Guide on How to Burn in Your CPU

Joe_B_Me

I've now personally burned in 3 different cpu's, some results are amazing, some are so-so. Not every cpu will be able to burn in as well as others, if at all. I have come up with 2 methods to burn in your cpu, choose the one that you feel most comfortable.

CPU Burning in works best when your cpu is brand new, not a month old, but can still work if its used for awhile.

Has overheating ever prevented you from getting the overclock you want? Or maybe it was a lack of volt options in your motherboards bios that became the limiting factor for your CPU OC? Well... burning in your CPU can solve those problems to a certain extent.



The Burn in Debate. You decide.
Fact - Burn-in is real for all semiconductor electronics.
A CPU is a semiconductor electronic device.

Myth - Burning in a cpu burns the electron paths wider, making them more efficient
Fact - there is no proof of this

Fact - to my knowledge, there is no scientific explanation for how it works. But, there are enough people getting positive results that something must be going on. some say it's the thermal paste curing, which I've disproved with my opteron 165 burn in (did not use thermal paste, and still got positive results).

My take on it
-its most likely the thermal compound wearing in (it does that after going through heat cycles)

Why you should do it
-it'll help your thermal compound make better contact
-if you keep your cpu voltage lower, you could save a good 15-25w of power, giving you lower temps, and taking pennies off your electrical bill : )
(~ $20 per year (if saving 25w), assuming your pc is on for a year straight) lol



Index
Part I - Intro
Part II - How to Burn in your CPU (2 methods)
Part III - My CPU Burn in Results

Part I - Intro

Burning in a CPU will take up a lot of time, in some cases, a good week. CPU burning is the process of lowering voltage to your CPU, making it more efficient heat wise and overclocking wise. HereÂ’s what you have to do.

I have 3 different methods to burn in your cpu, each has worked for me.
Method A involves lowerign your CPU voltage while maintaining stock clocks
Method B involves getting the highest FSB you can w/ stock volts
Each method has worked for me.

Part II - How to Burn in your CPU (2 methods)

YOUR RAM MUST BE STABLE BEFORE YOU BURN IN, TO ENSURE SYSTEM STABILITY

I've attached AMD64 tweaker to change your ram timings in windows, its not the best program, but it works.

Method A

Step 1: Set your CPU and ram @ stock speeds and timings.
Step 2: Download the program clockgen. This program allows you to lower your voltages below stock voltages.
http://www.cpuid.org/clockgen.php#support download the right version for your mobo
Step 3: lower the voltage to your CPU in small amounts, like only 0.025vÂ’s at a time.
Step 4: After everytime you lower the volt by 0.025, run Prime95 for a good 30 minutes, more if you want to be sure. Run SuperPI also (1M test is fine)
Step 5: Repeat steps 3-4 until Prime95 comes up with errors.
Step 6: Once you get those errors, raise the volts to your CPU to the last 100% successful amount.
Step 7: There will be a point once your cpu will not run stable at lower volts. To see if you did reach as low as your CPU will go, run Prime95 or F@H for a few days, then see if you can lower the volts further.
Step 8: Once youÂ’ve ran Prime95 or F@H for a few days, pat yourself on the back, youÂ’ve made your CPU run cooler @ stock, and more potential in overclocking.

Yes, you can burn in your CPU when overclocked, I did mine like that.

I'm running @ 236x11 right now (2596MHz), rams @ 2.5-4-4-7 2T (im keeping it loose till i re-find my max cpu OC). I had my voltage up to 1.62, which was how much i needed just to run super PI & Prime95 error free. Over the last 36 hours, ive gotten my cpu voltage down to stock (1.54v-1.55v). I'm 100% stable. According to my crappy temp sensors, my full load temps have gone down by 4C, not bad, eh? I'm not going to lower my cpu volts and more, I'm just going to work on raising the cpu fsb. Right now, 237 gets errors in Super PI, but not Prime95. I'll probably just end up running Prime95 for the rest of the day, and hope for the best.

That's all there is to burning in a CPU.

Hope you enjoy the guide :D

Pictures to help ya out, and to show where I'm @ now


^i use to need 1.62v to run that clock stable


@ stock, my cpu runs @ 1.54V (94W peak power), with the burn in ive done so far, i can run it @ 1.233V stable (57W peak power).
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp (using this to figure out cpu wattage)

I can't go any lower volt wise w/o getting errors, hopefully, with some more primin, i'll be able to get it lower.

Temp Readings (from the worst temp sensor in the world)
@ 1.54v 200x11, 51C idle, 72C full load
@ 1.233v 200x11, 34C idle, 49C full load
@ ~1.7v 236x11, 64C idle, 90c full load * to show how bad temp sensors are, i can show ya the screenie if you want. (it only needs 1.54v for that clock, but i wanted to see how high the temp sensor would go)

After 2 more weeks of burning in, i was able to run stock cpu volts 100% stable @ 236x11. woot!

Method B
1) Download Super PI, the clock gen that works for your motherboard, and Toast (i've attached toast, see bottom of this post)
2) Make sure your cpu volts are @ stock
3) Raise your CPU 5 Mhz at a time till you get errors in a 1M super PI, then back off the MHz one by one till its stable.
4) When your away from you pc, open up toast.exe, it'll eat up your cpu, if you have dual cores, run 2 copies of toast.exe so both cores are @ max load
5) keep running toast.exe for several sessions, that are long in length (4+ hours). After a week of running toast.exe now and then...
6) go back to step 3, except raise your fsb by 2-3mhz at a time
7) repeat this whole process until you get no more increase in clock speeds.

Part III - My CPU Burn in Results

3200+ Newcastle Socket 754.
Method A
Highest stock volt overclock 213x11
After Burn in (2-3 months), highest stock volt OC was 236x11

3200+ Newcastle Socket 754
Method B
highes stock volt OC was 217x11
After Burn in (4 days), highest stock volt OC 223x11

Opteron 165 Dual core 1.8GHz s939
Method B
highest stock volt OC was 261x9 (damn, lol)
After Burn in (5 days), highest stock volt OC was 269x11

Attached Files

	A64Tweaker .60.zip (231.1 KB, 606 views)
	toast.zip (148.7 KB, 1142 views)

trsroller

very very nice guide.
i might mess around w/ mine tonight in pure bordness.

buckley

excellent guide, i may try this :)

Joe_B_Me

thanks guys.
not stable @ 238, tryin 237.

My aquamark3 score has gone up by 1200 points after burning in my cpu, pretty good, wouldn't you think?

Funky_Junk

I sense a sticky...
Did you write this yourself? Kudos to you if you did.

Arainach

I prefer Folding@Home for Burning in CPUs. Just leave your CPU on 24/7 at 100% load doing something useful.

kidchoked

In clockgen I cannot find the option to lower my cpu volts.

Joe_B_Me

100% written by me

ah, I like that, killing 2 birds with 1 stone, i'll go add that

pic is up

trsroller

my clockgen doesnt look anyting like that.

Joe_B_Me

did you get the version thats for your mobo?
http://www.cpuid.org/clockgen.php#support

trsroller

yes, yes i did.

Joe_B_Me

could you take a screenshot, so i can see what you see.

if worse comes to worse, you can just do a mild overclock (enough to up your volts by .5 or so, and work down from there,

trsroller

nfs924

I prefer just manually burning it in by playing games and doing normal use.

kidchoked

Mine looks the exact same.

Joe_B_Me

I did notice on the clock gen site that only the AMD64 versions shows the voltage settings. I'm guessing that the two of you arent using AMD64.

I'll look into another way to lower your volts, in the morning. I'm too tired to go searchin now.

BTW: my burn in is workin great. @ stock speeds, i can get my volts from the stock 1.50-1.55V's, down to 1.25V stable (so far), my temps are way down too, according to my crappy temp sensors, im runn 38c idle, 47 full load, with stock volts, im @ 51C idle, 61C full load.

trsroller

didnt know it was a a64 only thing.
o well i can lower it from the bios.
but im not going to till i get my WCing and then i can hit my good OC also.

Joe_B_Me

i didnt think about it until i was the only one able to do it, lol.

well, burning in takes awhile, might as well do that while you wait for WC'in

Joe_B_Me

bumpage^^^

maybe a sticky?

Joe_B_Me

will anyone try this? so i didnt type this out for nothing, lol.