General Question

[Elmo]

I have a general question about overclocking:

Does overclocking your CPU directly shorten its life?

I have an Athlon 1.133 and dont know whether to wait before overclocking or do it now.

[KILLorBE]

Yes it does shorten its life, You will speed up Electromigration (http://www.csl.mete.metu.edu.tr/Electromigration/emig.htm).
But look at it this way, No matter what you do it will die someday and even if you OC it, by the time it dies its a worthless POS.

[dugans]

Overclocking is not a completely safe, benign thing to do to your cpu: if everything goes right, you will probably shorten the life of your cpu by a bit (see the post above!)

Heat is the number 1 enemy of a cpu though: I would think an overclocked cpu @40c would last longer than one running @ 55c with no oc.

But it can cause even faster problems: a mistake on bridges can destroy an Athlon; as can putting a hsf on (and breaking the die)

Also, since we overclockers sometimes leave case sides off there is another possible way to make damage more likely!

To sum it up: you probably will lose a bit of cpu life through ocing, but with caution and a steady hand the difference will most likely be negligible. Just remember: What you are doing is taking a risk!

[_Will_]

Lets say you were buying you're first computer and had no knoledge of these forums or the many resources out there about overclocking. You carefully select each component then come to the heatsink. Its just a fan, right? A big block of metal...who the heck cares what brand it is? They all look the same to me...I'll just buy the cheapest one out there. Chances are it'll work for the person, aside from maybe a frozen screen every once in a while which they probably won't pinpoint as being a heat problem.

But after reading these forums one would recognize the benefits of cooling and get a good quality heatsink/fan to place on their precious new XP or p4. If you're using some crap cooling method you're temps could be at 55+ and you're certainly not doing your CPU a favor in that sort atmosphere.

Of course, you could just get the cooling and leave your temp at stock speeds but what is the fun in that?

Anyway, I'd have to argue that some properly overclocked processors might even outlive a poorly cooled cpu at stock settings.

EDIT: *whines* Roger beat me to it....

[David]

You will probably upgrade next year anyway.

[_Will_]

Originally posted by penguinfreak
You will probably upgrade next year anyway.

Yeah, exactly. As long as you don't plan on using the same system for 5+ years it doesn't really make a difference.

[Elmo]

Ok, well i'm gonna need some help to make sure i dont make a mistake.

These are my specs:

Shuttle Spacewalker AK31 mobo
AMD Athlon 1133mhz (133*8.5)
Seagate 5400rpm 40Gb hard drive
Samsung 256MB DDR Ram

i think my fan is a 6800rpm High performance thermo engine.

the highest my cpu temp has ever been was 51C in a hot room and an extreme heat wave that day.....usually in summer it runs at about 40-45 idle and 45-50 full load.

in BIOS i can change the VCore, Multiplier and FSB.

what should i try first?

[nil_esh]

Originally posted by rogerdugans
Also, since we overclockers sometimes leave case sides off there is another possible way to make damage more likely!


I rarely leave my case open anymore... Ever since I saw a roach crawling inside a running system of mine!

[BigRed]

i never leave my case off either, i hate dust :p i have filters on all my intake fans and a positive pressure in my case and if i leave the pannel off then the evil dust will get in there :(