How long will cpu fans last?

[ekÆsine]

that's not entirely true. I forgot to plug the cpu fan in before on an xp2500+ and the bios shut down when the cpu overheated. cpu overheat protection is a standard feature of motherboards for many years. some athlon motherboard might not have it, but from what I remember most of the older processor run much cooler so a heatsink would be enough to protect it from complete failure. you would probably see some lockups or instability that would hint that something is wrong.

 

[senseless]

if mine dies when the comp is running chances are that the cpu will fry in 5 seconds or less

Why, do you have an intel?

 

[Kadahaf]

nope 64 amd, but if the computer is in the middle of a game with high temps and fan stops it probably will cook :S but since I have the stock fan my warrantyu will cover it