• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Degradation: Would you buy a second hand wolfdale ?

I've had quite a bit of experience with SNDS and this seems similar. I'd get mine from a proper shop if i did not know the history of the cpu or trust the seller. With SNDS, it did do stock clocks for awhile but eventually even that failed to a point where the chip was useless. Selling a cpu like that is just shady tbh.
 
naudiz said:
Would also be interested in what people think are the safe max voltages, contemplating getting either an 8400 or a 9450

Naud
Click to expand...

Nobody really knows. Degredation seems to start from as little as 1.42v and chips have died with 1.52v and over. Some say the VID +25% others say the VID and no more. The only really safe option is to run at stock. Stock voltages should see 4ghz on a E8500 or about 3.8Ghz on a E8400 if you are lucky.
 
Swings and round-abouts really. Take the example of the:

Q9300 (£199) vs QX9650 (£657)

If you take the constant upgrader who buys a new chip each year, you would have to blow 3 Q9300s to justify the purchase cost of the QX9650 if you were to keep it at stock (3.0 ghz) Even if the Wolfdales do degrade - jury still out - you are still better off buying cheap, and renewing when/if it happens, than buying the top one and sitting at stock/max clock at stock volts?

So yes, even if there is a small degradation, you can figure that into the discounted price you get from the seller - plus you can ask for a recent verified prime/cpu-z, in many ways you can get a better deal with a 2nd hand part as it comes with a history, and you are getting, dare I say it, a known clocker. And if they refuse to supply the details - you know there is a problem and can shop elsewhere ;)
 
Last edited:
Mmm yeah, this thread does remind me of the Northwood P4 failures. In fairness, I wouldn't be surprised if 45nm CPU's were going pop upwards of 1.5V for example.
 
im sure i read somewhere that wolfdale degradation is most probably caused by running above stock cpu pll voltages.
 
These CPU's have not been around long enough for anyone to prove its true or BS about Degradation anymore than any other CPU.
 
Last edited:
helmutcheese said:
These CPU's have not been around long enough for anyone to prove its true or BS about Degradation anymore than any other CPU.
Click to expand...

not strictly true, until wolfdale cpu degradation has been largely non existant on the whole since northwoods (SNDS).

i'd never buy a 2nd hand wolfdale because theres too much evidence of these chips degrading.
 
Its unproven FACT, nobody has had 1 of these CPU's long enough.

Some noob on XS starts rumours and that what happens, any CPU will have a shorter life if running higher voltage.

There aint any proof and you can read the threads on XS and see its all scaremongering so far and you can see the comments there state as I have stated.

I aint saying it wont degrade as any CPU will but its too early to tell if anymore than any other CPU's or hardware overvolted beyond normal limits.

I would not buy any CPU or GPU 2nd hand as they all can be overvolted and had a lack of cooling from previous owner.
 
Last edited:
What length of time at what voltage is reported to be causing this degradation?

My 8400's have been running flat out 24/7 at 4.45GHz with 1.53V through them now for well over a month and there is no indication of instability at all.

None of the people with ES chips reported any degradation, so what's suddenly causing it in the retail product?

Now, they could both go bang any moment now, but my gut feeling is that they won't. If they do, then that's my risk and I'm quite happy to take it. I've been melting CPUs, GPUs and motherboards for nearly 10 years now and thankfully the proportion of my net worth that I'm risking is significantly lower than it used to be, not to mention the benefits are significantly greater.
 
helmutcheese said:
Its unproven FACT, nobody has had 1 of these CPU's long enough.
Click to expand...

electromigration doesn't need time necessarily, i killed my northwood under phase with relatively low volts really and it happened about 6-8 weeks after purchase. first my clock just decreased slightly and then just degraded to the point where it wasn't even stable at stock.

of course there's no proof as such, just about everything that we follow in the overclocking world is based on general assumption and common sense.

but i've seen more than enough 'where there's smoke there's fire' reports to suspect there is at least something up with 45nm and voltage.

quite a few are from ppl with higher levels of respect in the overclocking community than you helmutcheese (no offence ;)), including a very well known guy from greece whose personally been through/had access to 10+ wolfdales - when guys like that talk it's worth taking notice sometimes.

not everyone who has a wolfdale will see this degradation if it indeed does exits just like not everybody who had northwoods suffered SNDS - not everybody who has unprotected sex will get AIDS either ....common sense prevails :p

i've been clocking for over 10yrs WJA96...seen it/tried it all :)
 
Last edited:
Pump 2.0v through your AMD Barton 24/7 ands it will Degrad faster, there is no difference here.

I ran my Mobile at upto 1.9v then was able to drop to 1.875v with better cooling at 2.8GHZ for years.
 
no-one is putting through 2.0v on a wolfdale, you're comparing apples to oranges.

ppl are putting relatively low volts through (the lower end of what they used for 65nm) and reporting degradation....hence the thread title. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
No but your clutching at straws, the fact remains pump very high volts over Default through a CPU and it will degrad.

The Above CPU I mentioned is 1.65v normall so thats why I added 2.0v as very high limit so it is compairable to a 1.2v CPu getting over 1.45v (my safe limit).

Unless you have proof dont keep making claims thats are probably BS from some noob on XS.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom