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cpu lifespan question...

N

Nakamori

Gawd
Joined
Jun 11, 2005
Messages
530
The lifespan of a particular cpu is affected entirely by the the temps and the voltage running through it, not the fsb itself, right? So if by some way a 2500+ oc'ed to 3200 speeds on stock voltage and only a 1-2C change in temperature, the lifespan wouldn't be affected a whole lot, right?
 
The lifespan of a CPU is mostly determined by the stresses put on the circuit's parts while in operation and defects present after manufacturing. The number of times a CPU's transistor can be used depends on the integrity of the materials it's composed of, the applied voltage and current and the temperature it's operating in. Usage will slowly degrade it until it fails.

If you make a CPU work faster, its components will work faster, and hence will degrade faster. So just raising the FSB will decrease the lifespan of the CPU.

Not that you're likely to notice this reduction in lifespan before you upgrade it, though :)
 
Indeed, these CPU's can (in perfect conditions) run for 20 years+. By overclocking (responsibly) you are just reducing its expected lifespan by say 5 years or so. Even if it was 10 it will have gone the way of ebay by then.
 
Do processors sometimes run hotter overtime? It seems like my laptop has been running hotter than it used to lately, perhaps I should clean out the dust again (ugh did that a few months ago, PITA)
 
well overtime there is a tendancy for you to run more junk as background processes :p
(or for instance the HDD might be contributing more heat with additional seeks do to fragmentation)

in general though the CPU itself I wouldnt think would need more power\emit more heat
as you mentioned the thermal transfer might aquire "insulation" and degrade

its also possible that the power supply itself might degrade and become less efficient (more heat) though Im not at all sure about that
 
Not to overlook the obvious but dust is a fact of life. We tend to move a ton of air (or we should be) through our computer systems and fans, heat sinks and other various parts collect dust, which even in a short period of time can impede airflow thus raising the overall operating temps of our computers.

I blow mine out with air about once a month since they run 24/7. I also have cats, which in their own special way contribute to the mess.

A clean computer, including your PSU is a happy computer.
 
Unless you are pushing massive volts, you will be long done with the chip before it reaches the end of its life.

Look at it this way. There are plenty of people still running Celeron 300A's @ 450-500MHz. Would you give two shits if a 300A died today? Another thing to consider, a lot of people retire chips as they upgrade. My Fileserver rig used to be my gaming rig with all kinds of overclocks, these days it runs stock everything because I don't need 2.4GHz from it.
 
i ran my athlon-xp at 1.725v for 2 years, all it was doing was going faster the longer i ran it:eek: . i sold it at 2.6 ghz
 
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