OC will shorten the hardware life span?

[Makaveli]

I like hearing about the backup examples. Good reminder to all and more so novices users.

I pretty much overclock every chip i've had since I learned how to do it, and I never use stock cooling. If i'm not buying the aftermarket hsf the day of the build it will be the week after.

I also am reasonable with my overclocks.

Example my current system.

I can probably hit 4.4Ghz on this chip if I push the vcore to 1.35+ the extra heat output for the 400 extra mhz just isn't worth it. Which would also increase case noise I would have to push the fans on my TRUE alittle more.

The 400mhz I wouldn't notice in anything outside of a benchmark.

Take care of your processor and she will take care of you!

 

[Ferzerp]

WHS is just too useful to pass up if you can afford the hardware cost. I went a little overboard and have $800 of harddrives in mine right now (four 3TB WD red drives)

 

[Makaveli]

WHS is just too useful to pass up if you can afford the hardware cost. I went a little overboard and have $800 of harddrives in mine right now (four 3TB WD red drives)

Very nice how it is configured?

 

[Idontcare]

I like hearing about the backup examples. Good reminder to all and more so novices users.

There is a member here who goes by the username taltamir who has by far the most robust backup system implemented that I have ever read about or encountered.

Get him to talk about it, you'll owe him a beer for the educational experience alone

 

[BonzaiDuck]

There is a member here who goes by the username taltamir who has by far the most robust backup system implemented that I have ever read about or encountered.

Get him to talk about it, you'll owe him a beer for the educational experience alone

I'll be all ears . . .

 

[tweakboy]

NOPE

heat will.


if your OCed and its cool running , then doesnt mattter it will live for long time.

 

[Ferzerp]

There is a member here who goes by the username taltamir who has by far the most robust backup system implemented that I have ever read about or encountered.

Get him to talk about it, you'll owe him a beer for the educational experience alone

I doubt that. Can I count the stuff at work?

 

[Ferzerp]

Very nice how it is configured?

The data volume is striped mirrors. WHS backup is small random write heavy. The cheap intel raid has no cache, so the write penalty for using parity isn't masked at all (small write to 4 drive parity would be 4 reads (one from each drive), parity calculation, and then the writes and parity write). You can enable OS level cache, but it's still not the same.

If I had a real raid controller in it, I'd probably have the data drive single parity (even with the long rebuild time, as it's just backups), but the performance on a parity drive is very, very poor with no-cache controllers.

The OS, I actually put on a parity volume, just because. No real reason.

 

[ShintaiDK]

NOPE

heat will.


if your OCed and its cool running , then doesnt mattter it will live for long time.

Wrong..again...

 

[taltamir]

Hi there, thanks for the invitation Idontcare.

I wrote a detailed howto on data backup which is available on this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=218081

 

[Makaveli]

Hi there, thanks for the invitation Idontcare.

I wrote a detailed howto on data backup which is available on this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=218081

Thanks going to read this today.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

All hardware will eventually fail, overclocking does decrease the lifespan by some largely unknown amount.

My experience is that CPUs have a limited useful lifespan, over time the demand from games and other applications eventually become too much and a replacement is needed. I've always overclocked/overvolted my CPUs and used custom cooling, I've never had a CPU die before it outlived its usefulness.

In fact to my knowledge none of the CPUs I've ever owned have died before being binned, many went to 2nd homes after I was done with them and either still operate today or were eventually binned for being too old/slow.

 

[Obsoleet]

Been OC'd to 3ghz with no voltage increases since I bought the Q9450 on launch day. No voltage increase, no worries. I won't increase voltage when OCing anymore. CPUs are fast enough stock- whatever I can get on stock vcore I'll take.

 

[bryanl]

Overclocking does not affect the lifespans of CPUs, RAM, or GPUs but can harm video cards and motherboards due to stress on their their inadequately built voltage converters. (MSI syndrome)

 

[MustangSVT]

answer. yes. but to a degree that's insignificant.

OC away~. before it craps out, it'll be garbage.

 

[ShintaiDK]

answer. yes. but to a degree that's insignificant.

OC away~. before it craps out, it'll be garbage.

Enjoy data corruption

 

[taltamir]

I had OC that degraded over time and required to be constantly lowered in order to avoid random errors cropping up. The amount of OC a chip tolerates decreases over time. Especially if you over volt and OC agressively.

More conservative OC's though have lasted a long time. But even on a conservative OC on a solid chip (2 steps below max combined max) I still had to stop OCing after 2 years.

IIRC intel used to shoot for 90% chips being stable at default clockspeeds and voltage at the time the warranty expires (typically 3 years). Of course that was back when they actually had to compete on performance with AMD... nowadays they are focusing entirely on power reduction that should have improved reliability significantly.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Been OC'd to 3ghz with no voltage increases since I bought the Q9450 on launch day. No voltage increase, no worries. I won't increase voltage when OCing anymore. CPUs are fast enough stock- whatever I can get on stock vcore I'll take.

This was my last chip actually, I had it running at 3.6Ghz on a custom air cooler for the entire time I had it, from 2008 until late last year, it's in another PC now at the same speed, the Vcore is set to auto on the motherboard, it's not shown any signs of error nor required a drop in oveclock to remain stable.

In terms of something like gaming that CPU is at the end of its life now, games with typically high CPU load struggle on that CPU even at 3.6Ghz, I have little doubt that the CPU will live long enough to basically end up replaced and binned, even in the 2nd hand PC.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, I'll "throw in" again with a short remark (I'm not known for "short.")

It had been the case with LGA775 and earlier that we would simply disable EIST and C1E, set the VCORE and speed and "fahget-about-it." Even with LGA775, we'd discovered that you can enable EIST for certain overclock scenarios. But more recent hardware makes it both feasible and desireable to leave the power-saving features "enabled."

If the risk of moderate over-clocking, or over-clocking at the "limit" of safe voltage and thermal levels is measured at 24/7 operation at those levels, you have to ask yourself how the power-saving features also extend processor life.

Under those conditions, running full-bore at the overclocked voltage and speed are a small part of a processor's operating profile, with exception of people folding@home and doing other intensive operations for days at a time.

How do relatively short rises in processor voltage and speed contribute to electromigration and degradation? I can only speculate "less." But that may change as you opt for more extreme voltage and speed levels . . .

[And that wasn't as "short" as I'd anticipated . . . ]

 

[taltamir]

BonzaiDuck raises good points about OCing with the power saving enabled and no voltage increases. On a modern processor and running idle most of the time (that is, NOT folding) this means no noticeable effect on lifespan I think.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

BonzaiDuck raises good points about OCing with the power saving enabled and no voltage increases. On a modern processor and running idle most of the time (that is, NOT folding) this means no noticeable effect on lifespan I think.

Well, just to be clear -- of course I tend to agree with you -- my attention at the moment is focused on two systems: a Sandy-Bridge 2600K @ 4.60Ghz, and an LGA775 E8600 system I'm reconfiguring for my brother, who needs more memory and a newer OS. [On the latter, you'll find a thread I started yesterday on "Motherboards" about a phantom "Unknown [USB] Device."]

The 2600K idles at 1.005V, and doesn't much exceed that for either HDTV and Media Center, or normal office software. Running a game will push it up to ~1.35V in a low-load or 50% usage situation (and with the MEdia Center running concurrently.)

The E8600 had been run at 4.2Ghz and 1.34V (idle), but never left on 24/7. I built it as a "curiosity." It had been set at 1.36+V in BIOS to get that idle VCORE. I've reset it to run at the stock 3.33 Ghz, because BRO is NOT the person who will MAINTAIN the system -- it will be ME. But BRO will use it. [Lemme tell you about the time he over-rode his Kaspersky to access a web-site showing . . .uh . . . "naughty pictures." I'm not going to go through that misery again, and he will definitely be set up as "Standard User" and not "Administrator."]

Of course, the voltage settings for both systems -- "offset mode" with the Sandy and fixed voltage with the Wolfdale -- had been in excess of "Auto." I still think that the "turbo" voltage feature with the newer Sandy and the EIST feature for both would minimize or attenuate any "degradation" over a long time. How thorough such "attenuations" might be, I couldn't say. But it just makes sense.

 

[cheez]

Hi, I'm newbie in OC. My inquiry as stated in the title above.

I'm an oldie in OC. Started OC'ing since the late 90's.

To answer your question, yes and no. Depends. My Intel Conroe HTPC system has been running oc'ed for 6 1/2 years now. From stock 2.4ghz to 3.3 ghz. During the process I had a power supply (Antec 550w) went out on me and also took out my RAM. Power supply failure can cause to hurt other components.

Good thing is all the rest of my components are fine (CPU, vid card, motherboard, onboard chips, sound card, etc). Still running like tank. I am currently running some mid/high end Corsair model PSU... forgot what the model was.

 

[fluffmonster]

Been running my i7-920C0 oc at 166bclk 3.48GHZ 1.1875V since I got the system something like 3 years ago. Just this week had to bump the volts to stock 1.2 to keep it stable.

 

[Puppies04]

Overclocking does not affect the lifespans of CPUs, RAM, or GPUs but can harm video cards and motherboards due to stress on their their inadequately built voltage converters. (MSI syndrome)

I seriously suggest you read this thread because you are completly wrong.

 

[KorsKay]

Whatever happened to the OC warranty that intel has. And why aren't people using?