Thread: Overclocking without voltage increase ?

Planning on getting a core i7 920 (D0 stepping). If I was to do a mild CPU overclock without voltages, would this still increase the chance of CPU failure - even if it is the tiniest bit?

Thanks.

Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: No.

Longer answer: You won't be able to tell the difference, because the CPU will move on into the abyss of obsolescence before you reach the end of the ever-so-slightly-shorter lifespan.

Thank you and nicely said;

Do you think overclocking a core i7 D0 to around 3-3.33GHz with as minimal voltage as possible would affect lifespan - again even the tiniest bit?

Yes it will, but the difference is so negligible it's not even worth noting. Voltage does the most "damage" to a processor. If you want to try something interesting you could overclock to 3.33GHz and see if you can undervolt by some amount. This would effectively increase the lifespan even though you are overclocked. However, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to both overclock and undervolt by any significant degree, you just have to try. At the very least 3.33GHz should be doable at stock voltage, especially for a D0.

I believe that heat is the killer of processors, there was an article that discusses that a voltage increase does decrease life but heat does more damage. Besides after 3 or 4 years I think you'd be looking at something faster already.