I just bought a brand-new desktop with great specs, and it's running SETI@home almost 24-7. In other words, my setup has it so that the CPU and GPU are running SETI@home calculations almost 100% of the time. Will this negatively impact my computer's performance, say 1 year down the road? I'd like to have a desktop that I can keep fresh for several years, but I'd also like to keep contributing to SETI@home.

As long as your CPU and GPU temps are good it could last nearly a decade. Keep the dust bunnies out and the fans running and it will probably run long past when it is obsolete.

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As long as your CPU and GPU temps are good it could last nearly a decade.

I bought my E6600 system in April of 2007. Been crunching Seti 24/7/365 since then, much of the time with the room temperature in the mid to high 30°c and only a stock cooler. I replaced a the PSU when it died a couple of years ago; that's been it so far. Not bad for 9 years.


As long as you run an aftermarket air cooler (or better yet a water cooler) for the CPU I can't see why your new system shouldn't last for 10 or more years.

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Grant
Darwin NT

PSU's die. That's a fact. 7 years warranty helps. Keep loyal to your supplier.
www.jimms.fi is mine.

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To overcome Heisenbergs:
"You can't always get what you want / but if you try sometimes you just might find / you get what you need." -- Rolling Stones

I built an i7 work station back in the summer of 2010. i7 960 with water cooling, 24GB RAM, 5 hard drives, 1200W ps and a GTX 770 now (started with a Tesla). Run 24/7 ever since.
Also have 2 other computers running Seti 24/7from since about 2008. No issues with any. Started Seti in 2003. Did IT work as well as engineering. Built or repaired many PCs and used Seti as burn in program. Can't recall any with failure related to Seti. Keep the dust bunnys out and the cooling working and let them crunch

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Delta-V

I see no problems with that. Just keep track of the CPU and GPU temperatures and blow the dust out regularly.
The only other thing I can suggest is a UPS (uninterrupted power supply). UPSs supply electronics with abundant battery backup during outages and stabilize unsafe voltage levels. They also provide power protection from damaging surges and spikes.

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I see no problems with that. Just keep track of the CPU and GPU temperatures and blow the dust out regularly.
The only other thing I can suggest is a UPS (uninterrupted power supply). UPSs supply electronics with abundant battery backup during outages and stabilize unsafe voltage levels. They also provide power protection from damaging surges and spikes.

That's sound advice. I have three Core2 machines (two Q6600 and a Q9300) dating from August 2007 - April 2008, and they've all been running BOINC 24/7 since they were first installed. I've had to replace some parts - PSU and hard disks, and in one case a motherboard (poor choice on my part), but that's all.

But two of them failed this winter, I think almost certainly because of spikes/surges on the incoming power. One certainly never restarted after a 90-minute power outage: I'd gone out to seek warmth and light elsewhere, so I wasn't at home when the power came back on - I can't say whether it came back cleanly, or in a series of fits and starts.

8 years was a good innings - RIP.

Dust build up is the main issue. Those fans on 24/7 will shift a lot of air over time and dust gets deposited wherever the airflow permits it. So a monthly de-dust is a good idea.
My experience is that hardware is pretty reliable and parts generally keep going until they're obsolete.

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I have been running SETI@home on a SUN WS since January 2008. Now it is running also on a HP laptop 24/7 since August 2012 and, at times, on a HP Windows 10 PC since August 2014. No sign of degraded performance on any PC. I only changed some disks, and, after the failure of two SSD, returned to hard disks, two of them of the hybrid type. No graphic boards, except a Radeon on the Windosw 10 PC. I do mostly CPU tasks and CERN project use Virtual Box.
Tullio

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Surely we can all agree that (thoroughly) cleaning out dust from rigs is less than enjoyable. After MANY hours of research to spec out the new rig I just built, I found something that helps tremendously.
http://www.demcifilter.com/

The mesh is very fine, but non-obstructive. The temps on all components do not suffer. The filters can be purchased individually or in kits. Admittedly, they aren’t cheap. But then, how much did you spend on that vid card, CPU, RAM, etc.
And, cleaning them requires very little effort.

Hope this helps.

Surely we can all agree that (thoroughly) cleaning out dust from rigs is less than enjoyable. After MANY hours of research to spec out the new rig I just built, I found something that helps tremendously.
http://www.demcifilter.com/

The mesh is very fine, but non-obstructive. The temps on all components do not suffer. The filters can be purchased individually or in kits. Admittedly, they aren’t cheap. But then, how much did you spend on that vid card, CPU, RAM, etc.
And, cleaning them requires very little effort.

Hope this helps.

For the past few years I have been using bits of furnace filter that I cut into the sizes I need. Here is a post about when I first starting making my own. I will also add that I have been using the same filter elements since 2011 & washing them about once a year.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

My SUN WS, working 24/7 since January 2008, has a front panel which resembles the radiator of a car, allowing a constant air influx. I wonder why HP kept the front panel closed on my HP Pavilion 500-152ea, with a much faster processor (3.7 GHz) than the Opteron 1210 at 1.8 GHz of the SUN. Hats off to SUN engineering!
Tullio

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I wonder why HP kept the front panel closed on my HP Pavilion 500-152ea, with a much faster processor (3.7 GHz) than the Opteron 1210 at 1.8 GHz of the SUN.

Without knowing the actual processors involved it's not possible to say for certain; however current Intel CPUs generally use less than 100W. Only the absolute high end i7s & Extreme Editions or absolute high end Xeons use more. Many of the current CPUs are rated between 45-88W.
Many older high end CPU were rated for around 120-150W depending on the model, hence the need for considerably greater cooling.


EDIT- the opening posters i7 6700 system is rated as 3.4GHz base frequency, 4GHz boost. Power rating, 65W. Not bad at all.
My old i7 2600 is 3.4GHz, but is rated as 95W.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I actually expect that running Seti might prolong the life of the CPU. One thing chips aren't happy with is lots of wide temperature swings. Seti while hot, will keep things constant. A lightly loaded system, cold when nothing then hot for a bit and back to cold, that puts thermal stress on the chip connections and can lead to early failure.

As everyone has said, keep the dust bunnies at bay. Extra filters if you can. HEPA filter on the vacuum cleaner used for the room, etc.

As a suggestion, once you start crunching, give it a day, then a couple times a day for a week write down the temps on a card. That is your baseline. When you see it running hotter, time for a dust bunny job.

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MC CPU on the HP is an AMD A10-6700 rated at 65 W TDP. The Opteron 1210 is rated at 125 W.
Tullio

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MC CPU on the HP is an AMD A10-6700 rated at 65 W TDP. The Opteron 1210 is rated at 125 W.
Tullio

So, almost double the power. Considerably more cooling required to keep it happy.

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Grant
Darwin NT

This is due to the chip fabrication technology, much advanced since 2007 when the Opteron 1210 was made. But it is still working. I have a 2.8 GHz version of it but it probably would be hotter without a great speed increase.
Tullio

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After all the suggestions on this thread, and a little bit more research into the subject matter, I installed TThrottle (http://efmer.com/b/?q=tthrottle) on both my desktop and laptop which both run SETI@home at least part time. Based on the idle time where BOINC is running at 100%, here are the readings that TThrottle reports.

On my desktop I get CPU readings of ~71C, with a fluctuation of 4C. GPU runs at an almost constant 67C.

On my laptop I get CPU readings of ~80C for core 1 and ~71C for core 2, with each having fluctuation of 2C. GPU isn't/can't be measured for some reason (integrated graphics?).

Based on what I've read on various sites, I feel like my desktop CPU/GPU temps are acceptable but my laptop temps ought to be throttled a bit. The problem with throttling BOINC is that my temperature readings will fluctuate by up to 10 degrees every second. I feel that this is actually more dangerous than running the CPU at a constant, but high temperature, as the internal components get stressed by constant expanding and shrinking.

For the moment I don't plan on buying a cooling system for either my desktop or my laptop. I'd appreciate advice on whether my temp readings are good or bad in terms of the computer's long-term health, and possible low-cost/free solutions to control the amount of heat that BOINC generates on the computer.

Specs:

• Desktop: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz [Family 6 Model 94 Stepping 3] (8 processors), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 (4GB RAM)
  
• Laptop: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz [Family 6 Model 61 Stepping 4], INTEL Intel(R) HD Graphics 5500 (3GB RAM)
  

On my desktop I get CPU readings of ~71C, with a fluctuation of 4C. GPU runs at an almost constant 67C.

For several years my i7 2600 was running at up to 85°c on really hot days, which is why I put an after market cooler on it.
Now it generally doesn't get any higher than 75°c.
Running 24/7/365 for about 5 years now.

My E6600 has been running at up to 65°c for almost a decade.

There are some programmes available that allow you to manually set the GPU & CPU fan speed to keep the temperatures down. Many video card manufacturers tend to go for higher temperatures/lower fan speed profiles to keep the noise level down.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I would consider 80C on a laptop a bit warm, but probably within specs.

You could try using app_config.xml to shutdown 1 CPU core when your GPU is busy. Which should lower your CPU temp.