general questions about overclocking

[mayakindaguy]

Does overclocking damage your hardware and dramatically lower the lifespan expectancy, because that was what I was told by a friend. I've been playing around with my rig for a while and was told that overclocking stesses your components out and causes it to die out faster and be unstable, but having been around this forum it seems everyone here is doing just fine, but I've never actually clarified whether overclocking is gonna make let's say my P4 3.0 which should work solidly for 4 years die out in 2. Is this also true for tweaking the timings on your Ram?

 

[drewb99]

Unless your CPU cooler is made out of cardboard, there shouldn't be any component damage on a good motherboard.

 

[mayakindaguy]

wow, fast reply. I think i just posted like 5 min ago.

Anyway, I have a stock intel hsf and 5 fans in my case, which is the max for my case. But what I was concerned about was the long term effects, like the life expectancy. I mean does everyone here overclock knowing their system will slow to a crawl in 2 years and plan on selling their old rig for the new stuff? or is it actuallly ok for someone who may well plan or have to keep their system for 3 to 4 years and have an overclocked system run fine for 3 to 4 years (3.0 to 3.5). Keep in mind that I will be doing a lot of cpu intensive work on this computer.

 

[OneMadPoptart]

Overclocking does have some pretty nasty consequences if you do it incorrectly. Don't be fooled into thinking that overclocking is bad and evil....you just have to be smart about it.

Just raising the FSB and playing with memory timings generally will not make the life expectancy shorter. Raising voltages does. Raising voltages basically puts more juice into your proc and/or mem which breaks down pathways and in some cases, literally fries a processor out from the inside. Even if your cooling system is top notch, there is little way to avoid this fact.

It is a general rule that cooler components run longer and happier lives. High heat does lead to death, but only moderate overclocks raise the overall temperature to where you really have to watch out.

 

[mayakindaguy]

wow, these replies are so fast I feel like im on instant messenger.

So, I guess if I'm just gonna do a mild overclock with my ASUS noob tweaker with a 10% overclock at a 1:1 ratio I get 3.3ghz and 220MHZ fsb and memory speed. cpu temps would be around 30s to 40s assuming that my Asus mobo isn't under reporting temps, and this little extra juice out of my system should last me through my old age right.

Oh and thats with stock voltages, although stock for this mobo have the vcore at 1.65 and ram at 2.55 and both are only able to be tweaked in tenths. (1.65-1.75) but i haven't touched those voltages. This is strange cause wouldn't increasing volts at those rates really fry the hardware, cause I read the articles here that suggest being conservative and going at .3 at a time.

Thanks for the reassurances, I love my fellow [H]s.

 

[OneMadPoptart]

Originally posted by mayakindaguy
Oh and thats with stock voltages, although stock for this mobo have the vcore at 1.65 and ram at 2.55 and both are only able to be tweaked in tenths. (1.65-1.75) but i haven't touched those voltages. This is strange cause wouldn't increasing volts at those rates really fry the hardware, cause I read the articles here that suggest being conservative and going at .3 at a time.

If you are worried AT ALL about hardware life, keep all the voltages stock. End of story.

 

[jagec]

if you up the volts mildly, your CPU's lifespan will probably decrease from, oh, 10 years to 8 years, at any rate it will have been upgraded LONG before then.

 

[Dominat0r]

Originally posted by jagec
if you up the volts mildly, your CPU's lifespan will probably decrease from, oh, 10 years to 8 years, at any rate it will have been upgraded LONG before then.

No doubt....you maybe have 1-2 years tops the way machines are upgrading. As everyone says, as long as your smart about it. Then it shouldnt lead to any more wear and tear.