Burn in Process for a Computer?!

eVaoVe

Senior member
Aug 31, 2004
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I've seen people mentioning a burn in process for a computer? Can someone shed some light on this for me? I'm a total noob =( I'm building a rig soon and i need to know. I'll be OC'ing FYI
 

Pixle

Senior member
Apr 9, 2004
435
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It might be in reference to the Thermal paste that is added onto the cpu. It should be given a couple of hours of use and shutdown time for it to become 100% effective.

Pixle.
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
26,074
4,725
126
10-15 years ago almost all computers in catalogs were sold with big advertisements listing 24-hour burn-in or some similar number. However, for the most part it is a myth that computers need burn in time. The testing at the manufactuers is enought to "burn in" the components. Thus that practice has pretty much ended when companies realized that they don't need to do it.

There is one minor reason that a few people might want it still. Pixle has that limited case right.
Originally posted by: Pixle
It might be in reference to the Thermal paste that is added onto the cpu. It should be given a couple of hours of use and shutdown time for it to become 100% effective.
If you do a crappy job with a uniform layer of paste, then heating the CPU up will make the paste slightly less viscous and it could possilby flow partially into regions where you didn't get enough. Thus if you did a bad paste job and if you overclock, you might be limited in your overclock before the burn in. After the burn in you may get a slightly better overclock. If you applied it evenly in the first place, a burn in will do nothing.


 

AluminumStudios

Senior member
Sep 7, 2001
628
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A burn-in period is largely a theoretical thing, it's debatable if there are any tangible benefits from it. I'd say don't worry about it.
 

CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
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I've never considered myself ever having a burn in time.... I setup the PC and start using it like normal right away... burn-in time is a myth in my opinion.
 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
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Originally posted by: CraigRT
I've never considered myself ever having a burn in time.... I setup the PC and start using it like normal right away... burn-in time is a myth in my opinion.
Yep, plug it in and start playing.
 

chocoruacal

Golden Member
Nov 12, 2002
1,197
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Burn in is a myth that people cling to when their brand new chip doesn't perform as well as they'd like it to. "Well, I'm sure it'll do 3ghz after its had 27.52 hours to burn in." :roll:

When you build your rig, it is actually quite simple, plug everything together and fire it up. Everything you need is (probably) right there in your mobo manual.
 

imported_Nacelle

Senior member
May 8, 2004
933
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The only "burn-in" you would want to do is, stressing everything out to make sure it's not going to fail before the warrenty runs out.
 

everman

Lifer
Nov 5, 2002
11,288
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It's just a myth. What it really generally means is that the system is stable for a long period of maximum load.
 

cy7878

Senior member
Jul 2, 2003
394
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Burn-in refers to the old days when the thinking was if a component continued to work after being on for 24+ hours, then it won't fail. Nothing at all to do with performance.


I used to assemble PCs in a shop when only 286 and 386s were sold. Believe it or not, 1 out of every 10 system built will die by morning, needing complete tear apart and rebuilt to find the peice that failed. It was just that manufacturing process was not as good as now. Now we assume all part will work from day 1.....
 

whitelight

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2001
3,505
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if you're o/cing, you want to stress the cpu at 100% to make sure it's stable at the settings you set it at. (a lot of programs do this, prime95, seti, or any distributing computing program) you'll also want to run memtest to see if the memory is good at your settings.
 
Jun 14, 2003
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burn i whats that? i built my a54 last week and once i had windows installed an updated i got down to business ....far cry doom3 ut2004 splinter cell.....oh baby i love this 6800gt!!!

my a64 3200 hasnt been over 45 degrees yet and is idle at only 34 which i find good.....without cool n quiet enabled either

got a nice even paper thin layer of thermal goop on the cpu and a thinner layer on the heatsink and its seald tight!!!

no burn in....waste of time....jus enjoy