imagine buying a used car without knowing the odometer reading you'd never
do that unless you're a fan of unexpected breakdowns in the middle of
nowhere can make life more spicy but we
buy used computer parts all the time without knowing what the previous owner
put them through physically or emotionally so why the heck don't
computer parts have odometers would it really be that hard to put a counter on
something telling us how many times that case fan has turned how many liters that
aio cooler is pumped or how much current has coursed through that power supply to
answer that question we talked to our friends aaron neal and justin ocbina at
Corsair and we'd like to thank them for their contributions we love both of you
so much so our question actually has several different answers depending on
what component we're talking about for example hard drives and ssds have the
ability to estimate how much life they have left using smart which stands for
self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology but for other parts the
answer is a little bit murkier from a technical standpoint putting an odometer
on most parts wouldn't be complicated most parts in your pc already have a
logic enabled control unit and adding a couple of sensors to track usage
wouldn't cost very much in fact there was at least one CPU cooler that had
this kind of functionality Corsair used to produce a refillable loop called the
hydrocool that had a fluid level indicator and an audible alarm for when
enough liquid had evaporated that the user needed to refill it
not the best thing to hear when you're in the middle of diffusing the bomb on c
but you can't ignore a thirsty loop and thermoelectric coolers for pcs also
exist these can actually go below ambient temperatures so having a
humidity sensor inside is critical because they were capable of getting
cold enough to form condensation the perfect relief for a thirsty gamer
and of course simple thermometers insider computers are common so that
your CPU and GPU can throttle down if they're getting dangerously hot but if
sensors like that are so commonplace why don't we have actual odometers on our
parts we'll tell you why right after we thank secret lab for sponsoring this
video secret lab chairs are engineered to keep you incredibly comfortable for
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comfortable for longer hours with their 4-way lumbar support ultra-comfortable
line of different seat materials and more
all chairs come with up to a five-year extended warranty and a 49-day return
policy so head to the link in the description and check out secret lab
today so although computer parts can obviously die after you use them for a
long time it's far more likely for most parts that you'll be ready to upgrade
before the component actually kicks the bucket it's exceedingly rare for the
core parts like cpus gpus and RAM to die
within the first few years of your system's life this is even more true for
the parts that enthusiasts buy which are typically higher quality than what you'd
find in the average walmart pre-built and we all know that members of the pcmr
tend to upgrade parts more frequently than the general public who probably
don't even know they're still using usb 2.0
those unfortunate cells this is also reflected in the warranties that
component manufacturers offer overall they're getting longer and the
manufacturers wouldn't be making those guarantees unless they felt very
confident that their parts would last at least that long without any major
problems and with a significant number of users looking to upgrade during or
not long after the warranty period there isn't much incentive to add some kind of
odometer function to components it might not cost much but the cost is still more
than zero and just like with a car any odometer reading would only be one
aspect of the whole purchase even if a car has relatively low mileage it might
have been driven in demanding environments have a busted air conditioner or come with a nice backseat
vomit stain that was never fully cleaned up likewise a used system could have a
rusted out case bent usb ports or bad
soldering none of which would show up on monitoring software that would run an
odometer maybe you prefer your cars with a little character but when it comes to
pcs usually the less personality the
better so it's a combination of factors that have led to an absence of little
tickers on our computer parts but the bottom line is that if you're looking to
buy used be very careful and preferably
purchase from a place that offers you some kind of return policy you don't
want to spend even more on a buggy graphics card than you would have on a lemon down at the used car line even if
it is rich in personality that's the end of this video
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