Max safe voltage?

[corpseofworms]

Okay, this is my first time doing this, so I am coming for help. I have a Winchester 3000, a Chaintech nf4, and an Antec 350w. My multiplier only goes to 9. I am experiencing excellent stability with my FSB at 266 (2395 mhz) but Far Cry (my stablility tester when I don't have hours for Prime 95) crashes in seconds at 267. My RAM is at DDR 400 (or really close) due to a divider, so this shouldn't be an issue, and my temps are fine.

My CPU voltage is at 1.55v, and I want to know how high I can *SAFELY* raise it. If I fry it, its back to the Dell 2350 with me. A reliable source told me I could go up to 1.65, but I want more opinions. Could you please give me fairly conservative estimates, as I really don't want to hurt my CPU?

 

[Beiruty]

just my opinion, and not responsile if you fried your CPU:

raise by .05volts one at a time and watch your temp at full load. if it does help stability, STOP!

Your temp should not exceed max CPU temp speced.

 

[Elfear]

A lot of opinions on this subject. Some xtreme ocers say that they've never seen a chip killed by voltage if the temps are low enough <~54C. Others say that default +10% is pretty safe for air-cooling and default +15% for water-cooling. If you're the type who leans more towards safety than performance I'd say go by the latter suggestion. If you're not too worried about smoking your Winny than the former makes sense.

I've seen a lot of guys running between 1.6V and 1.65V on good air-cooling with no problems but they haven't been running their systems long enough to see if it has a drastic effect on longevity. Most of the Winny's I've seen don't respond well to a lot of volts anyway so you might want to stick to <1.6V.

 

[imported_g33k]

I asked this question a few weeks ago and the responses I got from this community is that 10% over default vcore is safe, 15% is somewhat risky and not recommended, and 20% over default vcore is too much.

Since this message board likes safe overclocking and longetivity, I would try to keep it below 110-115%, unless you upgrade often. IMO 1.65V is too high, try an keep it at 1.55V.

 

[RichUK]

yeah i would say it is ok to go up to 1.65v .. but it will cripple you chip sooner rather then later, but if you only intentd to keep your chip for about 1 to 3 years then i would say that it is fine, what you have to remember is the A64's have the mem controllers on die, so CPU voltage will affect these, unlike the old Athlons that could go upto 2.0 volts:shocked:

 

[maluckey]

Your CPU will be obsolete for all but word processing in three years. That being stated, it's heat, not voltage that kills a CPU fast. Volatage kills it slowly and cumulatively. Most speculate that a CPU has an effective lifespan of about 7-10 years. High voltage OC will knock that down to about 4-7 years. Will you still be able to do anything worthwhile with a four year old CPU? I had an Intel 266Mhz CPU OC'ed to 292Mhz in 2000. Not useful for any gaming now.

I have had various CPU's at very high voltages, to include an air-cooled XP 2400+ Athlon at 2.1 volts at 62C under load for extended periods (6 months). The default on that CPU was 1.55 volts. Xtremesystems.org has people far and away more abusive than that, and they still are running.

The safest way is to leave the voltage at default. After that, you ARE diminishing the life of the CPU, and the more voltage, the shorter the life.