Long haul flights on PC

[BryanButler]

:confused:Hello, fellow flight simmers.

 

I'm planning on doing some 9-12 flights. But, I want to do them straight through non-stop (meaning without saving flight, turning off my PC, and coming back to finish it at a later time). I want to fly non-stop for 12 hours straight without turning off my PC, meaning having FSX running for the entire 12 hour flight. My question is: Is it bad for your PC to have it turned ON for that long? Especially running FSX for 12 solid hours. I just feel like I'd be wearing it out, or straining it or whatever. Here are the specs:

 

Windows 7 Professional Edition (64-Bit)

ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Professional, Intel LGA 1150

Intel 4th Gen Core i7 4790K (4.6GHz Overclock) Quad Core

32GB Trident DDR3 SDRAM 2133MHz

4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 980, PCI Express 3.0

1TB Samsung 850 EVO PRO Solid State Drive

500GB Samsung 850 EVO PRO Solid State Drive (secondary hard drive)

Corsair Hydro Series H100i GTX Liquid Cooling

1000 Watt Corsair RM Series Power Supply

[MBKHOU]

My puter is on 24/7 365 days a year unless the power goes out or I'm working on it.

[BryanButler]

Hi, MBKHOU. But, isn't it a little different when you have FSX running for 12 hours straight? I guess it's okay if it's turned on 24/7, but if you're running things such as FSX for 12-13 solid hours, it could tire out the PC, FSX does put a lot of stress on PC's.

[JSMR]

I run mine - fs9 - all the time long haul. And it's warm - hot- here in Australia. CPU temps regularly at 70-80 C. Been doing it for years. No dramas.

[BryanButler]

Hi, JSMR. Oh, ok. Yes, it gets really hot and humid here too during the summer (Virginia USA). I usually put a fan next to my PC to keep it cool.

 

MBKHOU and JSMR, thanks for your replies :D

[napamule2]

You PC (CPU, etc) will be subjected to more 'stress' when being turned on (equivalent to 10 x 12 hr flights) due to current surge, cold-to-hot strain on parts, etc. Best to put it on standby anyway, as PC will pick up where you left off. Mine is on 24/7, 365 days a year, unless I shut off to clean out the dust or to change hard drives or we have a power interuption. The key is to keep it cool when it IS running. That depends on ambient temps but more on good air flow or direct cooling of cpu. It's the mother board that has the parts (capacitors, resistors, etc) that can be stressed by shut downs and re-starts (ie: current surge and temp changes). Not so much the CPU. It is designed to run 24/7 once it gets goin.

Chuck B

[mqytn]

I've done many 12 hour flights on both FS9 and FSX on 2 computers with specs that would make your computer laugh uncontrollably at mine. Go for it.

[Double J]

I fly 12 or 16 hrs non-stop some days, no problem as long as your cooler is working properly.

[MBKHOU]

Hi, MBKHOU. But, isn't it a little different when you have FSX running for 12 hours straight? I guess it's okay if it's turned on 24/7, but if you're running things such as FSX for 12-13 solid hours, it could tire out the PC, FSX does put a lot of stress on PC's.

 

Naw, not really. I don't overheat, even using air cooling, so it's not a problem.

The only way you are going to stress a PC is if some parts of it overheat.

If not, it's happy to do it all year long. Rendering HD video puts a lot more

load on my PC than FSX does. I also agree that turning things on often is more

stressful than leaving them on all the time. Particularly if one does it several times

a day. I was always the same way with my older ham radios, much which was tube

and hybrid tube/solid state. IE: my old Drake gear fer instance... I had the Drake

4 line twins, and I ran them 24 hours a day. Largely for stability, but also no point

in turning on and off several times a day which is more stressful than just leaving

them on all the time.

I've always run my puters 24/7 going back to the early 90's. My first FS box "FS4" was a

mighty 386/33DX with a whopping 80MB hard drive. LOL.. Ran 24/7..

That's the only puter I ever bought turn key ready to go.. All the ones after that I built.

So even if something poops out, I'll just fix it. No real biggie. ;)

[davidchen9568]

It'll be okay. The CPU is designed to run continuously even at 100%. It won't do any harm to it. Think about all those web servers which run 24/7, 365 days a year ...

[evm]

You will be fine with the hardware, it's not like electronics are subject to wear and tear if used within their parameters. Parts are much more likely to blow in the first months of operation than under constant load (especially if they are of low quality or faulty). Just make sure that your computer will actually keep running and no helpful power management feature turns it off because it thinks you aren't using it.

 

But you have to keep an eye out for our old friend the OOM when doing long hauls. As FSX is not too good at cleaning out its allocated memory, you are running a very real risk of the application crashing at some point. This is especially fun if it happens on approach after a long haul, when the destination airport is loaded in and busts the memory boundaries. If you have the full FSUIPC I suggest you turn on the autosave feature, which will save your flight every few minutes. So even if the sim crashes, you can return to a point in time say 10 minutes ago and pick it up again.

[BryanButler]

Thank you all for your replies. Each and every one of you have been extremely helpful! Thanks again guys! :pilot:

[napamule2]

You might be thinking of 'saving' on the utility bill by turning PC off. False economy. Give you an example. You walk into a room and turn the light on, then turn it off when you walk out 3 minutes later. 3 minutes later you walk into a room and turn the lights on then off when you leave. 3 minutes later you do the same thing again. In 9 minutes you have used up enough 'juice' to have kept the lights on for 3 hours!!! Repeat this 6 times a day and that is enough to keep the lights 'going' (running?) for 18 hours!!!

 

I know..I know..Good Ole Dad always got all over us for leaving the 'utilities' running. 'If you turn them on-turn them off (bark, cuss, sneer!! (hehe)). (But he was wrong. OK? Wrong!!!). (Glad I got THAT off my chest...!).

Chuck B

[JSMR]

But run again could apply the 'parts/hour' principle that PC parts will only last so many hours and that by running it 24 7 reduces its life span? Can't prove that theory but makes for a good story. :p

[MBKHOU]

A puter generally will only go a certain number of hours. So the 24/7 user might

eat into their puter life allotment at a quicker rate. But I generally don't keep a puter

long enough for it to flake out. I think every puter I replaced still ran when I built the

new one. So it really doesn't matter much to me as far as using it all the time as I've

never had the lifespan be an issue.

Same deal with overclocking a CPU.. Sure, it may well shorten the lifespan a bit due to

running hotter, but I still end up replacing them well before they get a chance to finally

flake out.

Most of the time, electronic mayhem is due to flaky capacitors. And most take a few

years. But they also go bad just sitting in a box and not being used if stored for equal

lengths of time. Seen it happen many a time on stuff like video cam's, etc. Work perfect,

then stored in a box for many months or years, and open it up and half kaput due to all

the flaky caps.

[mrzippy]

You might be thinking of 'saving' on the utility bill by turning PC off. False economy. Give you an example. You walk into a room and turn the light on, then turn it off when you walk out 3 minutes later. 3 minutes later you walk into a room and turn the lights on then off when you leave. 3 minutes later you do the same thing again. In 9 minutes you have used up enough 'juice' to have kept the lights on for 3 hours!!! Repeat this 6 times a day and that is enough to keep the lights 'going' (running?) for 18 hours!!!

 

I know..I know..Good Ole Dad always got all over us for leaving the 'utilities' running. 'If you turn them on-turn them off (bark, cuss, sneer!! (hehe)). (But he was wrong. OK? Wrong!!!). (Glad I got THAT off my chest...!).

Chuck B

 

Sorry Chuckster! Wrong thinking! Where exactly did you get your electrical engineering degree from? Even a simple Google search says more power/energy is wasted leaving them on.(Light Bulbs)

 

Now with a computer it is probably better/more efficient to leave on and in sleep mode overnight. This is especially good if you have a known good power source and your computer is plugged in to a reliable "VOLTAGE SPIKE" protector, not a power strip with a circuit breaker on it. (That protects against a current surge only). Voltage spikes are sent down the power grid lines to your house by your friendly power company switching offices when they throw the big switches during the night causing things like computers, connected printers, Big screen TVs to go nuts.

[Rupert]

I've done some long term flights with no problems. However I've also walked in and discovered the flight locked up at some point and time. I'm running some pretty serious scenery addons & even with a 4.6GHZ chip and nice ram things occasionally get too busy over a long term.

 

I normally keep all my scenery sliders at max for regular flights but now when I'm into endurance trips I back them off to about 50%. I've had no problems since.

 

Yes you'll burn more juice keeping flying or doing anything else that makes your computer work long term. I assume you, like pretty much everyone who is getting good FSX response, are running an at least a several hundred watt PSU.

 

As Captain Obvious would say; "If you're not burning several hundred watts to run your box and programs, why would you need a several hundred watt PSU?"

[alexzar14]

I fly long flights every friday over night, depart at 10-11pm (real time) then going to sleep, wake up next morning and finish it. Best flights Europe to west coast US or east coast US to Italy or further, this way I don't have to wake up too early! )))

JFK-EGLL (or opposite) not the best overnight flight, have to wake up at 6am to finish it.

 

Need to have DX10 fixer to take care of OOM nonsense, with this I fly anything anywhere (PMDG/iFly) with no OOM.

[mqytn]

Back in the long haul cockpit. KEWR OPSD.

[pvarn]

Power spikes and over heating aside (assuming you have protected your machine form those things) the components in your computer are likely to outlast you with the exception of mechanical hard drives which are a ticking clock. They ALL wear out eventually. The more hours they spin and access, the sooner they wear out.

 

If you have an SSD, that problem is for all intents gone with recent advances in HD flash memory techniques. My current PC has been running FSX for years and I have made uncountable numbers of flights of 18+ hours.

 

OOMs are only a problem with certain kinds or combinations of add ons. I have not had any OOMS at all even when I've been running FSX without shutting it down for weeks at a time.

 

-Pv-