• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

CPU'S Life Span

V

VE2007

Gawd
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
703
Hi all,

One simple question if you overclock a cpu can it kill the
life span of it? TRUE OR FALSE
 
VE2007 said:
Hi all,

One simple question if you overclock a cpu can it kill the
life span of it? TRUE OR FALSE
Click to expand...

In theory yes. Depends on voltage/heat, etc. So if for example said cpu lasts 10 years at full load at stock speeds and with said overclock now lasts 7 years and you sell it in 6 months then all is good! :p
 
much longer than you could are likely to use it for.
rule of thumb is, every 10c higher, halves the lifespan.
One guy I know is still running a abit bh6 with a celeron 300a (nt4) that just does the same job all the time
what surprises me is that an abit motherboard has lasted that long (although he got 2 DOA at the beginning)
 
i think it would be way more than 10 years. its electronic and no moving parts, generally they either work or they dont. unless u put WAY too much voltage into it i dont think ull be able to decrease its lifespan to any degree.
 
Yes it can, There is a little thing that can happen called electromigration.Electromigration is
Mass transport due to momentum exchange between conducting electrons and diffusing metal atoms. Electromigration causes progressive damage to the metal conductors in an integrated circuit. It is characteristic of metals at very high current density and temperatures of 100C or more. It has to do with the way electrons move through the conductors in an integrated circuit, they can get weaker over time which can eventually cause total failure of the said IC.

I doubt your chip could get to 100c, I have read many articles on the subject and in theory it supposedly "could" happen. You can also give a CPU too much voltage while trying to overclock it which can indeed kill it.
 
There is a big BUT to the straight "yes" answer. Most CPU are way obsolete after 5 years, sure it may not last 10 years if you don't overclock, but who really cares.

Most overclock enthusiasts only hang onto there processors 2 years or less, so overclocking reducing life span has next to no significance.

There is a reason why we don't see 1000's of people in forums like this complaining there oveclocked CPU' has died, first the life span reduction is usually overstated, secondly most have replaced it long before it is an issue.

In short, don't worry about overclocking reducing the life span unless you are doing some extreme overclocking.
 
Battleneter2 said:
There is a big BUT to the straight "yes" answer. Most CPU are way obsolete after 5 years, sure it may not last 10 years if you don't overclock, but who really cares.

Most overclock enthusiasts only hang onto there processors 2 years or less, so overclocking reducing life span has next to no significance.

There is a reason why we don't see 1000's of people in forums like this complaining there oveclocked CPU' has died, first the life span reduction is usually overstated, secondly most have replaced it long before it is an issue.

In short, don't worry about overclocking reducing the life span unless you are doing some extreme overclocking.
Click to expand...
I would say most of us are < 1 year.
 
All processors in recent memory are designed to withstand a temperature of up to 100C as a minimum.
 
If it is any consolation, I still have a Pentium running at 120MHz that is a 24/7 box for a tool. I replaced the CPU fan in it once in the last 7 years.:rolleyes:
 
my athlon 1700+ (in sig) has been oc'ed for over 4 years and counting. time for an upgrade soon... :)
 
I find the fear of a dead CPU from overclocking interesting. It's actually the least of my worries. I'm more concerned about my motherboard with the bios settings required for my oc. But even still, I got this motherboard abd CPU quite near their initial release, and they've been oc'd since 2 months in. started at 2.6 went to 2.8 soon after....sat there for a couple months, went to 3.0 sat there for a couple months. Went to 3.3 sat there for about two weeks....then I got greedy and started wondering just how far I could push it. still wondering what it will take for 3.5 (or maybe if my garage is cold enough 3.6?) I could kill my system in one shot, I could killit not too long afterward.

But it's just an excuse to go out and buy all new stuff. Isn't that the funnest part anyhow?
 
Battleneter2 said:
lol yea, didn't want to be accused of exaggeration,
Click to expand...

you're right about exaggeration, you know, money is the problem, so it got me for about 2 years to upgrade from venice 3000+ at last and i can say that's because in my case, processor upgrade means mobo and ram as well.

tbh. my new proc, mobo and ram cost me $255 which is about 2/3 of my total salary/month. ain't got money to burn here.
 
im running my e6600 @ 4059Mhz 1.68V vcore for 24/7 :p but hell now it's time for an upgrade soon so :p

luckely heat aint a problem with phasechange :p
 
1.68v!!!?????

I got scared going over 1.4v trying to get stable at 3.4! And nosferatu needs to get a new job, I'm making ~$800/month working part time for Geek Squad. Sounds like you're making $3.00/hr or are you just not working much? I guess if you factor in living costs then you're probably doing better than I am.
 
spend $120 - $150 per month and you'll have a good living here, but when it comes to buy computer parts, you'll have to spend your good-living costs per month :eek:
 
They *are* designed for 10 years of 24/7 constant use, given stock cooling and voltage.

Its why Intel does not have a warranty over 3 years. Surprisingly, its very predictable much like a lightbulbs lifetime can pretty well be predicted to within 90 percent give or take 19 times out of 20 (In otherwords, its got a definite lifespan and will eventually die)

That said, most people rarely use their computer more than 8 hours of the day. So punch that up to 30 years. Add better than stock cooling and you can easily double the lifespan, start overvolting and it can quickly halve the lifespan.
 
bustaplz said:
1.68v!!!?????

I got scared going over 1.4v trying to get stable at 3.4! And nosferatu needs to get a new job, I'm making ~$800/month working part time for Geek Squad. Sounds like you're making $3.00/hr or are you just not working much? I guess if you factor in living costs then you're probably doing better than I am.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the skewed world of phase change.
 
The bottom of the line here… OC as much as you like…. u’ll sell it before it dies :D
 
rlee said:
my athlon 1700+ (in sig) has been oc'ed for over 4 years and counting. time for an upgrade soon... :)
Click to expand...

Just think of how much money you saved not upgrading for so long

I miss my XP-M 2500 :p
 
Well I had an opteron 148 which lasted about 18 months before I replaced it overclocked to 2.75 ghz, 1.5v, usually folding all day. It lasted trough 2 motherboards, memory frying itself, and a power surge that killed my first x1950pro.

More of the same now with two cores.

I also have my laptop, C2D merom, 1.66ghz, 2mb L2. I have it doing an SMP unit every day for about 6 months now, with a smaller than hell laptop heatsink, aluminum fins into a copper base and copper pipe, id day it weighs about 75 grams, AS5 to direct die conntact, it can be anywhere between 64 and 76c, depending on how much dust is in there at any given time, I used to get even better temps but I think the fan in my laptop is slowly dying, being as I have run the fan at full speed since day one.

Processors are made to take alot of abuse, 9 times out of 10 its the motherboard killing the CPU with bad power regulation, or the PSU before the CPU will catastrophically fail, Usually it takes extreme overclocking or extreme heat or both to kill a cpu. Then again I killed a 2400+ with the stock heatsink and that gaud awful clip.
 
I would say some of us are >4 years

4 years on an intel 3.06 ghz hyperthreading, i believe its a Northwood.

never overclocked it because i got the mobo with it at the time as a package.

sometimes i wonder what she could do if i watercooled it, and burned 50 bucks or less on an overclockable motherboard.

too late though, just bought a quad core dell :) Will be the first computer i havent built myself in.... 9 years
 
and some ... 8 years :D

yes my little sister is still using my old computer
15” CRT, 40GB HD, 64MB VGA, and some old Intel processor I can’t even remember it but I guess it was about 2.0ghz speed
 
Family computer was a Dell 8200 with a P4 williamette @ 1.9GHz, ran from ~ Oct 2001 to Aug 2007 almost 24/7, and from about early 2004 it was doing F@H as well :D. My current record holder is my server with an E6400 @ 3.2GHz, 1.4V (way too much voltage, probably could get away with 1.375, but I need the stability). I reboot it about 3-4 times a year after it was set-up, right now it's on its 110th day, although I'll reboot it over winter break. Also it folds 24/7 as well, and I haven't had a bad unit come out of it yet, so I don't think the overclock is affecting it's stability :D. CPUs have a lot of life in them, and it takes a lot to kill them (within reason).
 
I usually buy new CPU every 2 years and I always OC - right now I have Q6600 B3 @3.3 1.425V and Q6600 G0 @3.45 1.35V running F@H 24/7 - I have 2 years minimum warranty (its mandatory in EU) for everything so if CPU or GPU dies I will simply RMA and get new one :D

 
zmjone2992 said:
I would say most of us are < 1 year.
Click to expand...

thats bullshit :rolleyes:


adding to people who have had a massively OC'ed chip for way too long, I'm running an Athlon XP Mobile 2500+ at 2.7-2.8ghz... a massive OC for an AXP and have been ever since 2003.

This chip has been good enough for everything but the newest titles, like Sup Com/Crysis/a few others. I just recently beat Call of Duty 4 on it though, with very nice framerates :)
I was gonna upgrade for Crysis, but I was able to play and beat it on my work computer.... plus it sucked, so that saves me from another upgrade cycle...

edit: one thing I know alot of people like me are hoping for is another world beater generation like the Northwood/Barton one, where an excellent generation comes out before a long, long lull in power increases... next generation like that will hopefully be the Nehalem/Bulldozer one.... that IMC strapped to a next gen core has us ultra long term guys salivating!
 
brucedeluxe169 said:
edit: one thing I know alot of people like me are hoping for is another world beater generation like the Northwood/Barton one, where an excellent generation comes out before a long, long lull in power increases... next generation like that will hopefully be the Nehalem/Bulldozer one.... that IMC strapped to a next gen core has us ultra long term guys salivating!
Click to expand...
Same here, although I like the look of the midrange 45nm Penryns, if they deliver (I've been hearing 4GHz on air, but it could be FUD :p). The only thing that worries me is the previews of the 3.2GHz flagship, at 130W TDP, I hope intel isn't pulling another Prescott debacle. I had to get this B3 as I went back to school in August and couldn't wait for the G0 supply to stabilize. I can't say I'm disappointed with its performance, but I would like to get a 3.8GHz+ quad in this rig that also has a lower TDP.
 
Well my grandma still has a Packard Bell with a Pentium 75MHz in it from 1995.

Thing still runs Win 95 ok ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top