Power Usage of PC: How To Reduce It?

NiceAndShy said:

I thought that since my motherboard had the label "ultra durable" that it'd last much longer than a regular home PC motherboard?

This is my motherboard: GA-P35-DS3R (rev. 1.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE

Gigabyte labels them all as "Ultra/extra durable" but that's in relation to thickness of copper leads on the MB. Chips and elements themselves are just as good or bad as by any other manufacturer.

NiceAndShy said:

Thanks.

Is it possible to estimate how much longer my motherboard will last?

Once again, here's the link to my motherboard: GA-P35-DS3R (rev. 1.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE

Theoretically it could last forever if run within specs. Don't overload, keep cool and with reputable PSU and there should be no problems for much longer time. Once, there was problem with electrolytic capacitors, I have changed many of them thus prolonging the life. They are all solid state now.

NiceAndShy said:

How can I monitor the temperature of my motherboard?

My power supply unit is 750W and it's made by Thermaltake.

How can I "overload" my motherboard???

You can monitor temperatures and other parameters by using some of many programs made for that. Many manufacturer's have own APPs or you could use some of standard ones like Cpu-id HW Monitor, AMD Overdrive for AMD products, Speccy, Aida etc.
High overclock can put a lot of stress to MB and other components. Low quality PSU can also make a mess of it.

What GPU do you have ? Some are real pigs when it comes to power usage and there's not much you can do about it. The power they use would be scaled up and down with it's usage depending how much particular program/game loads it. Only way to lower it is to significantly underclock it.