Robust PC technology

[pascal]

IMHO PC must have robust engineering.
One example is the use only solid capacitors by gigabyte in some mobos: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/NewTech/2007_mb_newtech/tech_070123_ultra_durable.htm
I hope it will become a trend for mobos (where are you Asus?) and that more effort will be put in place for high MTBF PCs.

Can a robust PC be built? What other robust technology are available for PC?

 

[Skrying]

I have a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 that uses the solid capacitors. I'll be honest they were not directly a reason for me purchasing the motherboard. I went with it because the price was right (especially since I bought mine while on sale) and the overclocking performance looked to be solid across a wide range of users. I must say it is my favorite motherboard I've ever owned. It has been extremely stable and not caused one issues.

 

[nutball]

Can a robust PC be buillt?

Of course it can. For a price. If you want stability, buy a server or an industrial PC. Or, alternatively, buy some old kit off eBay -- if it's still working after five years it'll work forever.

Other than that...

New
Cheap
Reliable

Pick two of the above.

 

[Frank]

Reliable == solid state. No moving parts, no forced cooling. No harddisks and fans. And a closed case, if possible.

 

[pascal]

The some moving parts are easilly replaceable like fans, other like HDD are improving. I have some trauma with mobos. Many died in the last few years working for me (about 5 mobos). I think it is the Achilles´ heel in a hot place like mine.

 

[pascal]

Now Gigabyte have a "Ultra Durable 2 Technology". Here an article with slides: http://www.vr-zone.com/index.php?i=4832
- Ferrite Core Chokes
- Low RDS(on) MOSFETs
- All-Solid Capacitors
Looks good

 

[SPM]

Of course it can. For a price. If you want stability, buy a server or an industrial PC. Or, alternatively, buy some old kit off eBay -- if it's still working after five years it'll work forever.

Other than that...

New
Cheap
Reliable

Pick two of the above.

I agree, but I would avoid the old stuff from ebay. There is supposed to be a U curve for failures. You get a short term peak when initially defective parts show up during a burn-in period, the failure rate then drops, and then it rises again in the long term due to long term deterioration.

The main long term causes of failure of electrical equipment are wear, chemical instability, and fatigue:

1) Mechanical parts eg. bearings, switches, potentiometers etc wear out.
2) Capacitor electrodes react with the insulator and leak (particularly electrolytic capacitors).
3) Resistors and silicon chips suffer fatigue cracks due to stress cycles caused by repeated on-off cycles.
4) Vacuum tubes in CRT monitors burn out or their characteristics change.
5) The liquid in LCDs undergoes chemical changes and won't change state.

 

[Bludd]

The Asus Commando has solid capacitors around the CPU socket.

 

[BRiT]

The DFI P965-S DARK also has solid capacitors and is fairly cheap ($140 US).

 

[Blazkowicz]

thin clients. just as the Atari 2600 is probably the most reliable console, the most reliable computer is the one that doesn't have much to do.

 

[mito]

Do capacitors leak easily? I've never had or seen such issues....

 

[Frank]

Do capacitors leak easily? I've never had or seen such issues....

It's probably the no. 1 motherboard faillure, with overheating due to dust most likely on the second place. That is, disregarding mechanical faillures (ie. using a screwdriver to push things into place and such).

 

[stevem]

It's probably the no. 1 motherboard faillure, with overheating due to dust most likely on the second place. That is, disregarding mechanical faillures (ie. using a screwdriver to push things into place and such).

Exactly so.

I recovered a couple of P4 2.0 Northwood systems with failed main motherboard supply caps. The motherboards were Gigabyte 8IRXP i845 with 512MB DDR, on-board USB2.0, firewire, RAID, Intel NIC. High end for their day. The PSUs also had leaking caps on the 12V output filter circuits. The doozie was an addin PCI USB2.0 card with a failed 10uf cap on a PCI VCC line that stopped power on. I was about to toss it into the bin (recycle) when the one cap I picked it up from spun freely while still soldered... I had a few caps of correct value & cannibalized an old SoundBlaster for the USB card repair.

Everything now works a treat, problem is, what do I do with them...?

2) Capacitor electrodes react with the insulator and leak (particularly electrolytic capacitors).

Especially cheap caps with unstable electolyte formulations.

 

[_xxx_]

Panasonic Toughbook are very reliable, water- and shock-resistant.