[Ninth]

In the last... few years, I've hit quite a few of the "things to do" overclockers bucket list items (TEC, water, case fab, etc etc), and after a slew of hardware failures on my main machines during innoportune times (Right before convenient project deadlines.) I've begun to realize how much my priorities have changed to now valuing a stable system far over a performance system.

That being said; going to post a few builds, thoughts would be welcome.
GB GAx58A UD3R mobo
i7-930 cpu
8 GB ddr3 1366 gskill rampage ram
corsair 750HX psu
HD 5770 (secondary GPU, controls my peripheral monitors)
HD 5870 (Primary GPU, controls center monitor pair)
old 250 gb seagate hdd (If I had more money I'd grab an SSD but I'm working under a partial budget here)

Any thoughts on this in regards to things I might to do increase longevity? I assumed stock cooling would be fine on all my parts given that I'm running very decent through case airflow, and no overclock. (also, thoughts on the parts as being stable themselves?)

I'm also looking to build a fileserver; currently my primary server is acting as my fileserver but I'd like to split off those tasks (the machine that WAS my fileserver bit the dust during a heat wave/power failure a few months ago)
The requirements are: stable as balls, 6 gigs ram, enough sata ports to give me a good headstart on being able to plug up to 16 drives in. (I have sata cards, but I'd like the most to be on mobo as possible), and STABLE.


(If you're wondering; the hardware faults that my newfound paranoia is stemming from relate to such things as my motherboard deciding that one of the GPU's should dissapear off the pci bus, and then never bring it back, as well as ram failures, a second gpu failure where the chip cooked itself, even running at around 38 degrees c for two years, it suddenly jumped to about 80, then stopped working...)

[beenthere]

Overclocking is just a hobby that should only be pursued by those willing to fry their hardware at the most inopportune time.

If you run hardware long enough in an over-volted state you're going to experience a higher failure rate then when run at OE specs. It is what it is.

Good operating temps. is quite beneficial to long term reliability.

[Ninth]

Heh; yes, those things I realized. I'd been utilizing overclocking as a method to get what I needed out of hardware that I could afford (I can normally afford less than what I need ><)

[beenthere]

^^^^ You can't always get what you want but sometimes you can get what you need...

[Wathnix]

Advising for the file-server. You want long life and stability. You might want to consider underclocking and undervolting to make components last longer.

CPU, this one is unlocked, you should be able to underclock it.

Mobo: this mobo advertises military grade components. "TUF series is born for pursuing the preeminent stability, all-round compatibility, and extreme durability"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131601

memory: 4 gigs is enough for a file server
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231190

power supply: this is a great brand
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139003

or if you want 550Watts
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139004

[wingman99]

The parts list Looks good to me the gigabyte has a 3 year warranty. Like beenthere above said overclocking is a risk.

The best thing you can do is when you receive all your parts is test them with mem86 and prime 95 and video bench test's

There is no guarantee that the parts won't fail over time, so i would make sure you have the best warranty for all the parts.

I work on PC's daily mainly OEM's the intel,AMD cpus's have all the heat safeties built in, heat never causes the cpu's or GPU's to dye on stock desk top machines or laptops, because now there protected from overheating. I have seen people come in the shop with PIII and P4 with PSU fan not working all the time, this is the cooling for the CPU and there only complaint is the PC shuts down every once in a while and when i ask how long they have had the problem allot of people say for years.

When you run CPU and GPU stock, they should last for 10+ years the problem is motherboard components and video card board components have a higher failure rate.

[Randyman...]

You should get a decade or more from a stock volted / stock clocked system at moderate temps - I don't personally see any reason to undervolt - unless you just want to be a little green or have gone overkill on your stock hardware - or have "high-density" rack installations where stock heat output is a real concern. The components are generally running at good efficiencies at stock speeds/voltages - you really only loose efficiency per watt when you overclock past a certain point.

Let C1E/EIST work it's magic

Stock should last you a good long while w/o a doubt. There is so much headroom (thermal, voltage, frequency) built into the equation at stock it's not even funny.

Keep your power clean and under control - and you'll have a reliable system once it gets past the infant mortality stage. Beat on it hard to stress test it as Wingman suggested to weed out any weaknesses...

[beenthere]

^^^^ Your comments are true up to a point. At the top of the CPU/GPU families where the voltages are jacked to run higher OE spec frequencies, there is far less safety margin than in the mid-range with nominal voltages. Before Intel/AMD started OC'ing CPUs with jacked voltage on the PIII 600 flame throwers, there was a robust safety margin across the entire CPU line. There is not as much safety margin at the top of the food chain anymore though the OE voltages should still allow very long life from the high end components.

[Randyman...]

True - but I'd say even something like an i7-970 running at stock 3.2GHz and stock volts will easily last a decade. I'd wager the MoBo would die due to bad 10-year-old caps before the CPU starts having issues at stock speeds/volts Also then - why buy a more expensive $800 CPU and under-clock/under-volt it? If that's the desired result then save $600 and buy a 930 for $199 If it dies - buy another $199 930 and still be $400 ahead (but it won't die at stock volts/speeds)

I just don't see a need to underclock/undervolt unless rack density is really that high and total heat output is out of hand...

[Ninth]

To address some things, in order they were posted:
@wath: I will need 6 gigs ram, due to the software constraint in ZFS disabling prefetch at less than 6 gigs. Thanks on the mobo though, that looks very sufficient; however, I might end up moving one tier higher in the psu wattage, simply due to the pull in amps of that many drives; however I do agree with you on the choice of corsair.

I don't have to worry TOO much about heat output, these machines (my private home use machines) are in a seperate closet from my rack, and each closet is well ventilated.

But given what you guys are saying about failure rates; I'm rather surprised at my luck so far. In the past two and a half years (the time since my most recent build season) I've lost...
1 hd 4850
1 stick g.skill ddr2
possibly 1 hd 4870 (but it's looking that it might be the motherboard)
1 p5k premium

The 4850 was OC'd, but after that died I set all my stuff back to stock, and the rest failed at stock. I'm a little more cautionary after all that fell over.

[wingman99]

Like i said above it's usually not the CPU or GPU that fails. It's the components of the motherboard and video card.

CPU's and GPU's usually degrade slowly, the cpu will start to miscalculate then BSOD and the GPU you get artifacts and screen freeze.

When your PC just dies usually it's the PSU or motherboard components.

When your video card dies, it's usually video card components, that's why the oven trick works on many video cards.

The new cpu's out by intel can really take the heat they are made of hafnium-based high-k metal gates, you have to get it hot enough to melt beyond normal metal melting point.

Memory sticks are a totally different technology and some of the high performance memory is known for failing sometimes, because the memory manufactures overclock and over volt the memory past JEDEC memory standards.

I never see the cheap OEM stock JEDEC memory fail after it's been tested good new.

You just had bad luck, high performance products do tend to fail more often Compared to the retail OEM products that i see daily where it's mostly HDD and PSU on old desktops.

The best advice i can give you is to take advantage of the warrantees, you said all your problems happened less than 3 years you could have had it all fixed under warranty. Now if you send in the motherboard or video card in for RMA they repair the boards, and allot of manufactures support overclocking