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How much will overclocking like this affect the life of my CPU?

669 Views 12 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  logan, 
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i have a phenom II X4 810 OC'd to 3.6GHz at 1.5v on the vcore. temps are getting around 60-63c at load. i'm just curious if this will dramatically decrease the life of my processor if i continue to run it like this.
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Y
I think that as long as you keep the processor down in temps, it'll last a long long time. Now... your temps could be a little lower. I'd invest in a better cooler. Besides, these ph2's love good cooling!
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C
Quote:

Originally Posted by yabo View Post
I think that as long as you keep the processor down in temps, it'll last a long long time. Now... your temps could be a little lower. I'd invest in a better cooler. Besides, these ph2's love good cooling!
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it voltage that ultimately kills the CPU, NOT heat? Considering you can remain under spec for temperatures easily, having high voltages is what actually causes the degradation.
Understandably, a CPU with a poorly mounted heatsink will suffer heat damage.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by crashnburn_819 View Post
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it voltage that ultimately kills the CPU, NOT heat? Considering you can remain under spec for temperatures easily, having high voltages is what actually causes the degradation.
Understandably, a CPU with a poorly mounted heatsink will suffer heat damage.
yes i was thinking that, because i feel like 1.5125 (exact voltage that i have it on) is getting pretty high, and i really don't want to fry this thing, my temps are ok i guess, but i'm more worried about the voltage

Edit: would it be possible to lower my cpu voltage a tad, and increase other voltages such as the CPU/NB voltage, and the northbridge voltage work as well?
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You're not wrong, overvolting will degrade it faster. But, the combination of heat + overvolting is even worse. I was just saying that if he's going to be running at that speed/voltage he should get the temps down while he's at it. Sorry if it seemed like I was ignoring the voltage issue... I'm juggling occt on the sig rig while taking care of sick gf + posting all at once.
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just put it this way before you blow it up or kill it you will have enough money for a cpu/mobo upgrade
hehehehe...
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TheProfiteer
yeah I agree, I think as long as you keep temps down and voltage no higher than 1.5ish then you should be alright.
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S
How much can you lower the Vcore by if you take it down 200mhz? If the life of your proc is worrying you, just take it down 200mhz to save some vcore and cool it down. My 2 cents.
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i think i'll just leave it at 3.4GHz with the vcore at 1.475, i get much better temps this way, tops out around 55-56c after an hour of prime95 (i did this earlier)

i have one more question though, should i have the cpu/nb voltage just left on auto, or should i have it set the same as the vcore, or at least near the same voltage? the cpu/nb frequency is 2096MHz.
i currently have it set at 1.475 along with the vcore.
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G
As far as I can tell, the CPU-NB voltage does not play as big of a role as it did with the Phenom I. I have mine set at 1.35V with the NB at 2400 or 2600 MHz (cant remember). I could probaly drop it a tad more and still be stable...
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Trav1s
I've always been curious of voltage when it comes to life of a CPU.
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Quote:


Originally Posted by Gen
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As far as I can tell, the CPU-NB voltage does not play as big of a role as it did with the Phenom I. I have mine set at 1.35V with the NB at 2400 or 2600 MHz (cant remember). I could probaly drop it a tad more and still be stable...

hmmm well thank you because now that i dropped my cpu/nb voltage (1.2375:2096MHz), i actually have more stability, i think me having it all the way up to 1.475 must have been causing instability, and my temps are a tad better as well of course
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logan
Adding voltage will "harm" the processor more than heat, but both are bad.

To much voltage leads to electronmigration. In normal english that just means that with to much voltage, the transistors will begin to break down, and will start to "leak". What that means to us, is that your OC will start to need more and more voltage to stay stable, until eventually it breaks down and wont be usable anymore.

Now, how fast that happens isn't really know (as far as what exact voltage it takes), but in general with most AMD processors, I think if you're under 1.5v, you should be fine. And as long as your temps are good, and your stable, you can have an OC'd processor last quite a long time (thlnk3r was running an opty 165 at 3GHz for years, which was like a 1GHz OC FYI).

And in general, the overvolting the NB will help out with your OC, but it varies alot system to system, so its hard to say how much it will do for you.

Good luck guys
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