How far can you push it

[chuckshissle]

After reading several forums containing about the cpu's electron migration, I was curious how far can one's cpu voltage be pushed and without hitting over the safe zone. Also I'm into overclocking a bit and wondering what's the voltage limits of my 840. I know that too much voltage will decrease the cpu's lifespan and some so severe that it will lasts only for weeks. I don't know how far can I increase my cpu's voltage and the maximum voltage I have attain is 1.4v and that only lasted for several minutes for I am paranoid it will cause my cpu to burst like a popcorn.

So how far can I push my cpu voltage and at voltage will it have a sever electron migration? I just want to know how far I can oc my cpu and that it could last me for a while as in a year or so.

 

[chuckshissle]

Wow, pretty nicely detailed answers. Thanks.

Before I was able to overclocked my 840 from 3.2 to 3.840 (20%) at 1.35v. Now with my new water cooling I can't do it anymore. I guess it must be the new pump that's causing voltage fluctuation in the vcore causing my pc not to boot or blank display. I did 1.4v again just several minutes ago and achieve a healthy overclock of 3.840. With that frequency it runs at 40c idle and 48-50c full load on BF2. Now I don't really need to run that game at the speed since it can easily perform at stock speeds. But if I do want to run my pc at that oc settings let's say for the upcoming game "Crysis" which would be more demanding. I run my games at a favor of both performance and quality, and so by next year I would have no choice but to overclock or upgrade. I guess it's cheaper to oc but being a soft-core overclockers myself it brings me concerns when overclocking the cpu at long periods of time.

And so if I overclock my cpu to 3.840 or 4Ghz at 1.4-1.45vcore with temps of 40c - 50c, would that be fine to do so for long term use? 8O

 

[chuckshissle]

Thanks again Jack, now I'm going to oc it to 4Ghz @ 1.45vcore. Well, I'm going to have to upgrade anyways when Vista and DX10 arrives, so I'll just oc it till next year. 8O

 

[chuckshissle]

Thanks. Well, I am running now at 1.4v oc. Still no luck at 1.35v. Temps are soaring up fast at 3.840Ghz its 38c-40c idle.

 

[chuckshissle]

Well, that's the thing. The Storms' water block mounting screws are not good. It's just a simple screw and nut components and could twist along when tightening the spring loaded fasteners. I placed some glue on it but it came loose again. Well, I'm gonna have to re-mount the block tommorow and see if I could get lower cooling.

 

[chuckshissle]

Okay I did it. I tightened the nuts using a plier. I damn thing I almost total my motherboard. When I was tightening one of the nuts fasteners, I slipped the plier and scratch the board. It scratch the surface and expose one of them printed wire. I almost shit myself, and I thought I cut the printed wire and it's pretty hard to see if it's okay. I was twisting the nut since I'm too lazy to remove the motherboard which is a pain in the arse. Well I think it's fine.

As for the remounting I did it again and applied a fresh coat of AS5, after thouroughly cleaning it of course. I tightened the spring loaded nut fasteners all the way. I thought it would break my mobo. Weew! I always gets paranoid and have panic attacks every time I work with this rig. I need to see a therapist. Right now I'm getting 32-34 idle that is with 3.8Ghz @ 1.4vcore. Don't know the load temps yet. Hope it would be lower than before. Need to run Prime95 on it as well.

I also manage to place 3 more 120mm fans in my radiator. So now it's sporting six fans, 3 for pushing and 3 for pulling air. Hope that helps as well.

 

[chuckshissle]

Okay I got 37c-38c full load on BF2. Which is a good lower temp.

 

[chuckshissle]

I have tried 4Ghz which is basically the 840's limit on water cooling. Besides at 4Ghz it fails on Prime95 but it is able to run BF2 no problem.

 

[chuckshissle]

Nice.

 

[chuckshissle]

Page 2.5, Table 2-2.

Stating that my 840 has a max of 1.55v and minimum of -0.3v.

-0.3v? How could you get a negative voltage? :?

 

[chuckshissle]

At stock speed (3.2) I can run the cpu with 1.2v which runs cooler than the normal cpu voltage base on my motherboard which is 1.38v.

Does underclocking a cpu can allow the voltage to be lowered as well? Now that I know my oc limit on this water cooled 840 which is 4Ghz, I want to know how would I underclok it. I don't know maybe it will run cooler. Not that I want it but I'm just curious what on the other side of overclocking.

Anyways my ram is only 533mhz which when my cpu is at 3.840 the ram is at 400. If I would increase my ram to 800 and obtain a 1:1 ratio how much of a difference it is at stock speeds and oc'ed. I'm selling my rams 4x512Mb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 533 to get them 800 version which is a bit cheaper. At stock speed I have 3:2 ratio and 12:5 at 3.8, pretty far off for me.

 

[chuckshissle]

okay. I'll try underclocking tommorow cuz now I'm really tired and go to sleep. Working again tommorow. So I'll do that after work. thanks.

 

[chuckshissle]

So what's the main key in a cpu overclockability? As far as I know you just put more juice in it to make it stable and ice to cool it down. I wished those cpu makers would make a chip just like old times where you would only need a small heatsink to cool it down. Now with my cpu overclocked to 3.840Ghz my room heats up really fast too. High performance pc and sweaty balls is not what I want during gaming.

 

[1Tanker]

So what's the main key in a cpu overclockability? As far as I know you just put more juice in it to make it stable and ice to cool it down. I wished those cpu makers would make a chip just like old times where you would only need a small heatsink to cool it down. Now with my cpu overclocked to 3.840Ghz my room heats up really fast too. High performance pc and sweaty balls is not what I want during gaming.

Adds to the realism. Your balls would be sweaty in real-life trench warfare.

 

[chuckshissle]

:lol: I don't want the game to be that realistic.

 

[chuckshissle]

Smithfield = 2 Prescotts ?! 8O I will punch that Intel saleman in the face when I see him again. Good thing it's not that hot outside anymore here in Chicago at night. I crack some windows when playing. My neighbor called the cops before thinking there was a domestic violence in my place. So the cops knock at the door and ask me about the commotion. I told them I was just playing games . I guess that scared my neighbor and maybe that's why they don't talk to me anymore. All because of this cpu that heats up the room and make me open them windows. To this day my neighbors still don't know why I keep screaming " I'll kill you!!" or "Die you son of a B!tch"!! during the weekends. Now everyone is paranoid.

 

[levicki]

As for the voltage, there is a document on Intel's web site for each CPU family which contains thermal, mechanical and electrical specifications.

I will give you an example for Core 2 Duo.

There is a thing called functional operational limit for the particular model of a CPU. It is the one you see printed on a product box -- e.g. "1.3V max".

There is also another thing called absolute maximum rating and for Core 2 Duo it is 1.55V. You see that in the above mentioned datasheet.

If you exceed functional operational limit then when a device is returned to conditions within functional operation limits, the device may be functional, but with its lifetime degraded depending on exposure time.

if a device is operated beyond absolute maximum rating for any length of time then, when returned to conditions within the functional operating condition limits, it will either not function, or its reliability will be severely degraded.