Wear and Tear On System Components

[xps13]

Hello members of Tom's Hardware, Coming at you guys with another quick question regarding the components within a system under the pressure of running games. I was just wondering if closing in and out of a taxing game like Skyrim would wear and tear on the processor and other system components. I would change around the preferences within the launcher to adjust graphics and then I would load the game. After 5 minutes or so I would close the game down, Open up the launcher and begin to screw around with the graphical settings again and launch the game again for another 5 minutes. I repeated this like 4 or 5 times, and I was wondering if activity like this stresses out the processor and other components by putting a lot more voltage into these components to run the game only to be cut short every 5 or so minutes when i close, alter the settings and then restart the game. Sorry if it sounds noobish, I would just like to know for sure. Thanks again everyone I appreciate the time and your input.

 

[Guest]

Considering people will run stress tests such as Prime, OCCT, etc for hours on end with overclocks, no this will not harm your system in any way. The only way you could really harm your system is if A) the components were bad to begin with, B) extreme overclocks/overheating, or C) water/damage to them physically.

 

[Smeg45]

No. If you buy cheap hardware though, it may not last as long as as quality parts.

 

[xps13]

Thank you for the quick response guys I really appreciate it. My specs are as follows if it helps any

Intel Core i7 2600 @3.4 Ghz (Stock)
AMD Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5(Reference)
8 GB RAM @1333MHZ
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD @7200RPM

 

[xps13]

Best answer selected by xps13.

 

[Pinhedd]

not in the slightest

All components are designed to switch between power states extremely quickly. Your CPU is capable of idling cores at a moments notice to save a small amount of power and then bringing them back up quickly. If you actually look at the operational statistics of various components over time you'll see that your CPU cores will constantly change their frequency and voltage to meet demand. Intel has specified maximum voltage changes over time (slew rate) and all power delivery mechanisms are designed within this specification.

In fact the voltage regulators which take a 120 volt RMS AC power supply from the socket and transform it into a 12 volt DC supply which is then transformed into a 5 volt supply, 3.3 volt supply, as well as the programmable supplies to your CPU, memory, and graphics card, all use components which switch between discrete "on" and "off"states several hundred thousand times per second. The amount of time that the regulator spends in the on and off states is controlled so as to provide a stable output voltage.

With that said, excessive load changes over a very short period of time (microseconds or less) can cause a current inrush and voltage spike which can damage components. Intel's power delivery specification is designed to prevent this. So long as you don't perform a massive overclock on a budget motherboard this will not be an issue.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey