Real or in my head?

[Kiddo86]

I've been running Starcraft 2 on my 17" 2.66 i7 and I've been playing around with different graphics settings. I can run a solid mix of "high" and "ultra" settings without losing my frame rate, but if I do that my fans blow at max the whole time. Alternatively, I can run at a mix of low/medium settings with only shaders set to "high" and run the game without my fans going above 2500 rpm.

Over the course of the lifetime of this MBP, I'll probably end up clocking over 1000 hours of gaming... and part of me feels like I'm burning out my computer when I let it go for hours on end with the fans raging away at full speed. The fan noise itself doesn't really bother me, I use headphones anyways.... I just feel like I'm hurting my computer but part of me also feels like that's ridiculous.

So bearing in mind that we are talking about thousands of hours of gaming over the lifetime of the computer... it is okay to let it work that hard all the time or is there something to be said for keeping the system load low?

 

[gabeomatic]

Although the fans can get awfully noisy, there is no reason for you to worry. Gaming uses the components to their full potential, so the high speed fans enable your components to stay within their thermal specs, which may seem hot for you, but are actually rated as safe temperatures for the chips themselves. As long as you don't mind the whine, you are good to go sir. Game on..

 

[macDonalds]

Monitor temps; If you're that concerned you can always get a cooling pad. Otherwise just enjoy your investment...nothing is forever.

 

[Kiddo86]

Although the fans can get awfully noisy, there is no reason for you to worry. Gaming uses the components to their full potential, so the high speed fans enable your components to stay within their thermal specs, which may seem hot for you, but are actually rated as safe temperatures for the chips themselves. As long as you don't mind the whine, you are good to go sir. Game on..

Thanks! I assumed that these machines are built to take care of themselves... seems silly to build a machine that will allow itself to run in a way that will wear it out... but I had read threads about older graphics cards like the 8600 GT wearing out over time... didn't know if that was an issue with the 330M.

 

[Kiddo86]

Monitor temps; If you're that concerned you can always get a cooling pad. Otherwise just enjoy your investment...nothing is forever.

Good idea... I'm going to browse now to see if I can find a thread detailing what reasonable temps would be for the various parts of the machine.

 

[Fry-man22]

...but I had read threads about older graphics cards like the 8600 GT wearing out over time... didn't know if that was an issue with the 330M.

The 8600GT was a defective part - period - all of them. I had one last 13 months, one last 1 month, and my last one 3 months. You can't determine the expectancy of the current chips based on that, at least i sure hope not .