are burn-in's dangerous?

[matthew13l]

I am using Sandra right now, and I went to the burn-in wizard. It warned me that it will stress my components and could cause permanent damage. All of my parts are brand new, here are the specs:

Asus A7S333 mobo
Athlon XP2000
Volcano 7+ hsf
Samsung 512Mb DDR PC2700 (1 stick)
WD 40gb 7200rpm
Lite-On 32x12x40
Mitsumi floppy
Linksys ethernet card
Linksys phoneline networking card
Powercolor GeForce4 Ti4200
Codegen 350-watt PS

I also have (2) 92mm fans on the side of my case, so my heatsink is always breathing fresh air.

Should I do a burn-in? Could I actually damage one of my parts easily?

[$1500-P4 gamer]

You can blow parts. There is never a garuntee. If a part is weak (even new) or a old part it may stress it to failure. Thats what the warning is about. I use it when building a new pc to ensure its stable at full load high temp and all parts are still with in spec. temp aswell as pushing any new parts that could be bad.:t

[AllGamer]

Burn-Ins are fine.

i rather use 3DMarks for that purpose ;)

Nicer graphics.

yeah unless you are doing it for a whole week+

then there's really nothing to worry about burn-ins on a new or old machine.

it's basically like having someone run tracks non stop for 24/7 * 7

can any human do it? without sleep?
I doubt it

so same goes for the PC

[DocEvi1]

The main failures will come from either heat, or mechanical failure. The only thing to really fail in that case (if your fans are sufficent) is your HDD's - if they fail during burn-in it is better than them failing once you have all your data on. They should be in warranty as well.

I use it when I have built a new machine to check temps and check for the quality of components, never had anything fail yet but there is always a first :D

Stefan

[jmichna]

Burn-ins are SUPPOSED to stress components... like "proof-testing" shotguns and rifles with hotter loads to see that the barrel will take more stress than during normal use before it breaks.

A good burn-in should show all components working flawlessly... those that fail do so early on so that they can be replace under warranty.

A system that passes burn-in should work flawlessly until it becomes obsolete... like maybe after 2-3 months :D
jmichna