Is Rockbox harder on the machine in any way?

[Bullpen7979]

Just wondering... have a 5g video ipod. Noticed that battery life is not quite as good, which I can live with. However, I didn't know if running rockbox as opposed to the original firmware was any harder on the disk, caused it to spin more or whatever. I know the anti skip setting will affect how much the disk spins, (or at least I think it does), but was wondering about rockbox in general. any thoughts?

[Yotto]

Other than the battery life (which I would assume means that the actual battery will last less long, as it's draining and recharging more often.  Not to mention that you'll use your iPod more with Rockbox on it, thereby using more battery ), I don't think there's anything that Rockbox could do, in general, to "hurt" your iPod.  I've heard of a reboot loop with a wall charger but don't know the details, other than that it's avoidable so long as you pay attention and make sure it doesn't happen.

Personally, I haven't given it much thought, and I loaded RB on my (5G 30gig) iPod the day I bought it.

[jdong]

The biggest factors in my mind would be:

(1) Rockbox drains the battery at double the rate. This will likely lead to a lower lifespan of the battery.
(2) Rockbox's additional goodies entices you to use your iPod much more heavily for many more purposes, which can lead to faster battery drain, quicker backlight burnout, buttons wearing out, more hard disk usage, and so on.

I'd have to say #1 and any other theory battery-related should be your primary concern

[AlexP]

(1) Rockbox drains the battery at double the rate. This will likely lead to a lower lifespan of the battery.

And this is of course only iPod and H10, not the many other players Rockbox supports.  As Llorean pointed out, Rockbox isn't released on these targets anyway.

Edit:  Sorry, got confused with this and the other identical topic currently ongoing