I figured if I left it alone it'd do it's thing and then continue with the test suite however nothing has changed for the past 45 minutes and I'm wondering if I need to do something about it or just wait it out.

Instead of ignoring that you really should have a look at the temperatures of this system and check the cooling system for dust.

Yea it's an Acer Aspire and I can't figure out how to get the thing open without damaging the chassis/case. It seems to be held together with glue at the edges. I've had issues with this machine over heating and the best I can do is just use compressed air to blow out whatever dust is collected in the heatsink.

If it's anything like my old dell then it's going to have dust crammed in the heatsink and using compressed air to blow through the vents isn't going to get the job done. I was able to easily access the heatsink and clean it out on my old dell and a friend's HP laptop, but this Acer is tricky and it's my only laptop and I'm nervous about forcing it open.

If you don't want to/can't safely open the machine I would recommend to bring it to a repair shop for maintenance. Do not use it further, overheating can and will shorten the lifetime significantly.