hardware failure - Does rapid CPU work load fluctuation wear out/damage components?

05
2014-04
  • Drew Buckley

    I recently downloaded BIONC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) to donate some of my processing power. When this program is running, my CPU work load will fluctuate from 0% to 70% in the course of 2 seconds. This, of course, causes a similar fluctuation in wattage being used by the system. I don't know much about computer circuitry, so I was wondering if this rapid throttling could potentially wear/damage components?
    Is this a risk or am I just being paranoid?
    Thanks in advance!

  • Answers
  • cybernard

    The power fluctuations will have no effect assuming you didn't buy super generic parts like the PSU. I have done seti/boinc for years with no issue. There is a slim chance you might have to replaced your CPU fan a little bit sooner.

    My current Power Supply Unit has been running for 5yr+ and my power fluctuations are way higher as I am a gamer. 400w-500w gaming down to 100w-150w surfing an stuff.

  • davidgo

    If the parts in your system are decent it should be able to cope quite OK.

    That said, more load = more power consumed = more heat and earlier death of components. Also switching between lots of load (heat) and little heat (cool) means more stress on the system. In reality, even doing lots of switching the system should be obsolete before these affects are noticeable.


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    no, Core 2 Duo is as far as it goes with CPU support for this motherboard

    Source