Testement to the durability of todays processors!

[ianmason]

Just wanted to share this,

My PC had been running slightly slowly on occasion and I had thought nothing of it for about a week. I run a Pentium Dual Core E2140 1.6ghz and normally run it 100% overclocked @ 3.2ghz.

I had been unable to overclock it but just couldn't be assed to look into why (you know the feeling) Anyway after about a week I thought enough is enough and set about trouble shooting. I tried everything but could not sort the problem. Then I flicked past the health monitor screen in the bios and to my horror I saw the CPU was idling at 85C :-o

A quick shut down and case open later and found my new heatsink had fallen off!

My PC had been left on for days at a time iddling away at 85c and god knows what temps when under load. Its amazing how it has survived but now with the heatsink firmly attached she is back idling @ 35c with a 100% overclock to 3.2ghz.

Bravo Intel!

 

[jsh1284]

Wow ... that's pretty impressive .. but it probably did do some damage that you just haven't experienced yet. If it didn't I'll be very surprised. But just knowing it still runs at all is a pretty big miracle.

 

[vh1atomicpunk]

Just wanted to share this,

My PC had been running slightly slowly on occasion and I had thought nothing of it for about a week. I run a Pentium Dual Core E2140 1.6ghz and normally run it 100% overclocked @ 3.2ghz.

I had been unable to overclock it but just couldn't be assed to look into why (you know the feeling) Anyway after about a week I thought enough is enough and set about trouble shooting. I tried everything but could not sort the problem. Then I flicked past the health monitor screen in the bios and to my horror I saw the CPU was idling at 85C :-o

A quick shut down and case open later and found my new heatsink had fallen off!

My PC had been left on for days at a time iddling away at 85c and god knows what temps when under load. Its amazing how it has survived but now with the heatsink firmly attached she is back idling @ 35c with a 100% overclock to 3.2ghz.

Bravo Intel!

This is something almost all tech site have been promoting for a several years - overclocking. Why? There are two reasons that they do it. First, CPUs are the highest quality parts that go into most PCs and most can be overclocked, at least a little bit. Second, most readers (read computer geeks and technical geeks) are interested in tweaking, even if that doesn't necessarily mean paying less to get more (although this will apply to most readers).

They are just catering to their audiences'. The truth is, overclocking, although 'safer' that it used to be, still has hazards and can cause problems. It definitely can cause problems (not always) that are not covered by warranty.

The best option in my opinion and experience is not to overclock. This avoids any potential problems and keeps warranty intact.

If you have overclocked a part (CPU or GPU) and have problems, you can in most cases set it back to the factory default settings and achieve the normal results\performance. If not, you've probably damaged the part.

It sucks to find out, but I'd be willing to bet that 80% of RMAs on CPUs and GPUs are do to user F+++ ups and not manufacturing faults.

Hope you can find the issue! Good luck

 

[jsh1284]

I think he was saying that his heatsink fell off and it still works, not asking for help. Nice try though!

 

[amdfangirl]

Kudos for effort!

 

[vh1atomicpunk]

Sorry guys! (assuming males). Didn't read the full post before posting.

Yeah, the poster is right - CPU's are very durable and reliable.

Glad you came out alright

 

[gamerk316]

Good thing the CPU clocks down when under too much stress...

 

[Guest]

that is one beast of a chip youve got there, to think it ran no heatsink at all quite happy for days, time has moved on.

I had to replace a old sempron socket 462 in a customers pc today after the machine was knocked fron a desk and the heatsink unclipped and dislodged its-self.

The poor old sempron got fried in seconds due to the heat buildup, gave the old chip to the customer as a reminder not to place PC in precarious position.

 

[amdfangirl]

Good thing the CPU clocks down when under too much stress...

These days... in the bad old days, they didn't!

 

[warmon6]

These days... in the bad old days, they didn't!

have to agree with that.

*watching cpu-z for my intel p4 cpu to downclock it self* :lol: jk

 

[jimmysmitty]

that is one beast of a chip youve got there, to think it ran no heatsink at all quite happy for days, time has moved on.

I had to replace a old sempron socket 462 in a customers pc today after the machine was knocked fron a desk and the heatsink unclipped and dislodged its-self.

The poor old sempron got fried in seconds due to the heat buildup, gave the old chip to the customer as a reminder not to place PC in precarious position.

I remember THG doing something on how well current CPUs handle heat under full load without a HSF back in 2001. He tested 2 Athlon XPs (700MHz and 1.2GHz) and a Pentium III 700MHz and a Pentium 4 1.2GHz (brand new P4s back during the socket 423 days).

He had them running Quake I believe and then took off the HSF each one. Both AMD Athlon XPs fried. They literally had smoke coming from them and refused to work.

The Pentium III crashed the PC but was still fine.

The Pentium 4 caused the game to slow to a crawl but after he put the HSF back on it started to play the game normally again.

I am sure that AMD has made the same advancements, after all the Athlon 64 was touted as low heat and power usage. But comparing this to todays CPUs its nice to see what they can take due to not only better silicon and tech but also better thermal management on and off the CPU itself.

 

[amdfangirl]

Yeh, I saw that. AMD were the only ones without overheat protection. After that video, AMD amended this.

 

[amnotanoobie]

What I do want to know is if his chip would still OC to 3.2 and perform at the same level.

 

[Shadow703793]

Sorry guys! (assuming males).

What about amdfangirl? :lol:

Couldn't resist. At anyrate, CPUs are the highest quality part in a PC. The lowest quality part tends to be (I don't know why) is the PSU. Heck, even CD/DVD, HDDs tend to be better than most PSUs (read: cr@ppy PSUs like Apavia,etc) that people have.

 

[amnotanoobie]

What about amdfangirl? :lol:

Couldn't resist. At anyrate, CPUs are the highest quality part in a PC. The lowest quality part tends to be (I don't know why) is the PSU. Heck, even CD/DVD, HDDs tend to be better than most PSUs (read: cr@ppy PSUs like Apavia,etc) that people have.

Well, PSUs and especially motherboards have a lot of small components, not everyone would notice when you cut corners on capacitors and such. Since HDDs and ODDs are much simpler, so fewer things could go wrong.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

A quick shut down and case open later and found my new heatsink had fallen off!

ROFL!!!!

 

[Shadow703793]

Well, PSUs and especially motherboards have a lot of small components, not everyone would notice when you cut corners on capacitors and such. Since HDDs and ODDs are much simpler, so fewer things could go wrong.

Motherboards I understand, but PSUs don't exactly have small components.

 

[amdfangirl]

What about amdfangirl? :lol:

Pii?