Improving the life of a CPU

[Flakk]

I was just thinking... since a cpu runs at a lower voltage under full load than it does while idle (1.54 volts in my case, compared to 1.585 when idle), would it actually lengthen the life of the cpu if it was constantly running when it would normally be idle (for example running folding at night while im asleep). I mean as long as the temperatures are low, would this help make the life of the cpu last longer than if it had been running idle at the higher voltage for most of its life?

[RoadWarrior]

What really matters in prolonging the life of anything electronic is the prevention of thermal cycling, the warmup, cool down cycles that place mechanical stresses on components due to the expansion and contraction as they heat and cool. So in order to acheive a constant temperature you can either, leave your computer off and never use it at all, leave it on at idle and never use it, or run a process that keeps it at full load all of the time when you are not using it. Folding is such a process, so therefore in keeping the load on the CPU even over time and preventing thermal cycling it could help prolong the life of your CPU (And motherboard and RAM) that's apart from the benefits that the research could bring for humanity.

regards,

Road Warrior

[batboy]

Yhe reason you have different vcore under load vs. idle is because of the Asus mobo. Abit don't do that, the vcore stays fairly constant with Abit. The two most important things that will give your CPU longevity are low voltage and adequate cooling.

[larva]

The dampening factor of the monitoring circuit on Abits is greater than what Asus uses. While the Abits do have excellent Vcore regulation, there is nothing wrong with the Asus's. Their monitoring is just showing you more of the truth than the Abit's is.

[Flakk]

well thats reasurring.. in the back of my mind i was a little annoyed that Asus could do that to me and i was going to go for an Abit motherboard next time.. i guess i won't worry about now :)

[SLee]

Originally posted by Flakk
well thats reasurring.. in the back of my mind i was a little annoyed that Asus could do that to me and i was going to go for an Abit motherboard next time.. i guess i won't worry about now :)
Actually, decreasing Vcore as load increases is a part of Intel's specification for the P4 platform.

[Flakk]

weird...

why would u need/want more volts if the cpu is idle. i would think when it's at full load is when it would really need the juice-- not less.