recommended free Hardware %

[ArcThanatos]

Gday all.

I spent some of my day talking to my teacher about free resource % and what is the most you should use at given time of your hardware.
80% constant load on CPU was considered to be the most you should be using (and if its idling this high you might have a slight issue)

I argued that you shouldn't have under 15% Drive space left as I have noticed it can make loading from said drive a slow and buggy process, not to mention once under 5% on a drive it has issues reading and wanting to work at all.
as for RAM I have found that having ram usage sitting at 85% is normally not too bad, but beyond that there is a bit of a noticeable dip in performance.

now we googled about and there was no one really saying much on this topic (because he sorta disagreed with me)
I also stated that depending on the architecture of your rig and pick of OS can also affect this out come.
having already sluggish hardware would make dips more noticeable, but having some cream of the crop gear would only make it noticeable at extremely high usage.

 

so has anyone else got any thoughts on this topic. I mean I know its not greatly exciting or important topic, but due to a lack of information about this I was hoping we could create a bit of a standard here.

like a Red build could also differ from a Blue build and also posting thoughts onto this would also be handy if you have an opinion on this part as well
 

cheers for reading and to those who post anything... that is useful

[anybodykek]

3 minutes ago, ArcThanatos said:

Gday all.

I spent some of my day talking to my teacher about free resource % and what is the most you should use at given time of your hardware.
80% constant load on CPU was considered to be the most you should be using (and if its idling this high you might have a slight issue)

I argued that you shouldn't have under 15% Drive space left as I have noticed it can make loading from said drive a slow and buggy process, not to mention once under 5% on a drive it has issues reading and wanting to work at all.
as for RAM I have found that having ram usage sitting at 85% is normally not too bad, but beyond that there is a bit of a noticeable dip in performance.

now we googled about and there was no one really saying much on this topic (because he sorta disagreed with me)
I also stated that depending on the architecture of your rig and pick of OS can also affect this out come.
having already sluggish hardware would make dips more noticeable, but having some cream of the crop gear would only make it noticeable at extremely high usage.

 

so has anyone else got any thoughts on this topic. I mean I know its not greatly exciting or important topic, but due to a lack of information about this I was hoping we could create a bit of a standard here.

like a Red build could also differ from a Blue build and also posting thoughts onto this would also be handy if you have an opinion on this part as well
 

cheers for reading and to those who post anything... that is useful

If your RAM is at 85% usage on idle, how do you even use the computer?

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 minutes ago, ArcThanatos said:

80% constant load on CPU

You can run a cpu at 100% 24/7 just fine. This is what servers do.

 

9 minutes ago, ArcThanatos said:

I argued that you shouldn't have under 15% Drive space left

It all depends on the file system. The drive doesn't know how much space is used on it. Some filesystems don't care about empty space, some do.

 

10 minutes ago, ArcThanatos said:

as for RAM

Normally you want this almost full with cache, so the disk is cached, for used ram, if its under 100% its fine.

 

 

[ArcThanatos]

Memory Leak issue, had a monitoring sys up and I was watching it, and at 85% usage I could still play, but it was getting sluggish, but I could still access menus, task manager, it wasn't ideal by any means but the CPU wasn't having issues as much as the game was consuming my Memory as the minutes ticked on. past 85% there noticeable jitters, stutters and things were not fun fun fun. but even so I wouldn't say 85% is ideal, but its not maxing out either. its like what I call the limit on what you should use

[ArcThanatos]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can run a cpu at 100% 24/7 just fine. This is what servers do.

 

servers are thou a bit different, there are more like trucks, desktops are more like cars and utes (horses for courses), a normal office desktop budget brought machine with a sub par average heatsink running at 80% either under load or at ideal is going to be or already has a issue.

servers normally have the money spent to make them run hard and long periods of time and cope just fine. as they are more or less designed to do this.

under load
so lets say, server 1-100% cpu its just fine.
budget office 1-80% its fine
Drive space - File System applicable
RAM - below 100%

on ideal thou, what would you say would be a good mark

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, ArcThanatos said:

servers are thou a bit different, there are more like trucks, desktops are more like cars and utes (horses for courses), a normal office desktop budget brought machine with a sub par average heatsink running at 80% either under load or at ideal is going to be or already has a issue.

I have run macbook air's at 100% for weeks and there fine.

 

Your not gonna kill a system running it a 100% cpu.

[ArcThanatos]

it will depend on your cooling, higher usage will result in more heat, so good cooling 100% is fine, but if the cooling is average and runs too hot it will shorten its life or cook it completely.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

CPU should be 0-5% at idle. Otherwise, it isn't idle, and the question becomes whoo is using it and why. Under load, the answer is whatever it takes. That's why you have it. Without overclocking and inside a reasonable case, a CPU will be fine running on the stock cooler 100% forever. 

In fact, most our PCs with aftermarket coolers are way better cooled than servers in their crowded, tiny racks with barely any space for decent heatsinks (you'll also notice servers tend to use low clock CPUs to keep tdp at bay).

Regarding offices: I have a pre-built in my office, i5-4570, probably in stock cooler (can't open it). I often leave it overnight at 100%. Temps don't go over 65C. That's many degrees below anything close to dangerous. 

CPUs are meant to be used. 

 

With respect to the RAM issue: I remember from this forum that some OS (win 10?) will start paging before 100% RAM usage, as it keeps 1.5gb free for I don't remember what (it's somewhere in this subforum ). You may want to search that and see if the impact on performance you noticed above 85% is related to that.  

[incarnate]

5 hours ago, ArcThanatos said:

under load
so lets say, server 1-100% cpu its just fine.
budget office 1-80% its fine
 

 

No. Just no. Usage makes no difference. Temps are far FAR more important.

 

100% usage at 70°C is absolutely fine whether using an i3 or a 36 core xeon.

 

50% usage at 100°C is absolutely dangerous.

 

So long as your voltages are within tolerance and temps are fine then usage makes no difference

[ArcThanatos]

56 minutes ago, incarnate said:

 

No. Just no. Usage makes no difference. Temps are far FAR more important.

 

100% usage at 70°C is absolutely fine whether using an i3 or a 36 core xeon.

 

50% usage at 100°C is absolutely dangerous.

 

So long as your voltages are within tolerance and temps are fine then usage makes no difference

im talking about both load and idle, and also taking other things into account,

if it was idling at 50% something would not be right, something would be running in the back ground and could be a issue, if it was idling at 80% serious issue.
 

temp is always a factor with anything electrical. more heat means shorter life, with in a certain temperature its not going to really affect anything, but once the heat starts going up (so once under load) it will eventually start to damage things.

 

so a constant idle above X is what im after. what would you call safe idle, and safe load.

some cpu's might be real lemons and not want a standard rule to apply, some may say screw the rules and operate forever at 110% load at 120c
but as a more general "work" place rule. i want to have a general idea on what we could say is safe workload, what is safe idle,  and same with RAM usage and Drive Cap

[scottyseng]

7 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

-snip-

I'd agree...I leave my PC on all of the time and it's usually idling at 50% usage (I have too many tabs open). Depending on what programs I have open (Photoshop, Revit, Dreamweaver), the CPU will say at 80%-90% load. I've had it there for the past year...2500K at 4.6GHz. No damage what so ever aside from Windows update saying hi.

 

@ArcThanatos

As long as the temps and voltages are in check, I see no reason why a CPU couldn't be pinned for long periods of time. I would agree though, that ideally you want your idle to be at 5-10% or lower with nothing open, and maybe 30-40% if you're a tab fiend / have a load of programs open but idling like I do.

 

I am planning on upgrading to a 7700K next year though, the 2500K is starting to lag down. I have my Xeon powered NAS for heavy lifting / rendering.

[incarnate]

2 hours ago, ArcThanatos said:

 

Safe workload, any. Period. So long as voltages are within reason and temps are below max recommended. No cpu is gonna be damaged by running at 100% load for long periods of time if the temps are fine.

 

As far as "safe" idle goes, unless you've got competitively ancient tech, any high usage during idle will be software related (high numbers of tabs, background processes, malware etc). Again so long as the tech isn't ancient by comparison.

[porina]

3 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Without overclocking and inside a reasonable case, a CPU will be fine running on the stock cooler 100% forever. 

Unfortunately these conditions are not always met in off the shelf PCs. The Intel stock cooler is adequate at best, and I'd want something better for 24/7 load running.

 

3 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

In fact, most our PCs with aftermarket coolers are way better cooled than servers in their crowded, tiny racks with barely any space for decent heatsinks (you'll also notice servers tend to use low clock CPUs to keep tdp at bay).

Not quite the whole story. A lot of server CPUs have far more cores than consumer models, but the cooling still has a similar package surface area to play with. By lowering the clocks a bit, they can also lower the voltage, and the two combined still gives the CPU more overall performance for a given power budget. Of course, more cores means more die area, and more cost also. Any decent server rooms will be thermally managed so everything will work to spec in that environment. Usually the big cost is to noise.

 

 

So, for a system adequately designed for it, I have no hesitation running the CPU 24/7, and I do in tasks of comparable stress to Prime95 on my home farm.

 

On the other end, I have my work laptop for example. It is a small Dell thing with a tiny underpowered i7 dual core. You do anything with it, and the fans rev up so far bats start complaining at the tone. I really wouldn't like to run that under prolonged load at all.