I also forgot to answer your actual question! :)
Trigging the overdraw protection on a PSU is generally not a horrible thing, but it really depends on how the PSU does it. I would generally assume that that Corsair uses a proper current monitoring circuit with my best guess being a resisor shunt of some kind in combination with a proper monitoring chip that triggers a solid state switch to cut power extremely fast. Cheapers PSUs may just use a resettable fuse, which is also “solid state” but may actually fully blow (ie: esplode) or become less effective over time. Absolute worst case, a capacitor may blow its top. (If you have an old PSU you can destroy, flip the switch to 115V and plug it into a 220V circuit. You will get a loud bang and some smoke, but generally, nothing extremely dangerous. Its worth it to see and understand how PSUs may fail catastrophically if you never have blown up a large capacitor.)
The biggest warning sign of overloading a PSU is heat. PSUs get warm naturally and will get hot under heavy load. If the PSU has a fan, just occasionally feel the air and if it’s getting uncomfortably hot, you might be getting in the danger zone. Heat will naturally change resistive properties of different materials, leading to variations in current flow. This is normal. However, heat can trigger “thermal runaway” conditions where a component gets hot, starts to draw more current, gets hotter, draws even more current and will eventually melt or explode. Not good, but also normal. Hence: Heat is a good indicator of a device that is about to fail or shut off. (Current overdraw circuits may also use thermal sensors to shut off the device as well.)
If the device gets overly warm, point a fan at it as a temporary solution. It’ll give you just a hair more wiggle room during overdraw conditions. Not much wiggle room, but wiggle room nonetheless.
In short: High current loads/pushing components over rated limits is never ideal, but it’s not extremely bad either. It shortens the total life of the device itself and its safety circuitry, but it’s ok for short periods if you aren’t stupid about it.
(Sorry for the TED talk, but it’s my way of walking through the different scenarios of what you are trying to accomplish. FWIW, I have a ton of experience blowing up electronics so I am probably more familiar with pushing safety limits than most casual users.)
Bonus: Overclocking/Overvolting is not always going to shorten the life of equipment. Damage is caused by poor and ineffective cooling, but that does take proper planning and testing. Factory overclocked devices are usually still waaaay under their actual (and usually undocumented) thermal/voltage limits. However, you are usually getting really beefy heatsinks and additional fans for those kinds of cards. If you run a “factory overclocked” card at normal load, its additional cooling will theoretically extend the life of the card beyond its actual useful lifespan since it it’s being run far below it’s rated thermal limits. (This paragraph sounds like a contradiction in itself, but makes sense when taking the total useful life of the card into account, before it actually is completely outdated and is only good for scrap.)










Not yet.
I think there is a much higher probability of oil prices being manipulated in the short-term.