I am not really sure what you mean by this post,it seems coincidental that I have just taken out of service a modem from my brothers computer which is at least 15 years old and still going strong,the fact is that you have to work hard to break consumer electronics no matter what the cost of manufacture, and I think you have to work hard to produce even a home made project which is simply going to stop working once it does work.You are much more likely to break some bit while you are building a project I think.