Originally posted by: cirthix
as long as your temp stays low, you can keep adding juice
No thats not a good answer. Even if you keep your processor as cold as possible voltage will eventually "kill" it as electron migration will wreak havoc. The general rule of thumb is not to exceed voltage for the cpu by more than 10% on air cooling.
This goes hand in hand with a P4 Northwood core for example. Stock rated at 1.48-1.55 => max recommended on low end is 1.63V (so round off to 1.65) and thus high end (requires water or non-air cooling means) of 1.70.
Now let's look at AXP: someone mentioned AXP has a safe voltage of roughly 1.8V. This once again goes hand in hand with the 10% figure since AXP is rated at 1.65 originally => 1.815 is safe.
Therefore, Winchester 90nm is rated at about 1.40 I believe (down 0.10 from 1.50 of the Newcastle core). So safe voltage should be around 1.54 (round off ~1.55 and most likely 1.60 watercooled).
Of course this 10% "rule" wouldn't apply to mobile products, but for desktop chips, it's a safe bet.
Also in a lot of cases, once the CPU reaches its stability ceiling after the first 10% increase in voltage, most of the time any additional increase in voltage has no effect on stability.