What I do is of no concern to the debate.
A component for example, like a old 1.2ghz Athlon thunderbird is rated to last 12 years at 60deg.
That to me is a fine amount of life for the component, as I do not use it in my main rig still!
Excessive heat yes, but have you ever checked the temperature on some PC's that have been around from 1999 and still running fine now, quite a few run very toasty in case temperatures and are still rock stable to this day.
If you are running overclocked components then that is obvious temeprature matters a lot more due to the increased risks and stress you are putting on the components.
The thing is, if a AMD Athlon X2 is rated to be safe operating at X deg, then it is safe to run it at X deg 24/7 for maybe a decade, without issue.
The chips are running cool and quiet to save power, reduce heat and prevent the usage of higher powered heatsinks at stock, reduce overall system noise back to the good old passive days.
It is also marketing, if AMD can claim there pc throttles and allows the fans to dynamically alter to follow the needs of the system, then joe bloggs in a PC showroom will think it is brilliant, and buy the PC.
The shortens lifespan, I can not even produce a argument on that I could stand by and be counted for, as it is 100% fact that the cooler your system runs, the longer it lasts, providing everything is stock.
BUT
How much life does this temperature knock of the component, as the working life for a component in a top spec computer is only a couple of years, and in a buisness machine, which uses lower heat components usually, the working life is usually about 8 years tops in my experience before a company takes to the upgrade. So if the processor was meant to last for 20 years, half of that for the heat, which is still within the specifications or the processor would throttle to protect itself from damage.
That is perfectly acceptable to me, if it is stable and within what AMD or Intel say is safe operating conditions, then that is good enough for me and I would not be concerned with it.
On a note, my cpu temperature at the moment is 30 and the case is 23.
So I am your normal geek with temperatures, but I am saying that a case temperature of 50/60 is fine as long as the rig is stable and all the parts are rated to that temperature.
