Component Age & Overclockability?

[NCC10281982B]

OK, my basic question is this: Does a components age (the amount of operating time) affects its overclockability? I am asking because I was trying to get my rig to run at 280x9. The spd was set at 3.2. I increased the vcore to 1.275. I also increased the memory voltage a few tics. I don't recall the exact voltage. Even with that modest overclock I was getting bsod and reboots. I can't put up a cpuz shot because I had to go back to defaults to get any stability.

 

This gear has bun running 24/7 for about a year.

 

Thoughts?

[paulktreg]

All components deteriorate with age, things don't last forever unfortunately. One of the worst offenders is probably the electrolytic capacitors used on motherboards, graphic cards, power supplies, etc. Normally I would say a year is no problem but you have been running it 24/7, probably quite warm (?) which will cause some degridation. It is really hard to quantify, if you have quality hardware that uses quality components, the aging effect at this stage will probably be minimal but nonetheless present.

 

Any signs of swollen capacitors or leakage on the tops of any?

 

It's a shame Trodas isn't about he could tell you all about capacitors.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards

 

Paul

Edited October 7, 2008 by paulktreg

[NCC10281982B]

Ok, its good to know I'm not totally crazy for thinking that these thing wear out. Even at stock speeds warhead just crashed on me. As for the quality of the caps and stuff I have no idea. Its too bad upgrades was out of the question for the next million years.

[paulktreg]

Sounds like you have a hardware problem but possibly not due to ageging. I would have expected everything to be OK at stock. I presume this is the Gigabyte motherboard and a quality power supply?

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[crazy8s846]

OK, my basic question is this: Does a components age (the amount of operating time) affects its overclockability? I am asking because I was trying to get my rig to run at 280x9. The spd was set at 3.2. I increased the vcore to 1.275. I also increased the memory voltage a few tics. I don't recall the exact voltage. Even with that modest overclock I was getting bsod and reboots. I can't put up a cpuz shot because I had to go back to defaults to get any stability.

 

This gear has bun running 24/7 for about a year.

 

Thoughts?

If you listed all your parts in your sig it would be a lot easier to help you. Like what kind, and how many watts your power supply is, what kind of ram, when you say a few ticks exactly how much voltage did you add to your ram, was your ram linked or unlinked. You might need to up the voltage on you cpu all processors are not the same, just because you see some one hit that speed with that voltage does not mean you will, what stepping is your processor, is it co, or the older b3, or what ever it was. Need a little more info for sure. People will just be guessing with the incomplete info that you gave them. Whats your fsb running when you have this overclock and what voltage do you have your northbridge set at, any thing over 3.000 is not really a mild overclock on a Q6600, and what kind of heatsink do you have on your cpu is it stock, or some kind of after market heat sink. Theres more to overclocking than just changeing something a few ticks, and thinking it will be stable. also did you run a stress test to see if your system was stable at stock speeds.

[crazy8s846]

Ok, its good to know I'm not totally crazy for thinking that these thing wear out. Even at stock speeds warhead just crashed on me. As for the quality of the caps and stuff I have no idea. Its too bad upgrades was out of the question for the next million years.

That could have been some thing with the game it self that made your computer crash, you need to run some thing like prime95 for 4 hours or so. That way you will know if your computer is stable, I would not count on playing a video game to tell me if my computer was stable. Games crash for many reasons, and most of the time it is not because of computer stabilty.

[NCC10281982B]

The only core component not in my sig is the psu, which is a foxcon fx760e purchased 14 months ago.

 

Proc: BX80562Q6600

 

And the ram:

 

Brand mushkin

Model 996558

Type 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM

Tech Spec

Capacity 4GB (2 x 2GB)

Speed DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Cas Latency 5

Timing 5-5-5-18

Voltage 1.8V

 

That help?

[crazy8s846]

The only core component not in my sig is the psu, which is a foxcon fx760e purchased 14 months ago.

 

Proc: BX80562Q6600

 

And the ram:

 

Brand mushkin

Model 996558

Type 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM

Tech Spec

Capacity 4GB (2 x 2GB)

Speed DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Cas Latency 5

Timing 5-5-5-18

Voltage 1.8V

 

That help?

Id say you need better memory 800 at 5-5-5--18 is not very good memory sticks, you can get G.Skills that are 1066 for 45.00 dollars. If your are going to overclock your computer id make sure that ram is not being over clocked with it. You should set your ram at 266/800 or what ever your lowest divider is, and take it out of the picture while you try to overclock your cpu. Then when you know your cpu is stable, you can change your divider on your memory, and bring it back up. Im kind of doughting the memory sticks can handle much of a overclock, i might be wrong but 5-5-5-18 for a set of 800 is not very good, and a weak link in your computer that will limit your over clock unless you can unlink them, or set them at a lower divider.