Overclock your Northwood Pentium at your peril

THREADS HAVE appeared on Ace's Hardware and at the OC-Forums warning of something called the "Sudden Northwood Death Syndrome" - which typically happens when people try and clock their Pentium 4s to frequencies beyond their specifications.

The thread at OC Forums is a "database of Northwoods that have died or degredated prematurely", and results from a rash of overclocking fever.

Intel only supplies warranties for particular frequencies at particular voltages, but doesn't mind end users killing CPUs worth hundreds of dollars, because, after all, it means it will sell more chips at the end of the day.

"Irata" at Ace's Hardware, a contributor, comments in a thread that the phenomenon only appears to affect overclocked chips.

But right now Intel appears to be replacing SNDS-affected chips with new ones. The Ace's thread starts here. µ