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Can FOLDING be bad for your computer?

C

CptTrips

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 14, 2005
Messages
121
I've got a question. I've been folding on 2 of my computers for a few weeks now, and I got to thinking: Does running your processor at 100% power 24/7 cause undo wear and tear on your computer?

Normally, my main computer in on 24/7 anyway, but idling - running AIM, maybe winamp, internet explorer, thats about it. When I play a game, I usually close everything, but when I'm done, it'll just be running AIM for a few days straight till I play another game or have to do some browsing. Now when idling, I'm assuming the processor isn't running full tilt, but now that I'm folding, it's running all the time. Is this increasing the chances of my processor or motherboard blowing out, or am I just being paranoid?
 
Its only an issue if the heatsink on the CPU isnt properly seated, or your case is clogged with cat hair or something and gets no airflow - and in that case its only an issue because temps are high. Otherwise, running a cpu at full load all the time at stock settings wont reduce its life in any way. Running it overvolted/OC'ed at full load all the time will reduce its life, but even then it would take it much longer to die than it would for it to become obsolete and near useless.

 
As RavenD said, heat is the inheirent risk of folding in a physical failure sense. You keep those heatsinks clean, and the fans running and you should be just fine. Alot of the guys around here have had P3's, P2's and the like folding for ages without problems.

Now folding can be bad in one respect, and that's if the client goes haywire and you start getting WU's that you didn't request and that impact your day to day usage. It's happened a few times, and I would venture to say the impact of those events had a far more damaging effect than any physical failure.

 
Physical failure is unlikely with quality parts and a good build. Folding can bring out problems with faulty parts, but at that point, folding didn't do it but the manufacturer.

Technically, there is a risk with running folding 24/7 but I don't worry about it as long as I didn't cut corners on quality with my systems. I've had no hardware failures due to folding and I've been running it for around five years now. I've been running distributed computing programs for even longer than that with no hardware trouble with any of them.

 
I was kinda worried about my C466 frying when I started running F@H on it, (One of those small IBM Ispirati computers). It's running at 50 load, so I'm not to worried about it.
 
How's this sound? If you don't run FAH on it, I will come to your house and break it for you...

Does that make your decision any easier?? :p
 
Folding is only bad for your computer if Mojo is involved...


relic said:
..and so it began....
...sitting on my kitchen floot, building a new DC box while indulging in some of the finer versions of ethanol-based liquid refreshment. Halfway through the boxen building, I realized two things....

1. I was out of good scotch.
2. I hadn't started mixing the "mojo" for the party.

Now "mojo" is a particularly vile mixture of pure grain alcohol, Cherry Cool Aid powder and chunks of citrus fruits. (Please note the lack of water or any other diluent)

Mojo recipe:
4 gallons (~16 litres if you care) of 97% ethanol.
8 packages of sweetened cherry Cool Aid.
various oranges, limes, lemons, old shoes...cut into large chunks
Mix thoroughly, with bare hand, while chanting "Nothing good can come of this."
Place outside in snow to cool. (keep animals away! This stuff may kill anything smaller than a camel!)

Somewhere around the "mix thoroughly" part, the whisky, which I'd been drinking to aid in building the new DC box, kicked me in the back of the head......Hard.

This scattered my data, and made my numbers go all random, causing a nasty chain reaction of stumbling, loosing coordination and dumping 4 gallon of noxious red liquid into a brand new tbird.

I don't mean "splashing a little on the box". I mean pouring 4 gallons of mojo directly into an open case, a direct hit on the northbridge. Now, as we all know, cases are not watertight. The mojo started escaping into every corner of the kitchen. I sprang into action in an attempt to contain the dangerous stuff.

Unfortunately "springing into action" isn't very easy to do when you've just polished off a bottle of whisky. So I sort of "stumbled into mayhem" instead.

My left foot placed itself directly into the PC case, crunching parts galore, my right foot then decided it wanted no part of this and left for vacation. This had the unfortunate result of leaving me with no means of maintaining my upper body's position above the floor.

Please pause here for a visual reference.

relic, dumbfounded look on his face, stained red to his crotch with mojo, one foot in a PC case, the other slipping radiply away causing an awkward "splits" position...with floor awash in red liquid.

I did the only thing I could do. I fell forward, leading with my face, into the ocean of mojo on the floor.

The resulting splash was absolutely amazing.

Bright-red, ethanol-disolved coloring reached the ceiling.

Tendrils of mojo snaked past the cabinet doors and coated the clean dishes and food in the pantry. The telephone immediately took on a pastel pink color as the mojo ethched it's way into every surface.

The moral of the story? If you remember nothing else I've said....at least remember this....never build boxen on the kitchen floor. Happy new Year.
Click to expand...
 
I did the only thing I could do. I fell forward, leading with my face, into the ocean of mojo on the floor.
Click to expand...
This is why I usually advise against using ethylene glycol-based mixes :(
 
Awesome, thanks for the info guys. I'm running a stock AMD 1.8ghz with no overclockage or anything, and I've never had any heat issues. I just gotta remember to clean out my fans every now and then.

 
AtomicMoose said:
How's this sound? If you don't run FAH on it, I will come to your house and break it for you...

Does that make your decision any easier?? :p
Click to expand...
thats mean :(
 
Duster said:
i want to know were you get 4 gallons of 97% ethanol?

Click to expand...

The liquor store.

Everclear in TX is 190 proof(95%), but there is some shit called Diesel that's 195proof(97.5%) according to my friends. Some states don't allow sale of extrememly high proof grain alcohol though. I remember it was 'only' 155 proof in FL.
 
Someone should build two identical rigs (one folding and one just running both 24/7) and report back in 8 years, then we'll have a definitive answer.
 
Mojo recipe:
4 gallons (~16 litres if you care) of 97% ethanol.
8 packages of sweetened cherry Cool Aid.
various oranges, limes, lemons, old shoes...cut into large chunks
Mix thoroughly, with bare hand, while chanting "Nothing good can come of this."
Place outside in snow to cool. (keep animals away! This stuff may kill anything smaller than a camel!)
Click to expand...
Note the requirement for snow and the lethality is this a "mooseicide"?

 
gnewbury said:
Mojo recipe:
4 gallons (~16 litres if you care) of 97% ethanol.
8 packages of sweetened cherry Cool Aid.
various oranges, limes, lemons, old shoes...cut into large chunks
Mix thoroughly, with bare hand, while chanting "Nothing good can come of this."
Place outside in snow to cool. (keep animals away! This stuff may kill anything smaller than a camel!)
Click to expand...

Aren't humans smaller than camels?
 
roftranspo said:
Aren't humans smaller than camels?
Click to expand...

I would say that most of us are. It doesn't say it will kill anything smaller than a camel; it just says that it may. See the difference? ;)

 
SmokeRngs said:
I would say that most of us are. It doesn't say it will kill anything smaller than a camel; it just says that it may. See the difference? ;)

Click to expand...
thats not MUCH of a difference....its like either half a moose reach around or a full reach around...either way its still a reach around from a moose :)
 
Again - snow and lethality -
What animals are:
Out in the snow
Smaller than camels
folding for the [H]orde?
Contibuting to this thread?
I think there should be experiments done involving mojo, motherboards, and moose.
Call it 3M.

 
no, not particularly - comparatively, it is not as bad as cancer is for your health.
 
gnewbury said:
Again - snow and lethality -
What animals are:
Out in the snow
Smaller than camels
folding for the [H]orde?
Contibuting to this thread?
I think there should be experiments done involving mojo, motherboards, and moose.
Call it 3M.

Click to expand...
3M, I like it. :D
 
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