hexus help required

[robbo]

hi there.
have started a new thread as i regard "NEW BOY QUESTION" to be different.
i am not a computer expert and two months ago i ordered a £1,500 pc from mesh. i gave my requirements to mesh(need fast pc for son who plays the latest games and does a lot of video work) i was advised the faster and size or ram the better. because of this i opted for the system described in my cp. this included upgrades including 2048MB DDR2 900MHZ MEMORY. after going through hexus forums i think there is an issue with mesh changing the asus settings. i note asus do not support this. mesh tell me not to get hung up on this issue. they say that as they have made adjustment i am covered under my three year warranty.

my questions are?
would the overclocking decrease the lifespan of my pc?
should i have been told this when puchasing pc?
what would you do?

all your thoughts are welcome. i need to get a feel of other peoples thoughts.

am i being unreasonable in pursuing this?

robbo.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Overclocking can redice the lifespan of your computer but depends on How much you overclock it.

Mesh would not tell you anything about overclocking because overclocking your pc can void the warranty

[theuncharmed]

Overclocking does reduce the lifespan of your PC, but it may still last 5 years plus and by that time you should be on a new system anyway.

Still they have made the adjustments, acknowledged it and have told you it won't affect your warranty. Everything seems fine from here. Just keep their email for reference.

[robbo]

thanks josh 1408 and the uncharmed..
when i say overclocking what i mean is that mesh have alterted the settings on asus P5NSLI PCI express to run with memory mentioned above. i assume this is overclocking.


robbo

[chuckskull]

Overclocking is increasing the clock frequency or voltage of a component.

the only thing I can think they may have done from your question if they have lowered the FSB/RAM ratio to artificially increase the RAM speed to the top speed the chips can handle.

This shouldn't affect your warranty on either part. Even if it does, your warranty will be handled by MESH, not Asus so, even if asus were to refuse the board(almost impossible as it's hard to tell if something has been clocked unless it cooks itself in the process), MESH would take the hit not you.

[BUFF]

when i say overclocking what i mean is that mesh have alterted the settings on asus P5NSLI PCI express to run with memory mentioned above. i assume this is overclocking.

if that's all that they have done (& it probably is), nope.

[Stewart]

If it works mate, and you are covered all ends should it go Pete Tong, then I'd be perfectly happy.

Any changes they have made must be pretty stable and reliable, because you are covered and they don't want to spend money fixing the rig if it breaks.

Any 'overclocking' on their part, or indeed yours, will reduce the lifespan of the system \ the part being overclocked yes, but unless you plan on keeping it for many years, this will have no actual effect.

In short - chill winston.

[charleski]

MESH will have altered the memory timings in the BIOS to make sure your RAM runs at its full rated speed. This is necessary because such RAM modules usually ship with very conservative SPD settings (the ones used when memory timing is set to Auto) to avoid problems when configuring the BIOS. This is not overclocking, they're merely making sure you get what you paid for, as otherwise you'd be running expensive fast RAM at a slow speed.

As far as lifespan goes, this depends on several factors: the temperature of the chip, the voltage at which it's running and the frequency of the FSB. Years ago when people were buying cheap Intel chips and achieving 50% overclocks Intel made a noise about the dangers of electron migration caused by the increased frequencies, but I haven't heard much about that since then. Obviously chip-makers would prefer you to spend a lot of money on their most expensive chips rather than buy a cheap one and OC it, though they've become more supportive of OCing in general as they've realised that it can capture sales from their competition.

Personally, I've seen 1 heavily overclocked CPU that had to be throttled back down to its rated speed after about 3 years, but the rest of my CPUs have been upgraded before then. The fact is that CPU quality varies, and the rated speed at which it's sold merely indicates the maker's conviction that the chip will live for the warranty period at that speed. It might die one day after the warranty is up or it might live for 10 years. Current CPU quality is pretty good though, so the latter is more likely. It's safe to say that if you plan to upgrade within the next 5-10 years you don't need to worry about CPU lifespan.