Own a 45nm, Core 2 CPU? Don't overclock too much.

mlcloud

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http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1032018393&postcount=26

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=613558

Just a few of many examples, and I'll tell you my story now.

My q9550 has lasted a year and it's still performing. Barely.

I initially got it to 3.8 ghz at 1.37v just for kicks (ran a 4ghz 1.42v for a 3dmark run once). Passed Linden and Prime95 (8 hours small ftt, rather high temps that reached 74 degrees at times). After running this for a few months, I thought I'd leave it at a perma-stable 3.6ghz at 1.32v (Prime95 small, 20 hours passed, never went past 67 degrees). Three months later, I got a few BSODs and a few crashes/freezes in games. I shot it down to 3.4ghz at 1.28v (Passed OCCT and prime95 16 hours, never went past 58 degrees) and things seemed to be fine for 6 months. Then it stopped working, again. I raised the voltages to 1.3v and it worked again, for a day or two. Then it just refused to work at all no matter what voltage I gave at 3.4ghz, so, I tried to run it at fail-safe settings (2.83ghz with 1.25v) and it crashed during Mass Effect and prime95 blend froze on me 3 minutes in.

I ran memtest86. Passed with flying colors. I raised the voltage to 1.26, and now the CPU works at stock voltages. But for how long? I don't know anymore.

The core 2 series are going to be shafted by better-priced AMD equivalents and the i5/i7 series, but I'm sure a good number still own these chips, and are perhaps considering overclocking them just to extend their lifetime enough until the i5/i7 gets cheaper, or something like that.

Keep your temperatures and voltages low. This isn't the days of the 65nm that handled 1.6v for years on end anymore.
 

mlcloud

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megamanx00, perhaps you misunderstand me. In the glorified days of Intel's 65nm processors, you could afford to overvolt beyond intel's advertised max functional voltage (1.6v for 65nm, 1.45 for 45nm I believe), overclock, and abuse your CPU in so many different ways and STILL have it perform perfectly while coughing up blood for years on end. I'm just here to reinforce the idea that you can't do this with 45nm processors from Intel. People have lost their e8xxx chips and I'm going to have to replace my q9550 because of this misconception.
 

cadder

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My E8500 at 3.8GHz stays below 48 degrees running prime95, my Q9400 at 3.4GHz stays below 43 running prime95. Both of these have run for 12 months now. I'm probably OK.

I wonder how this will work with the i5's and i7's. They seem to want to run a little hotter.
 
My Q9550 is quite happy at 3.6 GHz on air at 1.3625 volts (top of Intel's recommended max core voltage). Core temps reach 58 - 61 C on Prime95 small fft's.

Stay under Intel's recommended max voltage and keep your core temps under 70 C and you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
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Overclocking since 1978 - Z80 (TRS-80) from 1.77 MHz to 2.01 MHz
 

christop

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I have had no problems running my e8400 at 4 ghz. It is very stable and temps stay at 39 idle and 43 full load it is water cooled. I think you cooked your chip that's way to much volt going to the cpu. Did you bump your nb any and lower your cpu volts? Mine is at like 1.3 for the cpu and 1.36 for the nb..
 

andy5174

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WOW! What is your water cooling solution? Post a picture showing it!
 

andy5174

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1.77MHz CPU?!!!!
 

RJR

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Andy, my first computer was in the late 80's (80386SX16) running at a whopping 16 MHz. Used to do AutoCad on it, and it cost over 3 grand back then. Your cell phone has more processing power in it now (way more).

You youngsters.



 

andy5174

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What are you talking about? Tomorrow is my 55th birthday!!!