Will folding 8hrs/day 5days/week trash my PC eventually?

[Leonetienne]

I saved up for about half a year to get a much needed new gpu.

I have my pc running while working from home anyways for music or looking stuff up on google, and i figured i might aswell do my part in fighting Covid-19 by offering my new gpu for folding.

I once killed a motherboard by having the pc running for like a week. Now i'm afraid having my gpu at 100% load for 8hrs at a time almost every day (and then gaming afterwards) might damage it or some other component in the long term..

What are your thoughts?

[rjkucia]

No, not necessarily.

Are your components well-cooled and is your box well-ventilated? If not, you should fix that first (regardless of whether you're folding or not). If so, then you're good. Watch your temps and make adjustments if you need to.

I can't say it *won't* kill your components, but if your components were cheap and likely to die anyway, it could expedite that. But the same could be said of doing any work on a computer.

If your motherboard dies from running for a week, it was a garbage motherboard to begin with.

[Leonetienne]

No, not necessarily.

Are your components well-cooled and is your box well-ventilated? If not, you should fix that first (regardless of whether you're folding or not). If so, then you're good. Watch your temps and make adjustments if you need to.

I can't say it *won't* kill your components, but if your components were cheap and likely to die anyway, it could expedite that. But the same could be said of doing any work on a computer.

If your motherboard dies from running for a week, it was a garbage motherboard to begin with.

Yeah, it was a shit motherboard. $50 new. But that was like 7 years ago. My current motherboard is still no high-end board but it cost like $120 i think.

I think i'm fine regarding cooling. My computer is open, like a testbench. My gpu (overclocked rtx 2070ti) has been folding for hours at 100% load and is at 66°C

[rjkucia]

Yeah, it was a shit motherboard. $50 new. But that was like 7 years ago. My current motherboard is still no high-end board but it cost like $120 i think.

I think i'm fine regarding cooling. My computer is open, like a testbench. My gpu (overclocked rtx 2070ti) has been folding for hours at 100% load and is at 66°C

You should be good then. My main concerns with a testbench would be making sure ambient air flows over it (have some sort of fan moving air around, don't just rely on the GPU fan) and dust buildup. Just monitor your temps and you'll be good.

[Jesse_V]

Nobody here can say yes/no for sure. If your cooling is good and you have enough airflow, I think you're likely golden. In my experience, the only components I've ever had fail were the bearings in one of the fans, but that was after years of running F@h 24/7. I suspect that you're probably fine.

[JimboPalmer]

When I bought an Apple ][ in 1980, I asked if it was better to turn it off and on all the time, or better to just leave it on. The salesman guessed 30 years either way. It still works.

[scerbera]

use msi afterburner and set a custom fan profile so it blows a bit quicker sooner, and use the power slider and reduce power to 80%, this should keep it around 50 degrees. Lovely!

[Rel25917]

Good parts ran within their thermal limits should last many years. Fans will likely be first thing to die.

[timberwolf]

Folding on this Ryzen (among other CPU and GPU projects) for nearly 3 years. It is air cooled, regularly runs over 60 C - very very rarely, depending project, has been known to go even higher. Folding however doesn't peg the temps that high on the CPU and I'm not sure why. The GPU does fine too - rx570 - and all of this is air cooled.
Definitely not that high end by today's standards, but it gets the job done.

[bruce]

Fans will likely be first thing to die.

Right. I've got a lot of old hardware that has been folding a long time and the only GPU I'm not using needs a new fan.