Burning in...

[Vassilis]

Is it true that the overclocking behaviour improves after a couple of days of 100% usage?
My week 31 Celerons run stable at5.5x99/2.3 Volts, but they freeze after a while at 5.5x100! (No heat problem - they never go more than 45 C) Should I expect something better after a week?

[Tarrant]

To my knowledge, "burning in" has nothing to do with making a system more stable after time. You do it to make sure that the system will be stable after extended use and also to test the new hardware to make sure it's not defective. I've never heard of anyone who was having trouble only to have the problems disappear after burning in the hardware. In fact, if you're having that sort of trouble with 100 on the fsb, I would avoid running it at that setting.

[Vassilis]

Well, I read a lot of posts claiming that they DO have improvement. Also, my system was stable @99x5.5, but it freezed after two-three minutes of 100% usage at 100x5.5! After two days of burn in it works great at 100x5.5. I am sure it is going for more Mhz (or less voltage). Its not great improvement, but it is a clue that burning in can improve overclocking performance...

[ivan lau]

how u know there are heat of u CPU? for my exeperience, when a heat of a heat sink is cool not mean that the CPU is cool. i have try 2 heat sink, fro example A post at 40C and B post at 50C. u must said A better then B. but u are wrong. the heat of the CPU can't transfer well to heatsink A, so not heat at all. my PII 333 week 29 post at 124*3.5 with 2.2V by heatsink B. but heatsink A can't do that. to burn in CPU is let u can run a CPU in a speed with a voltage u want. but effect not as u want at all. recommend to burn over then 2 weeks.

[Sterling_Aug]

I am running a retail P2-450 at 558 MHz @ 2.2 volts (124/4 MHz FSB X 4.5 multiplier).

When it first came out of the box, the max I could get out of it was 504 MHz @ 2.3 volts. Over the next month I burned in the processor using the RC5 client http://www.sysopt.com/rc5team.html and adjusted the voltage and FSB settings. Each increase in FSB got more and more stable over time. I can now run 527 MHz @ 2.0 volts or push it to the 558 MHz @ 2.2 volts and everything remains stable as long as I keep the room air temp under 80°F. When my room gets hot, I have to back down to 527 MHz to keep the processor stable.