Just hoping for some advice here. I'm going to be using the Handbrake video encoder for a specific project over the next 30 days or so, for approximately 3-4 hours at a time. CPU usage during those hours is 95-100% - perfectly normal for Handbrake. But I do have some concerns reference possible long term damage. Advice online seems to differ from (paraphrasing here): "as long as your system doesn't run too hot you'll be fine" to "yes, this kind of thing will definitely shorten the life of said CPU". I've run a few tests, and although my PC fans get slightly louder, that seems to be the worst of it. Any thoughts?
I used to do a lot of video transcoding on an older AthlonXP system. It regularly ran at 100% for many hours at a time. This went on on a fairly regular basis for months or maybe even years and the CPU was still going strong when it was replaced. I built an HTPC a couple of years ago that records probably 10 hours a week from the antenna. It is setup to downsample and compress everything it records. It has been doing this for 2 years now and is still going strong. I think you're fine. If it does shorten the life of your CPU at all, it's unlikely its shorter life will be any less than the time you will use it. I think you're fine. Saying that though, it might not be a bad idea to get Speedfan or something like it to keep an eye on your CPU temps and fan speeds. If nothing else you can reassure yourself that it's not getting too hot.
You'll be fine. Unless there is a fabrication fault, hardware is extremely durable. A good computer case and fans keep temperatures at max 60° celsius, absolutely no need to worry. Of course the fans will get louder, that's their job. You have to keep in mind, when you google a nose itch, online advice tells you that you have cancer. Same thing with computer stuff. If your CPU dies, it certainly won't be because you ran it on 100% for a couple of days.
Yeah, as long as your CPU is well-cooled and not overclocked you'll be fine. If it was crashing or something you'd know it's getting too hot. Modern CPUs play it very safe in terms of heat dissipation.
Guys, many thanks for all your replies. My current PC is literally just a few days old, and is fairly high spec. I'm certain I'll be OK.
LOL - it'll be fine here in the UK from July! http://betanews.com/2014/03/28/uk-set-to-make-ripping-your-cds-and-dvds-legal/ I've edited my earlier post, as I'm not sure if I'm breaking board rules now you bring it up! But, I've talked about it previously here.
You need to monitor your CPU temps to be sure it is not running hot. 100% usage for hours at a time will test your cooling solution. More so if multiple cores will be going 100%. Down load a temp monitoring program and set some alarm points. You may find you need to get a bigger heatsink/fan combo or even need to go liquid cooling.
^ I've used Speedfan for years to monitor temps and control fan speeds. Though, I couldn't use the latest version. It has more sensors, but I couldn't make it vary my fan speeds.
I didn't see if you have an Intel or AMD CPU. Intel CPU will outlast the usefulness of your PC as long as it's cooled properly. Theoretically a 100% constant CPU usage would shorten its life, but do you really care if the CPU only lasts 20 years instead of 40 years?
I've been using my computer as a compute engine for my stock prediction AI. So every night for the past 2 years, it spends around 6-8 hours running all 4 cores at near-100% cpu usage, reading and writing about 10GB of data. So far, a hard disk's failed once but the CPU hasn't given me any trouble. And I live in the hot tropics too.