QOTD: Did You Ever Fry Your PC by Overclocking?

[skit75]

If you haven't toasted a CPU, your not over-clocking. I still have a rig running that AMD AthlonXP 2500+ Barton core @ 3200. That thing is a trooper. I ended up buying another barton core 2500 about two years ago as a replacement for when the current one died. It is still un-opened as the first core is still chugging along.
I'm building a core i7 rig currently but will keep the barton core rig running until both CPUs have died =P

 

[skit75]

How do you really know where the "line" is if you never cross it?

 

[hemelskonijn]

I fried all Nvidia graphics cards i ever owned within 2 months and most of my ATI do survive but get replaced every 6 months any way (good cooling wont just stay good cooling when there are cats around).

I had some nice burns but till today there is one that really made me scared, happy and out of a job in a split second.
Back in the day i my boss bought some brand new G3 PowerMac B&W just like the one i had and i knew those could jump up 50Mhz at least by just switching a jumper.
Now when i switched the jumper block i stepped it up 50Mhz and it ran nicely though while preforming the same trick on another one i got sloppy and dropped the jumpers in the wrong position resulting in an instantly fried cpu and loss of warranty.

The bright side is however that other than the one mac i burned only my systems (or parts of them) and its like any sports (maybe a bit more expensive) you know when you start there might be risks.
pushing for limits without reaching them fatally at some point is impossible.

 

[Greatwalrus]

[citation][nom]sKiT75[/nom]How do you really know where the "line" is if you never cross it?[/citation]
I don't think you can. However, I do think you can get a pretty good idea by looking at where other people have crossed the line (if possible).

But for the question: I have never had an overclockable cpu

 

[Guest]

I had this old AMD k6-2 500 machine o/c to 550. One day when I had the case off and I was working on something in it (while the power was on), I heard a high pitch sound and a glowing organe spot on one chip. Then I heard a pop and felt a burining sensation on my cheek below my eye. one of the chips near the voltage pins explode on me.

 

[themyrmidon]

'Fried', no. Damaged? Yes. Pentium D 940 max OC 4.4 Ghz, 1 year later 3.8 Ghz. 2 VGA 7600 GS's (fans went on both). 450W PSU pumping ou air around 65C. That's it so far.

 

[Thesmj]

About the only thing I ever killed by overclocking was a crappy no-name PSU I was powering an overclocked system with. That was on an old AMD Duron 900 MHz system overclocked to 1050, and a heavily OCed Geforce 2 MX400, which was long before most people took PSU quality seriously - with or without overclocking.

 

[Guest]

Not by overclocking, but I literally got a yellowish green like spark out of my Athlon 1,4Ghz.
The first generation of Athlons had a very high TDP, this one included (140W TDP).
The cooling fans not being as effective as today, caused that my athlon came with 3 cooling sinks on top of eachother.
I accidentally touched the fan on the top, (chopped it's blade in my finger, was bleeding) the very first day I had the pc, and the cooling sink literally worked as a lever, tilting on the then bare naked silicon cube (CPU).
As a result the processor broke off a corner, and a spark followed; followed by wide system failure.
I later replaced it with an Athlon XP 2600+,which served me for another 7 years!

 

[NuclearShadow]

The most I have come to CPU's is my E4300 outright refuses to run at 3.2 GHZ anymore and now I can only get it to 3GHZ. Still for the price and how long I have been using it even if it does fry right now I wouldn't have any regrets.

 

[gimarbazat]

I tried really hard with my Intel e8600 but I couldn't fry it. it's imposible, at least for me. It runs nicely @ 4.5 ghz though, 100% stable on air cooling with addition of an extra fan.

Overclock it's fun!!

 

[acecombat]

I burnt out my old duron 800, but it was intentional. The HDD had died and I had a new PC and it was old and slow compared to my new PC so I clocked it up to just shy or 1ghz and pulled off the heatsink

 

[cangelini]

Yes, and it sucked. I don't want to talk about it.

 

[bornking]

My Video card (8800 GTS 320) blew up...smoke and all out the back of the PC. It was replaced free thank goodness!

 

[IzzyCraft]

None so far but i have melted the usb to a cheap case when i plugged it to the mobo wrong it what happens when i have to connect all 8 pins 1 by 1 thankfully cases and mobo standards just make it one giant connector now.

 

[mpain55]

[citation][nom]nukemaster[/nom]Not yet, but i am still working on it.[/citation]

 

[sonofliberty08]

not yet , i still overclock my Athlon64 when i need better performance but underclock it when i leave it over days and nights for bt , but i fry my console b4

 

[mpain55]

I did have an ati x1650pro burst into flames and charred the side panel of my case. Nothing a RMA couldn't fix.

 

[trogrey121]

CPU and GPU

 

[XD_dued]

I had a mobo burn melt (no joke) while stress testing...i had known safe voltages and temps so i dunno what happened lol. Maybe i just got a dud...

 

[wikiwikiwhat]

No smokey flavor for my mobo. PSU, yes, GPU card? yes.

 

[Guest]

i can get my Q6600 starting at 3.25 GHz, and it scares the life out of me, blue screens after about 10 mins running prime95.
normally have it running about 3.0 GHz which seems ok.

popped a PSU by not checking the voltage switch on the back, gotta remember 240 > 110.

 

[mindless728]

haven't fried anything yet
i had my old athlon 4000+ 2.4GHz up to 3.32GHz and the memory from DDR400 to DDR 567(kingston hyperx)

so, i guess i havent crossed the line, though, don't say try to on the athlon, it is my server now

 

[TripGun]

I have toasted and shortened the life of numerous gpu's and cpu's. I found the value of good cooling a long time ago and how you have to spend the money on it. Finding the balance between high clocks on the lowest voltage will always be elusive and I know first hand the consequences of volt mods (*mushroom cloud*).Everyone knows your only as fast as your slowest component, therefore only as strong as your weakest capacitor. Running it on the hotter side you will kill it sooner than later. For Pete's sake knock the dust out of it every once and awhile...lol

 

[megamanx00]

My first TNT2 card. Thing was I didn't even get to overclock it, I damaged it by trying to attach, and then remove some crazy heatsinks that wouldn't let me insert it back into the AGP slot. Fate punished me by sticking me with a TNT2 M64 card for a while, till I built my Duron 900 system and got a Geforce 256 for only $35 online (an absolute steal at the time) which served me well till it was replaced by my faithful GF3 TI 200.

As for CPUs i've only burnt out the CPUs on systems I've cobbled together from spare parts people give me. If chips fry though, it' usually a cheap PSU problem before I even get a chance to try and overclock it. Still, I've fried almost one of each old socket it seems ^_^.

 

[randomizer]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Yes, and it sucked. I don't want to talk about it.[/citation]
With the amount of hardware you go through, the law of probability had to strike eventually.