What is burn-in??

[Chanko]

I was wondering what is this burnin i hear about?...What if i have been using my processor for a few months, would I benifit from burnin? What does burnin in do and why does it work?

Chanko!
T-bird 800@945mhz 768mb RAM
Duron 700@waiting for motherboard

[Wega!]

U can read more about Burn- in here: http://forums.overclockers.ws/forums/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=2&TID=20664&SID=27434

If that isn't enough: Burn-in is when u run ur computer at full load for a long time. The result is often that u can overclock higher, than before u did the burn-in.
I don't think no one knows what it does or how it works, but it does work. I coulden't get more that 900MHz out of my Duron until after I had done some burn-in.

[Phil]

There are several view points on burning in. I won't dismiss it but unless you really want to give it a go and have the time I would leave it. From some of the 'guides' I have read their are differant 'opinions' on what happens and how to do it. Some people think that the extra heat is what does it in which case simply turning off your fan for bit may work or just lowering it's speed my running it at 7v and increasing the vcore voltage as well. I have seen other opinions that say that you should run at a high voltage but low speed and tbat this affects the transistors in some way. The recomended way of doing this is lowering your speed and increasing the voltage and then running prime95, seti, sandra or any other cpu stressing program. I have tryed a burn in using that method and did seem to be able to run at lower voltages. I have a cCO celeron 600 which before would runat 900mhz with 1.75v. After trying that burn in method for a few months though not 24/7 only about 8-12 hours a day I could run up to 750mhz with 1.3v (default for 600mhz is 1.7v) and at 900mhz with 1.5v so obviously something had taken place.
But after istalling a load of new components I needed to up the voltage for 900mhz to 1.65v which is probabally a problem due to my 235W psu. Up to 750mhz still only requires 1.3v though. Note that this process didn't ever get 1.01ghz stable for me with less than 2.2v, in fact with the extra components it isn't stable with even 2.3v. With a more powerful psu I may get better results but all in all I haven't benefitted from trying to burn in.

[Megahurtz]

There are two types of burn-in. The usual definition is to run a system or device for a period of time to ensure that all components are working properly. That is not the overclocker's definition.

I presume that you are inquiring about burning-in as it relates to overclocking. This is a controversial subject. I know that it has helped many(including me) to reach goals that they otherwise could not achieve.

I use the low clockspeed, high voltage and low temperature method.

For some possible answers as to why burn-in works, the best information that I've yet found regarding this controversial issue can be found here (http://people.freenet.de/s.urfer/conditioning.htm).

I burn-in for stability testing, and as preparation for an overclocking attempt.

Cheers,

T