Cpu overclocking dangers

[10ghz]

When overclocking a cpu is it the heat that is the most bad or the volt. 

I know volt shaves down the lifetime but is it that bad?

[samcool55]

Depends how much voltage you whack at the CPU and what CPU it is.

Voltage can indeed lower the lifetime but it all comes down to how much and which cpu.

 

Heat isn't healthy either btw. But again, depends how hot and what cpu it is.

[RoyalGamer1]

both are bad if they are too high. if they are not to high you are fine. and if they are too high you didn't successfully over clock 

[Jurrunio]

The combination of volts and temperature kills. High volts increase heat output significantly, but CPU can still overheat with low volts.

[Cookybiscuit]

Messing with voltage is the most "dangerous", a CPU will either throttle or shut the system down if it gets too hot, where-as if you tell it to use a silly amount of voltage it'll just do it and kill itself. So long as your cooling solution is adequate, you keep an eye on temperatures, keep an eye on core voltage, it'll probably be fine. If you just Google "[your CPU] max safe voltage" you'll get an idea of what's safe.

[theninjaseal]

I wrote a bunch of stuff about temperature deltas and heat dissipation but cookybiscuit answered the OP best so far I think.