how much does O.C. take off the life of a processor

J

Jamin43

banned
I'm curious - if a modest OC will reduce the work life of a processor or not. All my parts are on their way to delivery - and I'm contemplating if I want to overclock the i7 or not - and if i do - how much I should be considering.

I don't want to cut the life of a cpu in half from overclocking - but if a mild OC ( 3.2 - 3.5 ghz ) would be doable without doing any damage - I'd be interested.
 
Cromewell

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
Jamin43 said:
I'm curious - if a modest OC will reduce the work life of a processor or not. All my parts are on their way to delivery - and I'm contemplating if I want to overclock the i7 or not - and if i do - how much I should be considering.

I don't want to cut the life of a cpu in half from overclocking - but if a mild OC ( 3.2 - 3.5 ghz ) would be doable without doing any damage - I'd be interested.
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Chances are the CPU will live long enough that it will be out of date, especially if you aren't adding a lot of extra voltage.
 
J

Jamin43

banned
Cromewell said:
Chances are the CPU will live long enough that it will be out of date, especially if you aren't adding a lot of extra voltage.
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Just to let you know I'm still using an out of date P4 - upgrading to i7 - so might want to reconsider your statement :D
 
F

fmw

New Member
It usually wouldn't work that way. Processors have a very long life span as long as they aren't overheated or damaged in some other way. If you are going to destroy a processor with overclocking normally that would result from overheating and it would happen instantly, not over a long period of time.

You should never overclock unless you need to. Some people do it as a hobby. If that's your purpose then knock your socks off.
 
pfig88

pfig88

New Member
If you want to make sure the processor lasts as long as possible, get the best heatsink you can afford, or you could go overboard and water-cool
 
pfig88

pfig88

New Member
fmw said:
You should never overclock unless you need to. Some people do it as a hobby. If that's your purpose then knock your socks off.
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I've never encountered a situation where someone might NEED to overclock...
 
Cromewell

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
It usually wouldn't work that way. Processors have a very long life span as long as they aren't overheated or damaged in some other way. If you are going to destroy a processor with overclocking normally that would result from overheating and it would happen instantly, not over a long period of time.
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Actually, increasing the voltage will shorten the lifespan but you are right that unless you are OCing to the brink or beyond it's probably going to live more than long enough.
 
2048Megabytes

2048Megabytes

Active Member
Before you overclock be sure to study and read up on it so you don't damage any of your components.

I don't like overclocking processors because it shortens a processors life and can result in an unstable system. The extra speed from overclocking a processor is not generally very significant anyway.
 
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salman

salman

Member
You could wait a bit until you overclock. The i7 is gonna be pretty fast running at stock speeds when you get it. Could start overclocking it as it becomes more out dated to make it last longer vs the newer CPUs being released and the more demanding software being produced.

Thats what I did, my e6300 runs at 1.86 at stock and is OCed to 2.5 at the moment on stock cooler- and for now performance wise I'm pretty happy with it.
 
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
2048Megabytes said:
Before you overclock be sure to study and read up on it so you don't damage any of your components.

I don't like overclocking processors because it shortens a processors life and can result in an unstable system. The extra speed from overclocking a processor is not generally very significant anyway.
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You might wanna try telling that to people who buy a 1.8Ghz pentium dual core and get almost a 100% overclock, heck, i have nearly a 50% overclock, you gonna say thats not a significant increase? Even 200mhz on a 2Ghz processor is 10%.... Plus lets say you got a Q8200 and a Q8400, 400mhz or so clock difference, the Q8200 overclocked to the speed of a Q8400 will be faster than the Q8400, even though they are the same speed as the bus is also being overclocked, as well as possibly memory(if your mobo dont have a ton of dividers at least) and whatnot..
 
2048Megabytes

2048Megabytes

Active Member
I prefer system stability over speed which is why I don't overclock. If it's a piece of junk processor or a component that is not a really $$$ I can see overclocking. In my own opinion the i7 is fast enough to not need overclocking.
 
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
2048Megabytes said:
I prefer system stability over speed which is why I don't overclock. If it's a piece of junk processor or a component that is not a really $$$ I can see overclocking. In my own opinion the i7 is fast enough to not need overclocking.
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Well, even then why would you not overclock... its basically free performance, and when your overclocking on stock/close to stock voltages its not affecting processor life by very much, now when you get into the insanely overclocked suicide voltage areas then your gonna see a reduction in lifespan...
 
2048Megabytes

2048Megabytes

Active Member
bomberboysk said:
Well, even then why would you not overclock... its basically free performance, and when your overclocking on stock/close to stock voltages its not affecting processor life by very much, now when you get into the insanely overclocked suicide voltage areas then your gonna see a reduction in lifespan...
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I've heard the 90 nanometer Athlon processors don't overclock well (which is what I am using presently). The performance increase would be nowhere near the E6300 processor you overclocked. I paid about $60 for my Athlon 4600+ Dual-Core which is expensive to me because I'm pretty poor. I was thinking about an upgrade a Phenom 8650 Tri-Core but I just can't justify it because I don't use my system for anything except old video games, word processing and Internet. The Athlon 4600+ Dual-Core I have is plenty powerful enough to handle what I do.
 
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
2048Megabytes said:
I've heard the 90 nanometer Athlon processors don't overclock well (which is what I am using presently). The performance increase would be nowhere near the E6300 processor you overclocked. I paid about $60 for my Athlon 4600+ Dual-Core which is expensive to me because I'm pretty poor. I was thinking about an upgrade a Phenom 8650 Tri-Core but I just can't justify it because I don't use my system for anything except old video games, word processing and Internet. The Athlon 4600+ Dual-Core I have is plenty powerful enough to handle what I do.
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I never overclocked an E6300.... Only core 2 based cpu ive overclocked is my quad:p Well, if you dont count essentially overclocking it for someone else over the phone(e2180 from 2.0 to 3.0ghz) The 4600+ is what, 2.4Ghz? Even a 300mhz or so oc to 2.7Ghz would net you 10-15% performance improvement. Basically a free upgrade:p Then again ive been overclocking my rigs since i built my first rig at 7/8 with an amd K6-3@400mhz oc'ed to 450mhz(and that was when most cpu's were still being passively cooled, mine was a passive cooler with a fan hacked onto it).
 
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bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
leopardforest said:
I know that it is a slight change of subject, but does overclocking affect the life of other components?
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Well, if you have a cheap power supply and you overclock your cpu, and it blows taking out components then yes it will shorten their life:p Maybe the mobo might lose some of its useful life... but by the time your components "die" you will have them sitting in a closet anyhow:p
 
J

Jamin43

banned
salman said:
You could wait a bit until you overclock. The i7 is gonna be pretty fast running at stock speeds when you get it. Could start overclocking it as it becomes more out dated to make it last longer vs the newer CPUs being released and the more demanding software being produced.

.
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That's pretty much my intention. From my current 2 x Pentium 4's functioning as 1 multi-task PC - I"m pretty sure the i7 will satisfy my current needs - probably for the next 2 years pretty easily. But I do want to toy around with it out of mere curiosity.

I'll probably wait til I recover from the shock of building this P.C. I still need to pay for Windows 7 when it is released and need to replace one of my 2 small monitors with a bigger one.

So that puts me at a year or more til I want to really be motivated to O.C. Anything before that is mere curiosity and interest:D
 
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