Comment by throwaway2037
5 hours ago
> The E5-2620 v4 is great. Have been using it for 10 years now.
10 years? Damn, that is a long time. I always assumed that heat-induced damage will kill a CPU after a certain amount of time (5-7 years). Am I wrong here? I assume yes. Or are CPUs must stronger/tougher than the bad old days?
Intel sacrificing lifetime for short-term gigahertz is a relatively recent phenomenon.
This is among the "real" differences between workstation/server CPUs and commodity chips for laptops/desktops/handhelds.
Even then, if a commodity chip isn't pushed full tilt at all times, and assuming that the venting and dissipation are adequate, a commodity chip can last a long time.
A quick search on Xeon production yields that it goes through a rather rigorous testing. I wouldn't be surprised that server cpu's in a desktop pc works longer. I can't overclock it either, and that probably helps with its lifespan as well. But yeah, the fact that it actually powers on when i click the button and isn't a limiting factor after 10 years is quite something.
You raise two very good points that I didn't think about: (1) better binning/testing, (2) no overclocking. Keep rockin' that elderly Xeon!
Back from my old overclocking days - its heat that kills life. And if you keep that under control (what ages is the heatpaste, replace it ever so often) i very much doubt you'll have any life issues from the cpu itself.
Bearings in fans, caps etc. are also stuff that you need to keep an eye on.
I just replaced a i5-660 thats been powered on since 2010 24/7, heatpaste was fucked so it crashed during heavy loads :)
Not my experience.