can folding home damage any part of my pc?

[Kyle_Brandtjen]

just wondering

[Zagen30]

If you let it run in unsafe conditions, then yes. By unsafe conditions, I mainly mean excessively high temperatures: >80C or so for desktop CPUs and >100C for laptop CPUs and all GPUs. Overvolting a CPU or GPU is also an easy way to fry your components. The CPU and GPU are the most likely parts to be damaged since they're the ones doing all the work.

If you keep your components running at safe temperatures, then you should be fine. If your components were to lose any lifespan from running all the time, the overall lifespan would still almost certainly be longer than the rest of the computer's. The hard drive is the most likely thing to fail in a computer since it has moving parts, while basically all the other parts are just circuits. The hard drive isn't used by F@h all that much, though, so its lifespan shouldn't be affected. I suppose the fans might be in some danger of failing, but most of them are easy to replace.

[PantherX]

In addition to what Zagen30 said, nearly all latest CPUs and GPUs have thermal protection built-in. If the CPU or GPU reaches a temperature that is dangerously high, the CPU.GPU will automatically downclock/undervolt itself to protect itself from further damage. In some cases, the machine will automatically reboot or switch off. (I know that Intel CPUs have this feature but not sure about AMD. For Nvidia, the limit is 105C (most desktop GPUs; check the Official Site for specific details) and not sure of ATI)

[WW_FAH]

I used to run a pretty big farm of machines at home, and heat is the enemy as already pointed out.
However, there are other things that can and do go wrong, because you are running the system 24/7. These include wear and tear on moving parts. Fans tend to spin up more if they are regulated, because the CPU or GPU load is higher for a much higher percentage of the time.
Using a good quality CPU heatsink/fan combo is highly recommended.
General good practice like cleaning your rigs every quarter for PCs in a reasonably low dust environment is not a bad idea. For laptops, definitely clean the air intake/exhaust as much as you can without dismantling it, blow out the dust which it will gather a lot more than PCs in general (at least, that is the case for myself hehe)

Power supplies in cheaper systems or cases tend to be highly optimistic, stating 600W power when that is the maximum power at 25 degrees C. Even branded PSUs are usually rated at 25C, which is not a realistic temperature in a regular computer, most of the time case temperature is at least 40C. Check the continuous rating and make sure you stay well clear of it, say max 80% at worst-case load. If your PSU can easily handle the load whilst folding, it will run cooler, potentially less noisy if regulated fans are used, plus it will last a lot longer.

The biggest cost for me apart from electricity was PSU fans on the cheaper PSUs, or the caps blowing due to the heat inside the cases caused by insufficient cooling. The latter should not happen much these days as most manufacturers now use better caps, etc.

Hard drive wise, same thing, keep it cool. If you can throw a low speed 12cm fan in front of it to increase the airflow it will keep it cooler and will probably extend its life by a fairly significant amount.

Either way, with a little maintenance and thought about heat related issues in general, there is no problem

[7im]

Kyle, the answer has not changed since you posted a similar question 2 years ago. http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4525

And your also similar question from last year: http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=12220

To repeat, your PC will be old and slow, and considered obsolete before the wear and tear of fah breaks anything from the additional work load, as long as you keep it well cooled, clean, and protected from power spikes and mouse damage.

[Anglik666]

can yours microwave kill you ?
yes it can...

[Saryn]

Well now I have a question. I've been running the GPU client for awhile now, and within the last week my GPU seems to be crapping out on me. I ran the GPU stress test to see if it really was the GPU and around maybe instance 30 my computer screen flashes, colors change and the screen movement goes so slow it takes about 2 minutes for the mouse to move a few pixels. Happens with some higher graphic intensive games like Fallout:NV, running the F@H for my GPU (Nvidia 8800GT, before the crashes, august drivers, now updated to newer drivers), or the stress test. I haven't been running the GPU version for more than maybe 6 months, and NOT on a daily 24/7 basis. I cleaned the inside of the case thoroughly and de-dusted the vid card pretty well, but same problems. Any ideas?

[PantherX]

Welcome to the F@H Forum Saryn,

Well, if it is overclocked, then the OC might be unstable so try to reduce it. Run memtestG80 (Details in my GPU Guide, section 15 - Troubleshooting The GPU3 BETA Client; link in signature) and if it gives you errors despite the lowered frequencies, then it is quite possible that the GPU is damaged so you have to replace it.

However, for the slow cursor issues (desktop lagging), you can try:
A) Enable Aero if you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7.
B) Use this Nvidia Environment Variable; FAH_GPU_IDLE and use a value between 5 and 10 (Details)

[Saryn]

I do not OC CPU or GPU, so that's not the issue. The slow moving cursor is after the screen flashes and the colors go weird, mainly where colors shift shades only my desktop background, then the screen blacks after a moment. Variable doesn't help, and wouldn't anyways because it's not just from using the client. the memtest didn't give me any errors, but like I said around instance 30 or so is when my GPU seemed to crash. Guess my GPU is damaged. Pretty fast too.

[bruce]

It does sound a lot like a defective GPU. Return it for warranty replacement. Running FAH does not void your warranty. GPUs are designed to operate at high loads and they're expected to run a higher temperatures than a CPU, but they're also designed to stay in a safe range unless you have blocked the air-flow. If the air-flow happened to be blocked, the GPU should shut itself down before damage occurs but that's not something that you want to have happen if you can avoid it.

[Saryn]

Ran the memtest from F@H utilities for the GPU again. At test 25, my GPU was at 71C and reported 8 random block errors, then crashed at the start of the next test. Got in touch with EVGA. Told me to check voltage (12.09) and the resting and load temps. Those were normal. just waiting for a response back. My luck haha. Hopefully they can replace it. If not, time to upgrade to 400 series 460 superclocked is what I am looking at