Overclocking and CPU life

[anksmashpunk]

Im thinking about buying an Athlon 64 3000+ socket 939 winchester in a few months and overclocking it to roughly 2.3 or 2.4.

I'll be using a Zalman CNPS7000B as the heatsink with arctic silver 5 as the thermal paste.

I read in the stickied overclocking guide that you shouldn't overclock a computer you want to run for 2 years or more. Im hoping to keep this cpu for roughly 3 years with yearly upgrades to ram/maybe graphics card. So the CPU would probably break in 2 years if I overclock?

I heard that the Zalman 7000b and arctic silver 5 are quite good at cooling. Would this increase the life of the processor at all?

Right now i have a 4.5 year old 800 MHz pentium 3... Im not expecting my athlon to live that long but I dont want it to burn out in just 2 years.

So, is there anything I could do to keep the CPU from burning out so fast? Should I get more cooling or could anybpody recommend an overclock that wouldn't kill my cpu so fast? thanks

 

[Harvey]

All CPU's of the same design and stepping are the same design. The chips are then tested at the factory and binned according to speed rating and a small section of EPROM is coded with the default speed.

There are two reasons a chip rated at one speed may work at a higher speed:

1. A lot of chips that are near the test limits on the quick factory test will actually work at a higher speed.

2. The market determines how many chips can be sold at a given price. If the manufacturer has a good run that produces more chips than it needs at higher speeds, and they are short of enough chips to meet the lower priced, slower rated chips, they will mark the faster chips as slower ones and take the money.

Essentially, every chip costs the same, and they want to move as many as possible.

Getting to the second part of your question, heat is enemy of chip life. If you monitor your temps, and they don't get too high, your chip should last a long time. For example, I'm running a T'bred B stepping 1800+ rated at 1.5 GHz. I've been runnnig it as a 2 GHz 2400+ for over a year with a nice HS/fan, but no elevated voltages. In all that time, it's never broken 40 deg. C, even on the hottest summer days, which is quite cool. I expect it to keep chugging for a long time to come.

 

[JohnAn2112]

The safest thing you can do if you're going to overclock is to push it as far as you can go with the default voltages. As long as you don't give the CPU a ton of voltage, you'll be fine.

 

[anksmashpunk]

thats good to know.

So without elevating the voltages and going with my current hsf and thermal compound, how high should I be able to overclock.

Will getting 2 80 mm fans help the performance/overclock at all?

 

[stnick80]

Here is the deal, even if your 3000+ does burn out in 2 years, you will probably be able to buy a new one at that point for around 40-50.00. Even in a year probably 100.00 or less. I say 1 year worth of stock FX-55 speeds for 1/5 the cost is worth it.

without elevating voltages 2500MHz is common. Usually have to push for 2600 or 2700MHz.

Your temps wont be high enough with a overclock to 2.3 or 2.4 to need extra cooling. Your temps aren't even really gonna change that much from stock. What you have is fine. Extra cooling however is never a bad thing, if you got the cash. Just remember, more fans = more noise.

It is highly unlikely that at 2.4 you will burn out in 2 years. It will probably last more than 5 years and probably closer to 10.

 

[Painman]

My bro-in-law is using a P3 700 that I ran myself @ 980 for a couple years, I throttled it down to 933 when I passed it on to him. He's still using it, and the chip is almost 5 years old now. My P4 is about to be passed on to another family member, it's a 1.8 running at 2.7 with a small voltage bump. It's been on 24/7 for 2 1/2 years. I'll throttle that one down to 2.4 and set it to stock voltage for its new owner, who will probably run it for another 2.5 to 3 years. Keep your case reasonably cool, use good heatsinks/fans, and keep overvoltage within reasonable bounds. I use 10-12% over stock as an upper limit.

I've only killed one chip in my whole tweaking career, and I did that with a screwdriver.

 

[stnick80]

Only one broke here too. I broke a pin off a K6-500 with a mechanical pencil trying to straighten out a pin, lol. Never any damage done overclocking.

 

[o1die]

If you're worried about cpu life, then get the retail boxed version. If it burns out, amd will replace it for up to 3 years. You don't have to tell them it was overclocked. It shouldn't make any difference anyway.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: o1die
If you're worried about cpu life, then get the retail boxed version. If it burns out, amd will replace it for up to 3 years. You don't have to tell them it was overclocked. It shouldn't make any difference anyway.

*puts on flame suit*

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: o1die
If you're worried about cpu life, then get the retail boxed version. If it burns out, amd will replace it for up to 3 years. You don't have to tell them it was overclocked. It shouldn't make any difference anyway.

With an attitude like that no wonder CPU prices are what they are.

 

[chinkgai]

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: o1die
If you're worried about cpu life, then get the retail boxed version. If it burns out, amd will replace it for up to 3 years. You don't have to tell them it was overclocked. It shouldn't make any difference anyway.

With an attitude like that no wonder CPU prices are what they are.

yeah there are SOOO many rma abusers out there that it has driven the price of cpu's up :roll:

anyways...back on topic, you'll most likely upgrade the cpu before it gets affected by overclocking

 

[Appledrop]

Originally posted by: o1die
If you're worried about cpu life, then get the retail boxed version. If it burns out, amd will replace it for up to 3 years. You don't have to tell them it was overclocked. It shouldn't make any difference anyway.

hmm, you have a good point.. i'm seriously thinking about upping my vcore voltage to around 2 - 2.2 volts, maybe more, depending on how hot it gets, to see how high i can go...



























LOL joking

 

[stnick80]

sigh... this always happens, someone says something about RMAing an overclocked processor and the flaming begins. To each his own, I really don't care whether Joe Bob Umptysquat RMAs a processor after he fried it because he overclocked it. Even if everybody who bought an AMD processor never had to RMA for any reason, do you honestly think that AMD would lower the prices of their processors? Do you not think that they are already making HUGE profits? Think of the people who's processor burns up and had nothing to do with it, yet they still don't RMA it. I know alot of these type of people. It is because ALOT of americans still dont quite understand the computer so they pay the cash to replace parts, sometimes ones that aren't even malfunctioning. The main problem with CPUs is that there are really only 2 big companies that compete making x86 processors for the home user. Millions of people including myself have never had to RMA processor. And another thing, why the hell is anybody bitching about the cost of an AMD processor? I bought my 3000+ for 150.00 and even though I know they still made a good profit on it, I am satisfied with the price I paid.

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: stnick80
Do you not think that they are already making HUGE profits?

Actually, no. I think AMD loses money every quarter. Seems I read they lost $400 million 4th quarter '04. I hope I'm wrong. We need a strong AMD (and Intel) to keep CPU technology moving ahead.

I bought my 3000+ for 150.00 and even though I know they still made a good profit on it, I am satisfied with the price I paid.

I agree with you here. Mid-priced CPUs are a great bargain.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: anksmashpunk
So without elevating the voltages and going with my current hsf and thermal compound, how high should I be able to overclock.

As fast as it will go until it locks up or you get a lot of errors.

If you bump the speed up in small steps and monitor your temps at each step, you will get performance problems long before you come close to frying your CPU.

In case you didn't know, you should use a VERY thin coat of thermal compound to get the best heat transfer.

Will getting 2 80 mm fans help the performance/overclock at all?

Better cooling will allow you to go faster if heat is the reason you can't otherwise go faster.

There are other reasons that can limit your speed, as well, including basic speed limits on various parts of the CPU, such as stray capacitance and the speed of your on-chip cache. That's when slightly rasing your core voltage could get you some extra speed if you want to risk your CPU.

 

[stnick80]

Originally posted by: shira

Originally posted by: stnick80
Do you not think that they are already making HUGE profits?

Actually, no. I think AMD loses money every quarter. Seems I read they lost $400 million 4th quarter '04. I hope I'm wrong. We need a strong AMD (and Intel) to keep CPU technology moving ahead.

I bought my 3000+ for 150.00 and even though I know they still made a good profit on it, I am satisfied with the price I paid.

I agree with you here. Mid-priced CPUs are a great bargain.

http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/01/17/daily17.html

check it out. a loss of 400 million would be outrageous. They aren't losing any money. I think had issues with sales on their flash stuff but not CPUs.

 

[ddviper]

ya it was on flash that they lost a shitload of cash, but their A64 sales held them up