Hyper-Threading

[javanoob101]

Hello!

I have an Intel Pentium 4 (I think) 2.6 Ghz processor and it has the Hyper-Threading option in the system's bios. I am worried about some electro-migration I read about if I were to Hyper-Thread it.

It's code name is (I think) "Northwood"

I want to know if it is safe to Hyper-Thread it.

[crunchie]

Just enable it and off you go. Got a link to the thread that caused the worry?

[caperjack]

i set mine to hyper thread and it works just fine ,what is electro-migration and what is its down side to your computer

[javanoob101]

Well I read this "electro-migration" from an article from wikipedia and some google searching did have some results for my type of processor dieing out.

Electromigration is the transport of material caused by the gradual movement of the ions in a conductor due to the momentum transfer between conducting electrons and diffusing metal atoms. The effect is important in applications where high direct current densities are used, such as in microelectronics and related structures. As the structure size in electronics such as integrated circuits (ICs) decreases, the practical significance of this effect increases.

Sorry, That blurb was from wikipedia. Basically, electrons jump gaps and it slowly kill the processor.

The electro-migration problem only affects "early" Northwood processors but I can't tell if mine is an "early" model

[caperjack]

interesting ,i'll just leave mine on

[crunchie]

Probably means the difference between your processor lasting 20 years or 15 years. Either way, you would have upgraded by the time it dies :).

I pulled those numbers out of the air by the way :)

[caperjack]

I pulled those numbers out of the air by the way :)

yeah ,but you not like to far off, i bet

[crunchie]

yeah ,but you not like to far off, i bet

Probably :). Most people upgrade within 5 years anyway, I would think.

[caperjack]

yeah,look at you with the 120gb ssd,lol

[crunchie]

Gotta keep up with the Jones's :D

That's my current rig in my avatar.

[javanoob101]

Thanks guys, There is a computer that is the same at my school in the Computer Engineering class (take apart and fix computers there!) so I enabled it and I'll wait to see if it dies out lol.

[caperjack]

i say a bit of worry about nothing

[javanoob101]

Perhaps you guys are right...

I'll enable it after i reinstall Windows xp, my harddrive partion is corrupting itself slowly. (You can look this up in the Windows XP forum under corrupt attribute record)

Thank-you to all!
I'll let you know who it goes later on...

[caperjack]

Gotta keep up with the Jones's :D

That's my current rig in my avatar.

nice,so are the ssd as great as they say in some of the stuff i have read on them

[crunchie]

nice,so are the ssd as great as they say in some of the stuff i have read on them

They are brilliant. Zero seek times, 15 seconds boot time to desktop, programs open within a couple of seconds.
Because of the price per megabyte, all photo's and music files are are stored on another drive through moving the 'USER' folder and changing the path in the registry. That way, only installed programs are on the SSD.

[caperjack]

was reading another forum about a problem poster was having with ssd ,and some does and don't ,someone posted this link .
http://downloads.diskeeper.com/pdf/Optimizing-Solid-State-Storage-with-HyperFast-Technology.pdf

[javanoob101]

Well, scince you guys are talking about hard drives, and I may need to get a new hard drive, are SSD drive reliable? I read (in caperjack's link) that fragmentation causes them to slow down a lot... SSD technology is old isn't it? So why use it if it is?

[javanoob101]

Well I enabled Hyper-Threading and It is fine. The computer I enabled it on before is still working so I guess It is safe...

Thank-you to all who replied!

javanoob101

[caperjack]

Well I enabled Hyper-Threading and It is fine. The computer I enabled it on before is still working so I guess It is safe...

Thank-you to all who replied!

javanoob101

hi, even if there is a real problem with electro-migration [what ever that is ] im sure its not going to happen anytime soon ,i have been running mine for over 2 yrs now and it still works as good as it did when i enabled it
what version of windows are you using

[crunchie]

It will be fine. Some-one was just trying to show how smart they were.
It can probably be compared with tyres on your car, or your shoes. They both wear out, but you never can see it happening :).