burning in your CPU

[Szech]

Up until recently, I didn't know anything about burning in your CPU, so I would just leave the computer on for 24 hours. Now I know that you have to up the voltage to the CPU, and run some CPU intensive program. How many volts should I up it by, and what program is good at hanging on the CPU's leg?

[Sterling_Aug]

I would increase the voltage 0.1 volts at a time while running the RC5 program for one week solid, then increase the voltage again and keep repeating this until the processor hangs or becomes unstable then you back off one notch on the FSB setting and run stable again.

Join the Sysopt RC5 team here.

http://www.sysopt.com/rc5team.html

[Szech]

How do you keep from frying the CPU? (assuming you have good cooling already?)

[yipikayee]

If you have celeron processor set FSB to the lowest speed (maybe your mobo supports 50Mhz) and increase voltage by 0.2 or even by 0.4V... I did it with my old Cel333A and it worked fine @ 500Mhz...

Your processor may get hotter due to higer voltage, but lower bus speed prevents it from overheating (maybe even frying)... Run it 24 hours or even one week and then try to run it at default voltage and at overclocked speed. If it is unstabe, pop up voltage little bit (2.05 or 2.10V) Don't expect too much from this burn-in, but it may help you on your journey...

& happy burning...

[Menestheus]

Why is it necessary to "burn-in" the CPU? And how do you know at what point you are supposed to burn it in? Do you keep overclocking to find a stable point and THEN burn-in or do you the burn-in first at the rated CPU speed (or some other arbitrary speed) and then start the overclock process??

Any articles/web sites that discuss this in detail??

[This message has been edited by Menestheus (edited 04-14-2000).]

[grandslammer]

Well, look above to Sterling_Aug's post. Bump your voltage .1 volt at a time. Then run it at that voltage a minimum of a few days, a week would, as he recommends, be better... Staying at the same SPEED while doing this.

Now, I personally wouldn't go more than say .5 volts above where you started. But that's just me. When you get to say .4 or .5 volts above "stock," then back it down to say .1 volts above your starting point. Now, raise your fsb to the next notch. (75mhz?)

Now, all numbers depend on your processor and motherboard. If your motherboard only goes up to 100mhz fsb, then you have to change your multiplier (of course, not with Intel chips, as they are multiplier-locked!)

With an AMD, you can change your multiplier AND/OR your fsb speed.

See, there are a few variables here, once again depending on your processor/m'board setup.

Tell us what you have, and we can go into better (and less-confusing) detail........

M

[Menestheus]

Still waiting on two of the components, one being the mobo and the other the hard drive.

The mobo is the Asus P3V4X the specs are: http://www.asus.com.tw/products/motherboard/Pentiumpro/P3v4x/index.html

The processor is a PIII-700, 100FSB
video is 3d Annihilator Pro
case is SuperMicro 760-A with 400Watts and LOTS of cooling fan space.

All in all I've got the makings of a decent system that should be able to overclock to 800-850MHz without too much problems. I'm just a little vague on the "burn-in" thing.

Thanks for the advice!