Overclocking without voltage increase

Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: No.
Longer answer: You won't be able to tell the difference, because the CPU will move on into the abyss of obsolescence before you reach the end of the ever-so-slightly-shorter lifespan.

Yes it will, but the difference is so negligible it's not even worth noting. Voltage does the most "damage" to a processor. If you want to try something interesting you could overclock to 3.33GHz and see if you can undervolt by some amount. This would effectively increase the lifespan even though you are overclocked. However, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to both overclock and undervolt by any significant degree, you just have to try. At the very least 3.33GHz should be doable at stock voltage, especially for a D0.

Bah, heat does nothing to a modern CPU! Actually you'd be surprised what they can take, although it's not like you'd TRY to run it hot for fun (Ok, I would). On the other hand, 45nm HKMG CPUs are very voltage intolerant.

Well done on Intel part for the overclockability (is that word..) of the i7 processor. You have been very helpful, i must thank you again! Do you believe it is worth overcloking the i7 920 to 3.0GHz or 3.33GHz for gaming purposes? or wud the difference be negligable?

I have an i7 with a DX58SO motherboard.

I have the option of using the default voltage or setting it manually.

The default voltage usually runs at .9v idle, 1.05v medium load, and 1.20v full load

The manual voltage is about 1.16-1.18v, to about 1.15v vdroop full load.


Which would be better for the cpu lifespan? (no matter how insignificant)

I am not suprised you are a moderator u have very good responses! Ok, so what does lapped mean? What would be the best air cooler that does not require to be lapped? Is lapping hard to do? I have heard good responses from the xigmatek s1283 and not sure about s1284 however I would presume it would be the same if not better, what do u think about these?

Lapping is using sandpaper to flatten and polish the contact surface of the heatsink and/or CPU (usually starting course to get it flat and moving to a fine one to polish it off). There's some guides around the Internet that are probably better and more up-to-date than the one that is here.

Can't really say I know the answer to that. There's two ways you can look at it:

1) The maximum voltage does the most "damage" so reducing the maximum is best.
2) Reducing the voltage at which the CPU runs for the majority of the time is best.

I find it odd that you can't reduce both idle and load voltages though. I'm idling at 0.768V on my i7 920. All I did was drop the vcore by 0.16V from stock.

I haven't got a clue. I've always wondered why they did that too. Never really looked into it much. As I said before, the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 is good.

aye...unfortunately my DX58SO doesn't have that option.

I have it on default, so it uses a lower voltage (down to .9) when idle.

If I set it manually, then the voltage hovers around that setting 24/7 and doesn't really go down during idle.


What voltage do you have your mobo/i7 set to? Did you change any other voltages/settings?

What is your vcore at?

Realize that the i7-920 and the 975 are exactly the same chip. Intel will produce more "best" binned 975 chips than they can sell for $999. They take the remainder and reduce and lock the multiplier to produce 950 and 920 cpu's. Each sample is a tiny bit different, but my take is that if you limit your overclock to 975 speeds, you are not doing anything that the cpu is not capable of handling.
If you raise the BCLK of a 920 from 133 to 160, you will get 3.33 with turbo, the speed of the 975. That does not require any voltage adjustments.

There is probably more difference in longevity from chip to chip samples than there is from a overclock with no voltage change.

MSI X58 Pro-E

A specific number but it bounces around with every little change in load. Plus reading voltages via software is not that accurate anyway.

EDIT: Checked my BIOS and it does actually say the current vcore which I didn't notice earlier. I'm at 0.992V.

It only voids the warranty if you tell them.
But I've never had a CPU fail on me my entire life, from 4Mhz 8088's to my last P4 which spent way too much of it's life at 70-80C.

You'll throw out or sell the i7 way before it fails I'd expect. I'd definately overclock it, just keeping voltages safe and temp under 50.

well if it's damaged they'd be able to tell but i doubt there is a way they can tell

thats true... not all damage is caused by us overclockers

http://www.prolimatech.com/

"Prolimatech does not condone any type of lapping done to the CPU or to heatsink base. Every Prolimatech's heatsink base is designed on a pin-point scale of how the base is to be flat and/or curved where it's needed to be. We have programed our machines to machine the surface in a very calculated way. Any after-manufacture lapping or modding done to the base will alter the design, hence negating its performance factor as well as its warranty."