count electromigration as the most likely cause of death there. It is not so much a question of old hardware as it is a question of being able to easily replace the hardware if there is a problem with it. I can opportunistically make use of older hardware. But I can reliably buy something new for when I need it to work. Bob
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