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Is it safe to let my CPU get fairly hot for extended periods of time on a regular basis?

Akagi

Akagi

Akagi

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
37,115
Location
In acme's chair.
I have recently started to get a little more involved with folding, and I now leave my main PC (specs in sig) on all night folding on the GPU and CPU, as well as having my second system folding 24/7.

The CPU temperatures peak at about 74°C which I know for my CPU with the OC I have on it is perfectly fine when stress/stability testing, but would you say its OK to let it run at that temperature for 12 to 15 hours a night?

I sometimes have it folding for up to 36 hours because the system is still perfectly usable for tasks like web browsing and light use, so if I don't plan on gaming, I leave it folding while I use it in the day time too.

I may leave it folding on just the GPU at night because I feel a little more comfortable with that as it peaks at 57°C, and leave the CPU idling.

Thanks all :)
 
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CPUs tend to pound on for years even when abused. 74 is a little high but if the noise isn't going to bother you I doubt it will significantly shorten it's useful life. I'd be more worried (wrong word perhaps) about having a Kuhler running flat out for 12 to 15 hours a day but that's just me :)
 
d_brennen said:
CPUs tend to pound on for years even when abused. 74 is a little high but if the noise isn't going to bother you I doubt it will significantly shorten it's useful life. I'd be more worried (wrong word perhaps) about having a Kuhler running flat out for 12 to 15 hours a day but that's just me :)
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The Kuhler is fine :) From what I understand it uses the same parts as some Corsair water-cooling kits, and the issues relating to pump's failing or becoming faulty/noisy can be remedied by plugging the fan and pump into separate headers. Which is what I have done.

I believe that I have the Kuhler set-up in the BIOS to run flat out at all times anyway, so the longest stint with it running flat out was probably about 90 - 100 hours. No noises developing, no temperature increases or weird temperature spikes, all seems OK :p

It will get replaced once I have the funds to make a few adjustments to my PC though. I was thinking maybe an H80i.

But thanks :) Taken your thoughts on-board. I will wait to see what other people think as well, and maybe leave just the GPU on at night.
 
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Do you pay your own electricity bills?

Just plucking numbers out of the air say your systems are using 250W each when folding.

36 folding hours a day (24+12) x 365 days x 0.25kW = 3,285 kWh @ 15p = £492.75

Assuming your PCs would be off if they weren't folding then it's going to cost very approximately £500 a year in electricity for your folding.
 
Perfectly safe at that temp.

The point of folding@home chris-82 is explained on their website.

You can help scientists studying Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and many cancers by simply running a piece of software on your computer or game console.

Join others around the world to form the world's largest distributed supercomputer.
Click to expand...

I've been running 24/7 on and off for years. At the moment the PC is acting as a space heater, which also happens to be curing diseases, searching for extraterrestrials, and simulating climate change.
 
I ran a lot of PC's 100% 24/7 for years on end.
F@H GIMPS and many Boinc projects.

The CPU's didn't fail, they ran on at elevated temps just fine.

The things that did fail on me the most were Motherboards.
Either the VRM's would blow or the 12v CPU power connectors would burn out.

I found that using the GPU's would cause the most problems.
Even though GPU's have there own power connectors a significant amount of
extra current gets pulled through the CPU 12v connector.
This then burns and the pins turn to ash.
This also burns the PSU connector so you have to repair that as well,

If you are considering getting involved in F@H be warned it gets addictive.
You will buy extra hardware and run every PC you can get your hands on 24/7

This uses a lot of power and ithat has to be paid for.
Your house will constantly be at tropical temps.

I used £15,000 of electricity in a 3 year period, if you are not paying the bill be prepared to get reamed out when who ever is notices.
 
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PCZ said:
I ran a lot of PC's 100% 24/7 for years on end.
F@H GIMPS and many Boinc projects.

The CPU's didn't fail, they ran on at elevated temps just fine.

The things that did fail on me the most were Motherboards.
Either the VRM's would blow or the 12v CPU power connectors would burn out.

I found that using the GPU's would cause the most problems.
Even though GPU's have there own power connectors a significant amount of
extra current gets pulled through the CPU 12v connector.
This then burns and the pins turn to ash.
This also burns the PSU connector so you have to repair that as well,

If you are considering getting involved in F@H be warned it gets addictive.
You will buy extra hardware and run every PC you can get your hands on 24/7

This uses a lot of power and ithat has to be paid for.
Your house will constantly be at tropical temps.

I used £15,000 of electricity in a 3 year period, if you are not paying the bill be prepared to get reamed out when who ever is notices.
Click to expand...

I have an 8800GTS in the secondary folding machine which I abuse the hell out of with no issues. I bought it for £3.24 completely broken, re-flowed and repaired it, and it has been running at 100% load for 8 months or so at about 80°C.

They probably won't notice too much difference in the bill as before I started I would game on the main PC, with the TV on as well as a second machine hosting game servers etc.

They will probably kill me when I move out and the electricity bill halves though, but that said, they know i'm doing it, and they know what it is for. They are fully supportive of it. And I assume they realise that there will be additional electricity costs.

It wouldnt add a catastrophic amount I dont think, all I have folding is an 8800GTS (soon to be replaced with something newer and more power efficient) and an E8200 24/7, and a GTX660 12/7.
 
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From what I have been reading graphics card whilst folding draw a lot more power then simply using your cpu, for me it offers not gain as my 7970 is shocking at folding and would probably draw 280+ watt from the psu.

My bill will probably go up £40 from some estimated calculations but I might get a monitor and give it a look. Obviously if over £100 a month I'd stop the 24/7.
 
Demons UK said:
From what I have been reading graphics card whilst folding draw a lot more power then simply using your cpu, for me it offers not gain as my 7970 is shocking at folding and would probably draw 280+ watt from the psu.

My bill will probably go up £40 from some estimated calculations but I might get a monitor and give it a look. Obviously if over £100 a month I'd stop the 24/7.
Click to expand...

They draw more power, but also do more computation with that power, so they come out quite a bit more power efficient than CPUs.

As my PC is basically acting as a space heater (a few hundred W one, so not even a very powerful heater) in my room I don't think of it as a waste of power. Obviously it's more expensive to heat with electricity than gas, but to do the same heating with the boiler would mean heating the whole house, which is a much bigger waste. Almost as a bonus, it's acting as a distributed supercomputer for some interesting science.
 
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