Could overclocking cause my CPU to die?

[SonicIce]

My friend had an Epox 9NPA+ Ultra and Opteron 146. He had it overclocked to 285x10=2850MHz and stock voltage. It was at that speed for a few months, then died.

I'm wondering if it died because the voltage always reported as around 1.58v and the Opteron stock is listed as 1.35/1.4v. Do Epoxes always over volt? Was it the voltage that killed it or the heavy overclock?

 

[Sniper82]

What kinda temps did he keep? Alot of motherboards are not accurate on voltage reading. It is unlikely the mobo was adding more but it could have been a problem with his board and it could have been cranking more juice to the CPU. But o/ced CPU's rarely die from a o/c unless there is too much heat and/or to much voltage. One of the two likely killed it and not the high o/c.

Did you test the CPU in a known working setup? Is it possible the CPU was actually set higher then stock voltage and him not realizing it?

 

[SonicIce]

Temps were pretty low 30-38C, he has a 120mm Zalman 7700-CU. He tested the CPU in a new mobo and no go. He also made sure voltages were set to stock. We'll try the CPU in another PC to be sure. I think he's looking to get a 175 if the 146 is dead.

 

[Kromis]

Wow...I don't know what to say...

 

[tersome]

Some boards automatically raise voltage as you overclock if the voltage is set to "auto". That's why you always set the voltage manually.

Still, CPUs are hard to kill. The board or the ram may have died.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: tersome
Some boards automatically raise voltage as you overclock if the voltage is set to "auto". That's why you always set the voltage manually.

Still, CPUs are hard to kill. The board or the ram may have died.

^ This. If the CPU Voltage was set to auto the board may have been a bit too generous with the voltage as you overclocked. Try a different CPU in the board and see if it works to make sure it's not your motherboard or RAM.