Life of an OCed CPU

[tgxiii]

For those of you who have been OCing for a long time but have kept your comps, what was the longest life an OCed CPU of yours lived?

[Gouki]

Well...So far mine's been running just fine. Been upwards of 6 months and no problems. And...I participate in FaD...which means that the cpu is at full load, ALL the time!

Here's my setup:

XP 1700+ JIUHB @ 2.3Ghz
2 x 256mb of PC2700 Dual DDR
Epox 8RDA+

Full load temps are 44-45C and idle is 39-40. And this is on air...

[jmichna]

Never had one die yet... Sold a Slot-A 700@850 after having it about 1.5 years... buyer is still using (must be about 4 years old now) it for folding, or some such at 100% cpu output. Still have a TBird 1200@1400... mopre than 3 years I think. Have always OCed every CPU:
wife's P-4 1.6 has been at 2.134 since Day 1, that's well over year ago, may year and a half.
Daughter's Tbird XP1800 ran at 2.0gHz for about a year, and has been sold and still in use. Tbird-A 2700 used at 2.34 for about 9 months, sold and still in use by buyer. I could go on and on...
Current Barton 2500 @ 2.083 and Barton 3000 @ 2300 for several months now.

All these above CPU's were/are used to run SETI@Home commandline client, so they are always at 100% output.

IMHO, OC'ed CPU life will last wwaaayyy beyond the point that that CPU will still be desirable... several years at least... UNLESS you do something STOOPID like over-volt +0.5, or use poor cooling.

[tgxiii]

jmichna, did you raise the voltage on any of your CPUs at all? Or are they all at stock settings?

[jmichna]

Originally posted by tgxiii
jmichna, did you raise the voltage on any of your CPUs at all? Or are they all at stock settings?

Raised voltage on all of them. Here's what I can remember:
Slot-A 700@850 +0.15 vcore
TBird 1.2@1.4 +0.10 vcore (that's all the mobo would allow)
Palomino 2100 (don't recall the speed) +0.10
TBred-A 2700 @ 2.34 +0.125
Tbred-B 1800 @2.0 +0.20
Barton 2500 @2.083 +0.125
Barton 3000 @ 2.3 +0.125

One or two of the above were run as much as +0.25 over default for short periods to do benchmarking and testing, but above were vcores that were used all the time.

[tgxiii]

Thanks for the info. I should be safe then. I have:

P4C 2.4GHz @ 3.12 (12x260) w/ 1.55v (+0.025)
XP 2500+ @ 3200+ (11x200) w/ 1.70v (+0.05)
XP 2000+ @ 2400+ (15x142) w/ 1.70v (+0.1)

[jmichna]

Originally posted by tgxiii
Thanks for the info. I should be safe then. I have:

P4C 2.4GHz @ 3.12 (12x260) w/ 1.55v (+0.025)
XP 2500+ @ 3200+ (11x200) w/ 1.70v (+0.05)
XP 2000+ @ 2400+ (15x142) w/ 1.70v (+0.1)

You're in -- what I would consider -- very safe territory.

[nukes]

I've had a PIII 500 katmai die, but I reckon that was due to a big overvolt (running at 2.35v) to sustain the 666mhz clock speed.
tgxiii: What sort of temps do you get on your AXP chips at 1.7v? My main rig is a 1700+ @ 2.12ghz (170*12.5) and 1.7v, but the temps at full load sometimes creep into the low 50's. This is with an X-Dream running full pelt, and 4 case fans. Seems mostly dependant on the room temperature though as it occasionally drops as low as 40c.

[zepper]

As long as they are well cooled and reasonable volt steps are used, there should be insignificant change in usable life - which will likely be way beyond obsolescence. I had my k6-2/450 OCed for the entire 4 years I used it and now someoned else is still using it. What I'm using now haven't been in my hands long enough to tell.
. And I think I've OCed everything I've owned since my dual Z-80. Heathkit H88 - no problemo. But back then, the parts were REALLY conservatively rated - I doubled and tripled some of 'em. I think I bought one of the first 16MHz crystal oscillators that became avaiable on the open PC parts market. My 4MHz rated CPU couldn't take it, but I used it later on an 80286. Back then we didn't even have HSFs - If we had 'em, perhaps it would have made 16MHz...
.bh.

[tgxiii]

Originally posted by nukes
tgxiii: What sort of temps do you get on your AXP chips at 1.7v?

With FaD on, it stays around 42-45. I have a Speeze Whisper Rock cooler on it. It's a T-Bred B, btw. I was actually able to hit 2.4GHz on it with 1.85v but since I'm new at this and didn't know what I was doing I toned it down to 1.7v just to be safe.