Endurance test: Windows stays up for 45 days while being thrashed

[qubit]

This also says something about the stability of the hardware.

One often hears geeky Mac users comparing their uptime to see who has the most stable system. I decided to see what Windows 7 is capable of doing, so as of June 16 I have not performed a single restart or shutdown. Of course it isn’t much of a challenge to do so with an idle machine, so I had my CPU sweating it out running World Community Grid. That alone wasn’t enough, so I gave the graphics card its own workout using Bitcoin.

The test machine we used comprised of the following hardware:

Phenom 2 1055T overclocked to 4.2GHz
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Black heatsink fitted with two Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1450RPM fans
MSI 790FX-GD70
4GB SuperTalent DDR2200 CL8 running at DDR1800 6-6-6-18
Inno3D GeForce GTX 480 with an Accelero Extreme Plus cooler
Antec Quattro 850w PSU
2x Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 in RAID0
Windows 7 64-bit

Day 1
The machine is nice and snappy, no doubt partly due to the fairly fresh installation of Windows. Opera, Windows Media Player and My Computer (or, more accurately, just “Computer”) all open instantly, and switching between the various open applications is a breeze. RAM usage is sitting pretty at a fraction under 2GB while the CPU and graphics card are each sitting at 100%.

Wiping the smug smile of Mac user's faces, muhahaha!!! (don't take this too seriously, people)

Flying Suicide

 

[Drone]

That's a real CO2 factory

 

[cdawall]

How is the VRM section of the GD70 doing? Bet that shortened their lifespan quite a bit.

 

[brandonwh64]

I have had my old X3430 crunching 100% load over 45 days but never tried to use it during the process so really do not know how well it would have taken being poked at HAHHA

 

[trickson]

http://img.techpowerup.org/120124/uptime-45.png

This also says something about the stability of the hardware.

Wiping the smug smile of Mac user's faces, muhahaha!!! (don't take this too seriously, people)

Flying Suicide

OMG!!! That is just amazing!! too bad no temps. Take that Apple users!

 

[_JP_]

That is remarkable. I don't let the computer sit that long while operational, most of the time it's on stand-by.

 

[micropage7]

so what happens on the next days? i guess the hardware plays significant role too. try it on stock cooling i hope it aint blowing up

 

[D4S4]

i don't find this anything special, i've been running single core crunching f@h 24/7 and random gaming/surfing/music production (synthesizers can eat up the cpu easily) for over a month regularly and performance stayed pretty much the same.

sure, fresh boot would be a bit snappier but there was never any significant difference.

 

[mstenholm]

Except for one power cut I think my W3670/UD7 @ 4.125 GHz have run for at least the past ½ year @ 100 % CPU load. OK, I never touch it for other then temperature checks.

 

[Frick]

I remember bragging about this stuff in the early 2000's. Pretty darn uniteresting these days.

 

[Disparia]

After reading the source, I'd hardly call it a success. :/

 

[FordGT90Concept]

My server has been doing that for the last 5 years. The only reason it restarts is to update Windows (it's an FTP and HTTP server among other things so I make sure to keep it current). Hell, my server is rather ordinary too. Most Windows systems that aren't broken will last months without restarting.

 

[qubit]

After reading the source, I'd hardly call it a success. :/

It seems that memory leaks are quite a problem, aren't they? What the writer should have said is whether the reboot actually fixed it, or if Windows was still sick after that.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Heh, I very rarely reboot my computer and it's always running WCG. No idea how long is the longest period of time without a reboot has been, but I'm sure there has been atleast one time my computer has ran atleast 2 months without a reboot while crunching.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

my system on average goes 2 months between restarts so roughly 60 days uptime getting regular every day usage. While entertaining that his rig lasted 45 days under that kind of load, I can easily say any windows rig under regular use can go months upon months without needing a restart, I think the longest up time ive seen was on a render farm that ran for 7 months when i was in college never shutting down or restarting once. It all comes down to the end user, if you thrash the hardware, and uninstall reinstall 50 apps a day it will crash eventually. That said any intelligent user here on TPU would have no issues going multiple months without a restart.

 

[erixx]

nice news qubit, but nothing new. A well build and cared for Windows system is unbeatable (since Win98SE, lol)

Off topic: I do not use to install shareware etc., but yesterday I did visit and use CNET. Way to go, devs...

 

[qubit]

nice news qubit, but nothing new. A well build and cared for Windows system is unbeatable (since Win98SE, lol)

Off topic: I do not use to install shareware etc., but yesterday I did visit and use CNET. Way to go, devs...

Sure, I know. You'll notice it's not in the news section though. It just made for an interesting article on one person's experience of trying this.

 

[claylomax]

This also says something about the stability of the hardware

Special mention to the power supply.

 

[qubit]

Special mention to the power supply.

Yes, it's a top of the range one, so good thing it did, lol.