How Dangerous Is Mining?

By MinerGate on Altcoin Academy

Lots of users run mining programs on their home PCs.

Is it dangerous for your PC?

This topic became popular in 2016–2017 during the Bitcoin boom, when interest towards mining boosted an extremely high demand for GPUs (Graphic Processing Units). As a result, gamers faced a real difficulty of finding a GPU that was not overpriced.

Later on professional Bitcoin miners would switch over from GPUs to ASICs, which resulted in a relative oversupply of mining graphics cards on the secondary market. It was the time when the thesis about PC harm appeared.

However, Is It Dangerous?

For anything except GPU and CPU — no, it’s not. Components are running as usual: graphics cards and processors are utilized fully while mining; in modern games or some specific software all components are used intensively too (it’s just that you don’t play games or render videos 24/7). The main danger here is overheating of your hardware: it’s essential to dwell on the fact that not all components are designed for such an intensive use. For example, some GPUs from vendors have heating issues with the specific electronic parts. The solution for keeping your PC safe is in the advanced cooling systems and constant monitoring of temperatures.

Shortly, mining requires tons of processing power to lift the heavy load. Thus, if your rig is capable of that, its lifespan isn’t much shorter compared with the ones experiencing an intensive everyday use. Ultimately, monitoring is the key for a long-term partnership with your device.