Can undervolting too much damage a CPU

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Harry1969

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I'm undervolting an Athon 2 630 from 1.4v to 1.175 using K10STAT. Is this OK are should I up the voltage a little. I've searched the answer and found contradicting opinions but most seem to think it's alright.
 
Undervolting will not harm a CPU.

And as long as it's stable, you have nothing else to worry about. I don't even know where you would find a contradicting opinion.
 
I'd take anything posted on the tomshardware forums with a big grain of salt - it's like reading the user reviews at Newegg.

As for the other site, I've never even heard of it - but a few posters go on to bash the guy (rightfully so) who made that comment.

As long as the clocks are stable for the undervoltage value you set (as I said), there is no harm.
 
I didn't think there was anything too worry about, but I just wanted to make sure. Thanks for the reassurance.
 
hell undervolting will extend the life of the processor more then it would do damage to it.. since your running less voltage to get the same amount of performance out of the hardware..
 
hell undervolting will extend the life of the processor more then it would do damage to it.. since your running less voltage to get the same amount of performance out of the hardware..

not always true.... lets take it in a sense of an engine... to much gas is bad for an engine, it'll run rough, carbon build up, excessive heat..... to little gas "ie running lean" again excessive heat and bad for the engine. Processors can be damaged from undervolting just ask an electrical engineer about providing something with insufficient voltage.
 
not always true.... lets take it in a sense of an engine... to much gas is bad for an engine, it'll run rough, carbon build up, excessive heat..... to little gas "ie running lean" again excessive heat and bad for the engine. Processors can be damaged from undervolting just ask an electrical engineer about providing something with insufficient voltage.

This wins today's prize for Profound Ignorance.

Internal combustion engines and IC's have nothing in common in how they work. IC's do not, and can not, go lean and over heat when under volted.

Electrical engineers know all about power distribution, motors, PS design, etc., but they don't specialize in low voltage electronic devices like CPUs; you want to speak to an electronics engineer for that.
 
undervolting wont do anything overvolting is the one you have to be carefull with
a cpu undervolted to much just become unstable a cpu over volted becomes hotter.
or just overloads the tracers and melts them
 
and as for an engine running hotter with less gas time to go back to school m8
and engine with to much gas runs hotter clogs up running with to little fuel dose no damage just stoles cos of lack of power
 
I was thinking about this as well since I’m running my i7 920 at 3.8 with stock voltages (no turbo mode). It’s kinda freaky going from 2.66 to 3.8 and not even bother with voltages. Everything is stable though under Prime95 large FFTs. I haven’t run it for a day though. Oh and yes it’s D0.
 
and as for an engine running hotter with less gas time to go back to school m8
and engine with to much gas runs hotter clogs up running with to little fuel dose no damage just stoles cos of lack of power

Running an engine lean especially turbo and supercharged engines will burn up valves pistons and plugs. ill admit it was a bad analogy for this situation, but this does apply to engines.

I worked directly for an EE in a machining environment. I was passing along what he taught me about cnc control units and motors. I assumed it translated over into smaller IC territory.

I apologize for my ignorance on the IC information, but ive worked on the internals of engines for years.. toll tell of running lean is burnt white plugs and valves..or holes in the pistons.
 
and as for an engine running hotter with less gas time to go back to school m8
and engine with to much gas runs hotter clogs up running with to little fuel dose no damage just stoles cos of lack of power

A engine running lean(ie not enough fuel) WILL overheat the engine

anyway, I think you'll be fine, as long as its stable, since a piece of electronics can be out of spec with not enough voltage, think of a game boy with dying batteries lol :p
 
People that posted here at the [H] stating that they fried there cpu due to undervolting = 0

I have never heard of such a thing.
 
Being an EE who has not practiced EE in a long time this does not make sense to me.
 
Being an EE who has not practiced EE in a long time this does not make sense to me.

It may have applied to strictly our CNC control modules and I know at least a half dozen 440 ballasts we had to replace because of this "or it was stated by him to me" But this is way off topic.

OP the consensus seems you'll be fine, ignore my ignorance and improper xfer of information from one field to another. I apologize
 
as long as its stable its fine. it will lower temperatures also.


i ran my 1.225vid e8400 o/ced to 3.71ghz @1.075vcore...my max temps dropped by over 6c while under water(from stock voltage). stable 24/7.

my i5-750 which is just on stock cooling o/cs from 2.66ghz to 3.5ghz with a lower core voltage. im able to drop it from 1.3125v to 1.175v. this keeps my full load temps under 78c, and this is just with the stock heatsink. undervolting is your friend if you are trying to reduce power consumption/heat while overclocking.
 
Running an engine lean especially turbo and supercharged engines will burn up valves pistons and plugs. ill admit it was a bad analogy for this situation, but this does apply to engines.

I worked directly for an EE in a machining environment. I was passing along what he taught me about cnc control units and motors. I assumed it translated over into smaller IC territory.

I apologize for my ignorance on the IC information, but ive worked on the internals of engines for years.. toll tell of running lean is burnt white plugs and valves..or holes in the pistons.

Sounds like you need to learn about engines some more. Running overly rich will cause excessively high EGT.
 
Really? I would think that since an engine doesn't have the normal fuel will produce less heat due to less burned fuel...?

Running lean causes higher combustion chamber temperatures which is going to make pre ignition one hell of a bitch on the internals :D
 
Good link.

Someone hit the nail on the head, richer mixtures for higher load.You can run leaner when you're cruising around because you aren't putting much load on the engine. Once you start to load that motor up you have to richen the mixture to cool the combustion chambers or retard the timing.

Had to recoup some of my integrity after misinforming the OP about undervolting... The things I say when I'm loaded up from a migraine at times even baffle me.
 
This wins today's prize for Profound Ignorance.

Internal combustion engines and IC's have nothing in common in how they work. IC's do not, and can not, go lean and over heat when under volted.

Electrical engineers know all about power distribution, motors, PS design, etc., but they don't specialize in low voltage electronic devices like CPUs; you want to speak to an electronics engineer for that.

As a side note, im currently attending one of the top electrical engineering universities in the united states and we're required to take courses on analog/digital IC design and semiconductor physics with extensive time spent in both BJT and MOS/CMOS. Not CPU's specifically, but a lot of other applications that are similar (DSPs for example). "Electrical" engineer is quite a broad term, and can include computer engineers or various other types of sub-electrical disciplines

But undervolting will in no way create additional heat (that I can think of). worst case scenario it causes stability issues (which could potentially turn a lot of transistors on simultaneously, but with lower voltage, all these turned on transistors wouldnt generate enough heat to damage anything before it freezes and stops)
 
For digital, i.e., CPUs, the problem with low voltages is that the rise and fall times become longer. This gives less time that that the value (0 or 1) can be reliably clocked and errors begin to be introduced resulting in crashes.
 
I'd take anything posted on the tomshardware forums with a big grain of salt - it's like reading the user reviews at Newegg.

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i would take anything i read on any forum with a big grain of salt. running any component out spec is certainly not going to be good for it, but undervolting will probably not harm it, at least not much. anyway who knows for sure? has anybody run a cpu undervolted for a long period of time, or more to the point has anybody run many undervolted cpus for a long period of time?
 
I would think a severe undervolt can damage cpu's eg. brownouts are known to damage electrical equipment, dodgy psu's which undervolt break components.
 
Ummmm, what made you post in from 4 years ago? Underclocking/undervolting wont harm shit.
 
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