Life of Overclocked CPU's

[wickedone]

Hello all, I am Curently thinking of Builing a New Pc and I have done a great deal of research on this forum and many more, ( AnandTech being my favorite). I am Thinking Of [Overclocling FSB and the core Voltage. Doing this to help lower the cost , get the bang for the buck, and to have fun wich is what its all about I guess. I have built 6 PC's so far and this one will need to last for some time. The Time factor is what brings me to this question , are the life spans of the CPU greatly reduced when you raise the FSB and Core voltage.

Will be usining a ( P4/Granite Bay ) or ( AMD and NF2 ) combo with Twinix Corsair 3500 ram (1g) , Cheftic Case, Vantec 450w power supply, 2 Segate Serial ata Drives, and maybe a ATI 9700 pro if money is still there. Undecided between the AMD and P4 do to so much good info on them but will decided on that later. If the Life spans are greatly reduced I may just bit the bullet and buy the high end Barton or P4 and just raise the FSB and little.

 

[microAmp]

I remember seeing an article saying that CPU's life would last 25 years before going bad. Overclocking does reduce the life, but by how much? I've seen post where people had overclocked CPU's for 5 to 7 years and still going.

 

[wickedone]

Cool thanks thatIs what I had hoped to here loolks like the now I just need to decided on the MB and Cpu platform, P4 2.4 C1 and AMd Thunderbird 1.7 b both loooked like great platforms.

 

[Duvie]

Ofcourse with the 2.4b you could get a chip that does 3ghz+ at default vcore...raised vcore is likely the downfall for those p4 chips in terms of lifespan....If you keep it at default you are taking not as much risk...

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Duvie
Ofcourse with the 2.4b you could get a chip that does 3ghz+ at default vcore...raised vcore is likely the downfall for those p4 chips in terms of lifespan....If you keep it at default you are taking not as much risk...

In a nutshell, keeping it at stock voltages should ensure a long life span.

 

[wickedone]

ok thanks again guys I saw were Newegg and outpost had 2.4b for sale that is looking to be the way I go now

 

[codehack2]

Originally posted by: wickedone
ok thanks again guys I saw were Newegg and outpost had 2.4b for sale that is looking to be the way I go now

Spend a couple of more $'s and get the 2.53 from outpost.com. They are the new multi-vid P4's that overclock very well at default voltage. I have one at 3.5ghz (184 x 19).

CH2

 

[wickedone]

Nice Info I checked it out but saw nothing saying that they were C1 steping or Multivolt I guess I could call them and tell them what I wanted

 

[HardWired]

No need to call. They won't go into specifics with the chip info like that. But in order to get a muti-vid, you have to order the tray (oem) version, not retail. Intel does not make the highly overclockable multi-vid chips for retail box...just tray/oem.

 

[codehack2]

Originally posted by: HardWired
No need to call. They won't go into specifics with the chip info like that. But in order to get a muti-vid, you have to order the tray (oem) version, not retail. Intel does not make the highly overclockable multi-vid chips for retail box...just tray/oem.

Hardwire's got the goods... thanks for filling in the gaps

I know it's a leap of faith, but if you order a "Tray/Oem" 2.53 P4, you'll get the goods.

CH2

 

[Batman5177]

regarding lifespans of overclocked cpu's:

i had a celeron 366 @ 550mhz for around 4-5 years.
it NEVER gave me a problem, not a single crash (even running windows 95!)

i stopped using it, not because it failed or burned up, but because it was too slow!!!

cpu's dont die from stable overclocking, they die from age =(

of course, if you run the vcore at insane levels, you're asking for trouble

 

[pm]

Modern CPU's are designed for a statistically full-time running life of about 7 to 10 years. It varies by manufacturer. They only age when they are being used (ie. they have an indefinite shelf life).

Overclocking runs the part outside of the specification. This will have an effect on the overall life of the CPU, but it's not substantial. Running the part above the specified voltage, however, has a very substantial impact on the overall statistical operating life of the CPU. The effect is exponential with increasing voltage (it's actually a cubed "^3" effect) and thus very small increases in voltage will result in a very large reduction in expected operating lifetime. If you could somehow control the core temperature to a fixed value while increasing the voltage, it would still be a squared "^2" effect of statistical reduction in operating life.

 

[codehack2]

Originally posted by: pm
Modern CPU's are designed for a statistically full-time running life of about 7 to 10 years. It varies by manufacturer. They only age when they are being used (ie. they have an indefinite shelf life).

Overclocking runs the part outside of the specification. This will have an effect on the overall life of the CPU, but it's not substantial. Running the part above the specified voltage, however, has a very substantial impact on the overall statistical operating life of the CPU. The effect is exponential with increasing voltage (it's actually a cubed "^3" effect) and thus very small increases in voltage will result in a very large reduction in expected operating lifetime. If you could somehow control the core temperature to a fixed value while increasing the voltage, it would still be a squared "^2" effect of statistical reduction in operating life.

PM may not be "speaking for intel corp", but I'd listen to him as if he were. When PM and Wingnut speak you can trust that it's from the horses mouth and not the other end.

CH2

 

[Politik]

Consider your PSU choice carefully... Vantec Stealth PSUs are quite loud, contrary to their name.