Multi-core CPU query

[CurlyWhirly]

I know that CPU's are generally speaking very reliable.

My old Barton processor lasted me for around 5 years and may have been working even now but I'm not sure as my old PSU blew a few weeks ago and took the motherboard with it so I have no way of knowing!

Never mind as this was the excuse that I needed to get a new PC


Anyway, what I'm curious about is if one of the cores on my Q9650 failed, would the CPU stop working or would it manage with the remaining 3 cores?

Sorry if it's a silly question but I'm curious

 

[Moeks]

Interesting question, one I have not seen asked before. And while I am not 100% sure of the answer, I am taking an educated guess.

The remaining cores should continue to work as is, but it depends on the reason for failure really I suppose. It's far more likely that the chip will just die than you will lose a core like that. But if it were to happen, then the others should still work. But being as they are all fabricated on the same piece of silicon, it's extremely unlikely to happen if the chip makes it out of the factory with all cores operating at the required frequency.

To be honest, the life cycle of a cpu will really be far longer than that of it's useful life. The only reasons a chip might die early are excessive heat and or voltage from extreme overclocking projects, although I suppose the first could occur through extremely poor cooling as-well.

Or an electrical surge of some sort, such as a power supply going kaput or even a mains surge/lightning strike on the power cables etc (get a surge protector). But really the motherboard and memory are much more likely to get killed by something like this than the cpu in my experience.

 

[CurlyWhirly]

Interesting question, one I have not seen asked before. And while I am not 100% sure of the answer, I am taking an educated guess.

The remaining cores should continue to work as is, but it depends on the reason for failure really I suppose. It's far more likely that the chip will just die than you will lose a core like that. But if it were to happen, then the others should still work. But being as they are all fabricated on the same piece of silicon, it's extremely unlikely to happen if the chip makes it out of the factory with all cores operating at the required frequency.

So having all the cores manufactured on the same piece of silicon means that a single core failing may never happen then?

To be honest, the life cycle of a cpu will really be far longer than that of it's useful life. The only reasons a chip might die early are excessive heat and or voltage from extreme overclocking projects, although I suppose the first could occur through extremely poor cooling as-well.

I'm not into extreme over-clocking so that shouldn't apply to me

Or an electrical surge of some sort, such as a power supply going kaput or even a mains surge/lightning strike on the power cables etc (get a surge protector)

I've been using an UPS for years.

But really the motherboard and memory are much more likely to get killed by something like this than the cpu in my experience.

That's what happened to me with my old motherboard going and I had a UPS connected and it didn't help but it could be because I never changed the PSU which was around 7 years old and was way past it's natural life.

 

[Moeks]

A UPS or surge protector won't help you if your power supply blows, they are after all, between the mains and the PSU not the PSU and the rest of the system.

Good quality PSU's do tend to have fairly decent protection for your components though, so if they do go bang there is a good chance they wont damage anything else. Cheaper low quality ones can take all sorts with them, as they tend to forgo quality protection circuits to keep the price down, not to mention they are more likely to suffer a failure in the first place, due to lower tolerances from lower quality components.

A UPS or Surge Protector will help with 'cleaning' the power and preventing power surges reaching the psu though, which of course helps protect it from outside damage.

There is no good reason why a PSU shouldn't still work after 7 years, it depends on how much use it has seen though really I suppose, and how hard it's life has been. If it's had a nice easy load for most of it, it'll probbaly be ok, if it's been running a heavy load and putting a lot of wear and tear on it's components then it'll have a shorter life of course, same for anything really.

 

[arknor]

There is no good reason why a PSU shouldn't still work after 7 years

ive got an antec truepower 431watt in an old comp thats been going almost 24/7 since amd64 3200 s939 came out thats around 5 years ago?

 

[CurlyWhirly]

A UPS or surge protector won't help you if your power supply blows, they are after all, between the mains and the PSU not the PSU and the rest of the system.

Yes I don't know what I was thinking of

Good quality PSU's do tend to have fairly decent protection for your components though, so if they do go bang there is a good chance they wont damage anything else.

I'm on my second APC UPS and I don't buy cheap ones

There is no good reason why a PSU shouldn't still work after 7 years, it depends on how much use it has seen though really I suppose, and how hard it's life has been. If it's had a nice easy load for most of it, it'll probbaly be ok, if it's been running a heavy load and putting a lot of wear and tear on it's components then it'll have a shorter life of course, same for anything really.

I rarely used to turn my PC off so it did have a hard time

 

[CurlyWhirly]

ive got an antec truepower 431watt in an old comp thats been going almost 24/7 since amd64 3200 s939 came out thats around 5 years ago?

I think as time goes on, the PSU components become less efficient thus more likely to fail

 

[JeremyW]

My 4 yr old seasonic (hugely respected manufacturer, make all the corsair PSU's) psu has just died, despite being the best "name" amongst all the kit of that PC build. I used to change PC components every 2 years and so saw no failures, so this is the first PC item (apart from a dodgy Graphics card) that has failed so I reckon you are right ... PSU's die

 

[Moeks]

Actually, believe it or not, leaving a machine on is more likely to prolong it's life (unless it's overclocked to hell and back) than shorten it. As I am sure most people have realised, psu's usually blow when you turn them on, this is when they typically undergo the most stress, a cold psu suddenly getting power and having to provide the machine with it's initial power up requirement. If someone a psu is going to go bang, it'll very likely be during a start-up cycle, most likely a cold one.

 

[arknor]

I think as time goes on, the PSU components become less efficient thus more likely to fail

well the ammount of power they output degrades over time so its probably not 431watt anymore seeing as its had atleast 3 years uptime.

the same as your car wont have the horsepower it did when it was new

 

[mattyfez]

Anyway, what I'm curious about is if one of the cores on my Q9650 failed, would the CPU stop working or would it manage with the remaining 3 cores?

I think it would depend on the nature of the failiure, and the construction of the CPU, because, remember those Tri-core AMD processors that came out a while back? they actually started out life as quads, and AMD saved money by making use of low chip yields, quads with a single duff core were bypassed somehow, and the chip re-engineered/branded as Tri-Core.

Weather that would be the case in the event of an actual quad if 1 core stopped working for whatever reason, I doubt it, as the CPU would be telling bios and OS that "hey i'm a quad", and when it only gets 3 cores it would probably throw an uber tantrum.