On Fri, 20 May 2005, walter fry wrote:
>>   Of course I don't overclock.  I leave that to children.
> 
> lets keep in mind oc also results in extra heat

Indeed.  Extra heat shortens the life of electronics in many
ways.  But extra current plus extra heat gives a double whammy
to the metal traces.  The result is greatly increased
electromigration.  That is a phenomenon where the metal conductor
slowly flows like a liquid under the pressure of the electrons
coursing thru it.  It flows fastest where the metal necks down
or turns.  That forms voids at those discontinuities.  And voids
are hard failures.  (He's dead Jim.)  Electromigration is highly
non-linear.  So a small increase in current + temperature can
reduce the life of your chip(s) from 20 years to <1 year.

I have had four computers.  I kept them for about 15 years (CP/M),
10 years (Amiga), 5 years (Linux+Dell), 1 year (Linux+Abit but
flakey).  I intend to keep the current one (Linux+Gigabyte) for
at least 5 years.  I don't need to be shortening its life.
--
Allen Brown
  work: Agilent Technologies      non-work: http://www.peak.org/~abrown/
        [EMAIL PROTECTED]             [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Heck is where people go who don't believe in gosh.

_______________________________________________
EUGLUG mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug

Reply via email to