I've been running my Q9450 for a little over 2 years now. I had it up to 3.6Ghz without a sweat using vCore of 1.27, but for normal daily use I drop it down to 3.2Ghz since I dont' really need it any higher.
I'm curious for those of you that have cranked up the Penryn up higher and stayed there, such as running 3.6Ghz or 3.8Ghz day in and day out, does overclocking ability hold, or does the ability erode that requires additional vCore over time? I remember it was said back then that the metal gates in Core2 chips would erode over time under higher vCore, but nobody could ever substantiate it with actual use since Core2Quad was pretty new at the time. How about now?
I'm curious for those of you that have cranked up the Penryn up higher and stayed there, such as running 3.6Ghz or 3.8Ghz day in and day out, does overclocking ability hold, or does the ability erode that requires additional vCore over time? I remember it was said back then that the metal gates in Core2 chips would erode over time under higher vCore, but nobody could ever substantiate it with actual use since Core2Quad was pretty new at the time. How about now?
At least for me, using it over an extended period can be detrimental to your system health 
