Ambient folding temps ?

Wanted to ask the team folders - At what point do each of you suspend/pause/stop folding because the case/ambient/pc parts temperatures are getting too high?

I paused my SMP folding on both machines for about 4 hours-(3pm to 7pm)-over the past 3 days because the ambient case temperatures have gone over 100F/38C inside the cases. It looks like another beginning of a dry drought condition here in north Texas. We haven't seen any rain in about 6 weeks now.

My real question is - Do most of you just fold till something pukes or do you shut down at a certain temperature to save your stuff?

Curious to see if I'm wasting F@H time or actually doing something right!

I don't know about anyone else but I have 9 fans in my case, kinda loud, C2D E6600 O/C runs 50C and 8800gts SLI runs 56C and System temp 40C with A/C on. With SMP running and or Playing games.Was told Intel base computers will shut down when gets to hot.

If not for the A/C could not run Folding@Home during summer only for few hours at a time, because of summer temps. Maybe if comp was stock speed but I doubt it.

No AC ???
Do you have stock Cooling on the CPU???

I aways leave the side of my comp off with a fan 8" fan blowing in...Easier to clean and keeps it way cooler...besides its under my desk so you can't really see it.

With AC on I get approx 25* cel while folding on both cores.
With the outside temp being 80* Fah and no AC the most it' ever gotten was 37* cel

The P4 I am on now shuts down and restarts when it feels like it The 2 systems zones zre 43 C and 60 C and the CPU is just over 70 C.

My box with Q6600 and 9800GTX is running inside case at 56 C and it seems happy. It is running stock (no OC) with stock cooling.

I understand they are supposed to shut down (and usually restart) when the CPU core gets too hot, not sure what the card will do. I had a machine that had bad thermal contact that was doing that during summer, some good quality thermal paste fixed that up.

I would like to go to better cooling, but it is winter now and I can use the warmth they are generating, saves turning on the heater So for now mine are running hot but I have my fingers crossed, more worried about a PSU dying at the moment by adding the 9800GTX. Trying to get more PPD for now (more in the works - stay tuned), will look at cooling and OC when it starts to warm up after winter.

You need to do what makes you feel comfortable, maybe some of the cleverer more experienced OC'rs can tell you what to expect as I am sure thermal stress limits is something they deal with a lot more often.

@Papa - good to see you are looking at the Devfolding team points there .

You should be more worried about the Cpu and Mobo temp's if they show fine like Cpu shud be Somewhere Between For Intel Quad's 44-58C, For C2d 44-60 , For Pentium D 55 - 60 The Above temps would be normal for Intel Chips and for mobo any make somewhere between 40-46c is Ok but should not exceed that limit as wear and tear start after that Get a good Program Like Speedfan for Monitoring the Temps it give u pop-up's and alarm's if u set it to Buzz at certain temps
Hope this help's

Right now, mid summer, I was more worried about the ambient cooling than the mobo/cpu/gpu

Both cpu's in both boxes have a thermaltake blue orb HSF
5600+ full load both cores 53C
Q9300 full load all 4 cores 45C
The 8800GT Akimbo SC runs full load 67C

No OC right now on anything
Will wait until winter here to crank the FSB back up on the quad

I think I am going to need something better than the stock fans on my quads.

I don't bother to trust internal probes, and my IR thermometer needs new batteries, so I'm going by touch here but...

my iMac runs HOT. The top right corner I'd peg at around 90F, which isn't that bad at all, but that's the outside metal. My laptop literally cooks. There are some places that if I touch them for too long, I'll actually burn myself. I'd say some spots while folding run at least 140F. My server on the other hand sits in a nice cool dark room, in a small but well ventilated case, so that isn't an issue at all.

Knowing its winter time in Australia, I'm confused as to why John Frank just doesn't open a window near the computers or pipe some winter air to the computers. Nows the time to OC everything down under. Just look at team - Overclockers Australia - OCAU, their team ppd is now over 2 million a day and only happens during their wintertime.

I know once we start seeing 40F and lower here, my FSB is going back to 450 or more on my Q9300. That should peak out around 3.8ghz or so at that time.

Jammer, I am not an OC'r all of my MB's are various Intels. I do not know if they OC well, if you have some pointers I would be happy to look into it. I will need to get some better cooling for the chips on them as they run hot now. I am willing to look at whatever can be done to get the MB's or the 9800GTX OC'ing more - but I think they are already. Have not had time to look at what software tools to use for the CPU or GPU - what do people recommend.

GPU is a MSI NVIDIA GF9800GTX PCI-E 2.0 512MB OC 256-BIT GDDR3 CORE 700MHZ SHADER 1750MHZ MEMORY 2200MHz.

OK, Factory Intel motherboards aren't the best overclockers anyway

You don't need to buy better cooling when its winter outside.
Just crack a window near your computers and let mother nature cool them for free! The colder the components, the longer they will last!

OK some background, I am a computer design engineer (not retired but moved on), I used to design dekstop, server and notebook systems from the ground up back in the 80's - things have come along a lot since then, the component minaturisation, silicon density, clock speeds, lower voltages and such are things I have kept pace with, the one that loses me now is the design issues to do with RF interference generated from trace lines at such high frequencies (I never went very far into analogue and RF only the basics). I know the basics but would not be comfortable sitting down to spec out and design a new MB and system again like I used to.

Having said that I was never into OC, I designed reliable performance products that would operate to spec within the tolerances required for areas like business, government, education, military and mining.

Now I am part of a great forum and members that tries to see how far designs and tolerances can be pushed. Hey I definitely have the ability to go there, but not the time to be comfortable with other priorities I have.

The machine cycles I contribute to folding are part of our small business and I am very keen to support this great cause.

PS Oh and the OS's have become increasingly harder to work with (I worked closely with Micosoft and prior to that in their glory days Novell). Plenty of fun stories from back then.

I like the idea , but I cannot open a window because it is an office (shopfront) and it is winter and cold outside and at night the place is locked up and alarmed. I do have to consider clients and others in the office

For now the machines warm the office and if I slowly work on how I am going to get better coolers on them now they will be able to continue to work without dying on warmer days.

Besides if I put a better cooler on it is still going to generate about the same amount of ambient temperature just drawn away from the chip and put into the air faster. There is an interesting area for discussion ....thermodynamics.