Computer Life Expectancy

[patrick]

I have a relative who (annoyingly) refuses to believe what I say regarding computer life expectancy.
So I'm asking you guys to do me a favour and settle this thing.
What is the approximate life expectancy of a computer?
And, what are the implications of having it run 24 hours a day?

Thanks,
Patrick

 

[BigPete]

Life expectancy for computers is hard to judge since there are many factors that go into it. In any case, you will end up upgrading to a new system WAY WAY WAY before its time for your computer to go. As for running a computer 24/7, I would imagine most of us leave our systems running all the time, I have 5 rigs at my house, 3 of them are on 24/7 or damn close to it. One of them is 4 years old, one 3 years old, and my main is 1 year old, all trusty.