Life expectency of Overclocks.

[marmaduke]

Hi all. I've been curious about overclocking. Have a question. I have always read that overclocking shortens the life of a cpu. AMD or Intel. Are there any stats as to the actual life of an overclocked CPU?
Say like a 2.4Ghz has a normal life of 12 years. Would an overclocked chip running at 3.2Ghz reduce that life to 6 yrs? Give or take? Would it actually be worth buying a Intel 4300, overclocking the hell out of it and having it die in a year?

 

[chuckshissle]

Yes, overclocking thus shortened the lifespan of the cpu. But in doing so making the chip run at higher frequency and gaining performance. Aside from short lifespan it also increases it's operating temperature and affecting it's stability. With proper cooling, which by the way the most important part of overclocking, we can do a "safe overclocking" so to speak. That in turn giving more stability at higher frequency by reducing the heat. But with all that, electron migration plays a major part in the lifespan of the cpu as with more voltage and heat put on the chip increases the activity. So two most important thing to do a "safe overclocking" for the cpu are proper cooling and safe cpu voltage(vore), as even though you have a proper cooling and even water cooling and phase change you can't stop the electron migration nor from frying it with unsafe high voltage. But the way I see it's always good to overclock and giving your system a bang for the buck and not just bragging rights. Unless you're planning to use the pc for over 5 years or so then don't overclock the chip. You gain some and you lose some.

As for the 4300, you can surely overclock that with the right components and cooling achieve higher performance. I am currently overclocking my 840 from 3.2Ghz to 4Ghz @ 1.55vcore for a while now and I'm sure this will run for a couple of years but then again I'll be upgrading or buying another system by then. You'll have to do some heavy overclocking with extreme high vcore and temperature to fry that cpu in a year. But like I said you can clock that chip and have run for several years.

You should do some research on than chip and look up some reviews on it. It'll give you some ideas on overclocking it and as well as the components to use.

 

[rammedstein]

if you get that e4300 and overlcock it at stock voltage to 2.4ghz (go from fsb-200 to fsb-266) there will be no difference in lifespan because that was it's actual intended speed, it's just that Intel lowered its speed and price to compete at a lower end. as for anything after that, I'm not sure.

 

[marmaduke]

If the theoretical life span of a CPU is 12 years the a proper OC will bring it down to about 10. But do you really exspect the system to last 10 years? You will probably have to replace the motherboard among other things within about 6 or 7 years and by that point it wouldn't be worth replacing.

I am still using a 400Mhz Pentium 2 in my basement. Using it for internet browsing. I figure its old enough, if I catch something, its no great loss.
With a Pheonix Banshee video card and a whopping 256 Mb memory. Hows that for old and still going. Windows 98 SE.

 

[Aussie_Dan]

If you can overclock a E4300 without touching the voltages much with good cooling it should last quite a while.

 

[rammedstein]

to above poster, you won't nee to adjust the voltage at all for the e4300 if you only OC it to 2.4ghz, because that is what it is speced to run at, i got mine to 3ghz with only 1.35vcore, which i think is still in spec , and only a small bump to 1.37v got me to 3.2ghz, about then the IHS came off for some reason, and now im back to running at 1.25vcore but at 3.6ghz...

 

[biohazard420420]

Out of curiosity does the 6600 run at its specd speed?

 

[3Ball]

An OC'ed CPU with or under 1.45v and decent temps will last anywhere from 4 - 8 years by my guess, and I believe CPU's shoot for around 10 years of lifespan, but could be wrong on that. My current CPU could easily last for 5 years on its settings, but will it...no, because I will have a quad core dropped into this thing and then ran at the same settings, with most likely slightly higher volts. I plan to use that for 1 - 3 years, with me being behind the wheel its good to be in there for 6 months though...its all just wishfull thinking on my part. Like it was said before, if you are aiming for 5+ years of regular use, it may be best to OC later in life when the speed is a bit more crucial. I say go for it now! Hope this helps!

Best,

3Ball

 

[rammedstein]

E6600 runs 533mhz short of its speced speed, and a cpu is expected to have a working lifespan of 14 years.

 

[biohazard420420]

So would that mean that if you bump up the speed by that 533mhz to bring it to spec assuming you can keep the same voltage and temps excluding any effect the 533 mhz increase in clock speed would have on the mobo that you could expect a similar life span or very close?

 

[randomizer]

if you get that e4300 and overlcock it at stock voltage to 2.4ghz (go from fsb-200 to fsb-266) there will be no difference in lifespan because that was it's actual intended speed, it's just that Intel lowered its speed and price to compete at a lower end. as for anything after that, I'm not sure.

Not necessarily. If a chip that is to run at say 2.4Ghz is unable to run at that speed 100% stable, then it has its clock speed dropped to the speed of a lower model, until it is stable. It is then packaged under the lower model number. It is entirely possible (although unlikely) to get a cpu that is unable to OC at all, or maybe only a few hundred mhz. What you said is still true in most circumstances coz Intel cant rely on faulty chips to make up the lower end, but like I said, you may get one of the dodgy ones. The same thing goes for GPUs, but its often pixel and vertex shaders that are disabled if they are faulty instead of simply lowering clock speed.

EDIT: And there still will be a difference in lifespan, regardless of what "spec speed" something is supposed to run at. You OC, you reduce lifespan, period. The inverse is also true for underclocking, you increase lifespan.

 

[3Ball]

Yes indeed you should be able to assume the same length span of life in that case! Except take in account what was said above about the potential "faulty" for lack of a better term, cpu's. With same temps and same voltage you can expect very very similar life span. Many people chose to only take there procs as high as they can 100% stable on stock voltages and minimal temp changes for this very reason. I used to be one of them, but as you can see am no longer...lol, speed is king in this house...to an extent that is!

Best,

3Ball

 

[gomerpile]

Proper Ocing wont hurt a thing. Knowing the limits is the key, My xp 2500 oc'ed for 7 years and still running strong, assuming I got the xp 2500 in 2002 cant remember when I bought it. now the 805 has been oc'ed since I got it and it too still running like a charm. 4 more years and the xp 2500 should be dead as well as the xp3200 should be going too but it still running. Proper oc'eing wont hurt a thing dudez.

 

[rammedstein]

well actually, since the expected lifespan of a ex6800 and a e6600 are the same if you ONLY increase clock speed and everything else is 100% the same the lifespan will stay the same, abit may be less stable, it will still have the same lifespan. Also, underclocking will not increase lifespan significantly (maybe a week or so) because when underclocking you also lower everything else to be proportional, so the lifespan also stays the same.

 

[jsc]

I was experimenting with my system when I first built it. I jumped straight to 3 GHz (333MHz X 9). Ran fine (stable after 8 hour Ortho run, 3DMark05). Gradually dropped the CPU voltage to 1.25 volts. Still ran fine.

I stopped there and started going the other way. I am currently running the core at 1.38 volts.

I do have an old P233MMX system running at 300 MHz, although, to be honest, it doesn't get used every day.

Based on non-scientific, anecdotal evidence, if you do not get carried away with oc'ing and watch your temps, the odds are that your system will become obsolete before the overclock kills any components.

 

[thechristopher]

My Pentium 100 ran at 200mhz from day one. You could get them to 233 but my board topped out at 200.

No voltage increases or special cooling.

The best overclocker I ever had.

It lasted from March 1996 until 2004 god bless its soul.