Re: Will SETI@home roast my CPU?

Mark Conroe wrote:

Total bull***. If you have a temperature sensor on your CPU, you can
see the effect of CPU utilization, which is driven by application usage.
My Mac Mini normally has a CPU diode temperature of 38�C when
just running normal apps. However, when I start-up SETI@home,
the CPU temperature very quickly skyrockets to 95�C.
That happens even on old computers, too. My PII 400 doesn't
have a sensor, but I can see from using a plug-in power meter
that it consumes an extra 19 W when running SETI@home.
That's an extra 19 watts of heat that the CPU has to deal with.
If the CPU fan stopped working, it would quickly overheat and
shut down.

Let me not question anything you are saying nor go much beyond it.

If it runs at 95 instead of 38 will it only last ten years instead of a hundred? I made up those years but I have a 333MHz around since I first used S@H and it would still work if I put back all the scavenged parts. I bought it when it was at the low price point behind the state of the art when 400 and 500 MHz chips started coming out. That should be about 12 years ago.

So your real question is if you keep a computer enough years if a higher temperature makes a difference. I have had PCs since before they were called PCs, the Bally Arcade, and the first I have had fail for any reason was just last month and it had nothing to do with S@H. It was a power surge from a power company transformer failure while I was between UPSs.

Seriously the more capabilities given to users the more they worry. There oughta be a law. There is nothing magic about the boiling point of water. A higher temperature only means a shorter MTBF. It does not mean the end is near.

BTW: The mini-Mac really needs to be bigger. The small form factor was sort of a styling decision.

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