Overclocking & PC life span

[ocnnor]

How long have you had a computer last while overclocked? How long and at what speed? How much has it decreased the life of your computer?

[WhenKittensATK]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2.0 to 2.5-2.6) for 2005-2008 (then sold).

Intel C2Q Q6600 (2.4 to 3.41) for 2008-Current

 

No idea on decreased life expectancy.

Edited April 24, 2011 by Krazyxazn

[VaporX]

Overclocking is a crap shoot. You never know how long it will last or how much you will get.

[El_Capitan]

In my opinion, you get a longer lifespan if you're overclocking correctly (not just overclocking, but knowing and taking care of your system). Here's my reasoning:

 

1. If you're overclocking correctly (or taking care of your system), you're going to keep your system's heat under better control. Less heat = longer lifespan.

2. If something is out of whack, you've got the experience to know what went wrong. Some people send their motherboards in when it's one of their memory sticks or video card that was just bad (and none of those components were overclocked) <- this happened to me. If you keep getting random errors or reboots to desktop and just leave it alone, the rest of your system may go bad because a single component went bad, thus making the rest of the system eventually go bad because of it.

3. Overclockers (who overclock correctly) stress test for stability. That in itself may degrade a component if they overdo it, but people who run at stock usually never stress test for stability, and if they have an unstable system, I guarantee their system will degrade or go down faster than a stable overclocked system.

 

Most times when I had bad components, it was because of poor quality control (receiving a new item and it not working correctly). As for the components that go bad after being in a system for a year or two, who's to know if it's because of overclocking issues or not? It's just too difficult to tell unless you effectively measure two identical systems, one overclocked and one stock clocked, doing identical tasks for a long period of time (and even that is skewed, as the overclocked system will run iterations of tasks faster, and if you try to compensate that in your tests, then you'll also need to test a stock system that mimics timed current fluctuations of an overclocked system just to compare, etc.). Still, even if you measured two identical systems at stock, one will most likely last longer than the other.

 

In other words, ComputerEd sums it up nicely. It's a crap shoot.

 

There's no poll, btw.

[Guest_Jim_*]

I would figure that so long as the voltages aren't messed with too much and the temps are kept reasonable, the life expectancy should barely change, if at all. Those physical changes are what would actually add strain and cause any damage.

Personally, I don't worry about it. By the time my stuff would fail of old age, I'll have replaced it.

You can see my rig in my sig. The CPU stays in the mid 50's C and the motherboard about 10C lower than that. I fold 24/7, if I can. This Summer I might stop, at least at nights.

[Waco]

I have only had a select few things fail over the years from overclocking. My motherboard burst into flames a few months ago but I'd been pushing it VERY hard for a long time before it failed and it was never meant for quad core overclocking to begin with.

[IVIYTH0S]

IMHO Life span is extended because it will keep the computer useful for longer, a non overclocked machine will sooner become obsolete.

[Guest_Jim_*]

IMHO Life span is extended because it will keep the computer useful for longer, a non overclocked machine will sooner become obsolete.

So not failure but obsolescence causes the upgrade. Makes sense, especially as one should be able to assume that overclockers will upgrade/replace their machines more often than non-overclockers.

[ivangela]

I can't see that it shortens your lifespan unless you up the voltage (assuming you keep your temps under control).

As for the difference b/tw OC and not, that's impossible to tell, as you can't do both to the same chip.

[sack_patrol]

Obviously overclocking will put strain on the system, be it big or small. Also just as obvious is the fact that it won't make a significant difference in the life of the components. As long as you know what you're doing and don't deliberately do something that might harm it, there will be no noticeable difference. There's thousands of people that overclock and are fine with these facts and also with the possibility that something could go wrong, but the chances are very slim so if a component does go bad from an overclock, then the quality of the part wasn't that good to begin with. Life of the system after overclocking will decrease so little even with extreme overclocks, that you'll never notice it. For example (very vague) if a component lives 10 years without overclock, it will live 9 with overclock.

[Waco]

Obviously overclocking will put strain on the system, be it big or small. Also just as obvious is the fact that it won't make a significant difference in the life of the components. As long as you know what you're doing and don't deliberately do something that might harm it, there will be no noticeable difference. There's thousands of people that overclock and are fine with these facts and also with the possibility that something could go wrong, but the chances are very slim so if a component does go bad from an overclock, then the quality of the part wasn't that good to begin with. Life of the system after overclocking will decrease so little even with extreme overclocks, that you'll never notice it. For example (very vague) if a component lives 10 years without overclock, it will live 9 with overclock.

Overall I don't disagree in general but don't pull numbers out of your butt like that.

 

My motherboard lasted just over 2 years before bursting into flames and none of my settings were "extreme" or beyond recommended settings. There is no "obvious" fact that says your components will live nearly as long when overclocked.

Edited April 25, 2011 by Waco

[sack_patrol]

Overall I don't disagree in general but don't pull numbers out of your butt like that.

 

My motherboard lasted just over 2 years before bursting into flames and none of my settings were "extreme" or beyond recommended settings. There is no "obvious" fact that says your components will live nearly as long when overclocked.

yea i know, I was trying to explain that overclocking has a very small impact on component life in general. I mean, it won't do something like break your stuff in like a month or two... It's pretty safe. (directed more to the op than you since you know this already xD)