24/7 system-is overclocking safe?

[Thump553]

I am new to Athlon overclocking, although I have read a bit about it. My home system is on 24/7 most of the time. Is it safe to OC on such a system or should I just buy the more expensive CPU.

Running a classic Athlon 750. Will be upgrading to approx. 1 gig T-Bird level (hopefully buying just motherboard, cpu & heatsink).

PS-I hate noisy fans-willing to pass on OC'ing if its going to sound like an idling jet.

 

[DDad]

Well, I'm still using a Classic Athlon 650 @ 725 24/7- haven't seen any problems with it since first booted in April!
It has been rebooted (program installs, power outs, Hardware installs, etc) but no problems other than that

 

[paulip88]

I have had my Duron 600@858 running 24/7 since November 9th, 2000 without a single reboot. Still stable as far as I can tell. However, it does sound like a small jet.

It would be tough to get the TBird 1GHz running without a powerful fan. The chip simply puts out a lot of heat. You may want to get a good heat sink and replace the fan with a quieter one if noise os really a concern of yours.

 

[jsbush]

I'm using my Duron 1017mhz (113*9) 24/7 with no problems runnign win2k.


As long as you got good cooling you'll be fine.

 

[ChipNOW]

Safe but not reccomended unless you reaaaallllly need to

 

[TELeast]

IMHO, I think it would be OK to run overclcok and 24/7. But just use some logic and common sense. What I mean is, If your 600Mhz CPU's limit is 950Mhz, then I would only run it at 850 to 900Mhz. At a cost of a small percentage drop in performance, you get many times more on stability.

Also, make sure you have a big ass heatsink and fan and also plentiful of air flow in the case as your Hard disk and will be generating much heat, depending on application of course.

 

[Liquidity]

It's fine to overclock and leave it running 24/7 provided you have adequate cooling. All my overclocked machines stay on 24/7. If you have them running SETI or some other CPU intensive app it's going to cut down on the life because the chip will get hot...how much it will cut down, is impossible to determine. If you don't leave anything CPU-intensive running, you should have no problems as the chip will never get hot.

Personally, I leave my machines on all the time and I don't run 'afk' apps that might raise the proc temp while I'm away, like SETI.

 

[bhess]

Wouldn't running Rain or some other cooling program make this a moot point? I would thing it would only matter if you were running seti or RC5.

 

[Compellor]

If ACPI is installed (installs by default on newer systems w/Win98/ME/2000) then it will keep the CPU cooler. I've been running my overclocked Duron system for four months 24/7 without a problem.

 

[PieDerro]

The worst I think would happen is that your CPU gets to hot and causes the system to freeze.

It shouldn't catch fire!

 

[jsbush]

It won't catch fire! It will just melt and smell really bad

 

[ahfung]

Running my 550E@843, BX mobo, 256MB SDRAM, 24/7 for some months.

Oh, forgot to mention my Asus V6800 GeForce DDR, oc to 150/350.

 

[Thump553]

Thanks for the input, all. I do run SETI on my system and will continue to do so, so will probably end up not overclocking.

Right now I'm stuck in the mode where I don't want to buy today because it seems like something much better in the motherboard or cpu field will be released just around the corner. Even if I don't get the latest and greatest, that should drive the prices down on everything. I ended up buying my classic Athlon system about a month before the T-birds came out. While I'm happy with it, I don't want to repeat that mistake.

 

[johneetrash]

the taisol cgks can cool the 1ghz with low noise...

 

[Mikewarrior2]

been running my 650E @ 988 since last june, 24-7. Run RC5 all the time. System is still rock-solid.


Mike