Processor break in?

I just built a new PC (my first time building on completely by myself), anyway I was once told that once I get the newly installed processor running, I should leave the processor run for around 3 days for the processor to break in. Is this true, and if it is this the right ammount of time. Will the effect the thermal compound during its thermal condutive what not. Thanks in advance


AMD Athlon XP2500+ Processor 333 FSB Barton Core
Artic Silver Silver Thermal compound

 

You don't have to have the processor "break-in". The only reason you want to break-in a processor is to get maximum ability to overclock. If you want to break-in the processor, get a run time proggy that uses 100% of cpu to test its abilitys to the max.

 

Thanks alot, that will save me some juice and time.

 

No problem Welic. Anytime

 

Breaking in a CPU is really just breaking in the thermal paste; arctic silver (and many other thermal compounds) dont conduct heat as well when new as after theyve been heated and cooled a few times....arctic silver 5 takes over a week and the CPU should be allowed to get very hot, then turned off and cooled, several times...just normal operation.
Breaking in the thermal compound usually gives 1-4 degrees cooler temperatures.

 

Oh and another reason for burning a CPU in is to make sure thats its not duff... i.e. the program simulates intensive activity that you wouldnt normally see if you were to use it for everyday usage. That way, if you have a duff processor it will fail as soon as you run the test, rather than having it fail in 6 months time when its out of warantee (or whatever).

Big manufacturers like to do this to make sure they don't have to replace your entire computer because the processor fritzed out.

 

I did not "burn in" my computer when I built it. But, my favorite hardware author, Robert Thompson, suggests that when you build a computer, you should burn it in for at least 72 hours.

I believe that the main reason, is, as Goldy said above... if something is going to fail (hardware wise), now is the time to find out about it.

I believe that the SiSoftSandra program has a burn-in function...
you can download it from this link:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download92.html

Mind you, this will stress ALL of your hardware components.
If you only want to burn in the processor, there are programs that can do that...
Or, you could just use cycles crunching data... if that is of interest, cut and paste the top URL in my sig below. That is a program that can run your CPU full bore...