HOW DO I BUILD MY PC NOW IVE BOUGHT ALL THE BITS?

Plec · 5 May 2009 at 10:05

You don't need to do any of the above we're just being nosey. But installing monitoring software is useful so you know how your system is performing under stress. It can help diagnose problems, if you get any, in the future. I'll find some links if they haven't appeared by the time i've posted this...

The progs i listed were all benchmarkig apps that stress your system - those combined with monitoring software let you know how stable your system is running.

download for hardware monitoring

Furmark

Prime 95

SiSoft Sandra Lite

Make sure the links tally up i did these at speed!

These will get you started - just google the rest.

Have fun.

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:08

i got core temp running

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:11

i got prime 95 running

Plec · 5 May 2009 at 10:14

Apart from the hardware monitoring app only run 1 program at a time.

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:15

ok - how do i get the screenshot from coretemp on here?

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:17

Plec said:
Apart from the hardware monitoring app only run 1 program at a time.

which one is that?

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:18

downloading aquamark 3 - says it will take an hour

StevenRaith · 5 May 2009 at 10:19

ALT+PrintScreen, then open paint, go to Edit and select Paste.

Save as a JPEG, upload to soomewhere like ImageShack or Photobucket, and enter the image adress as

(img)http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/MB-281-AS_400.jpg(/img) but using the square brackets up beside P on the keyboard instead of the normal brackets on 9 + 0.

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:21

btw - i dont really know what else to photograph other than the spiders web youve just seen?

StevenRaith · 5 May 2009 at 10:23

Nah, spiders are silent. That's is a rats nest, you can hear it if you strain

StevenRaith · 5 May 2009 at 10:23

Oh, and FWIW I take my cables and shove them into the 5.25" bay to get them out of the way. Turn the machine off, but of elbow grease, job done

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:31

StevenRaith · 5 May 2009 at 10:33

Frosty. Now repeat the same trick after Prime95 has been running 4 threads on the 'max heat' option for ten minutes

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:49

what will this prime 95 test prove? are there programs/games, etc out there that will test my computer as much as that?

Plec · 5 May 2009 at 10:50

Idle temps are fine - do as mentioned above and get a reading with the cpu under heavy load.

Plec · 5 May 2009 at 10:51

benenhausen said:
what will this prime 95 test prove? are there programs/games, etc out there that will test my computer as much as that?

It proves that your heatsink is working efefectively and that your system is stable.

And no, games don't stress the cpu or gpu 100% of the time all of the time like these apps do.

StevenRaith · 5 May 2009 at 10:52

Well, not really - which is kind of the point. Prime loads the CPU more than 99% of games and apps will. Which means your machine should never have that much load on it.

It gives you an idea of the expected maximum temperatures you will ever see under any usage.

If it goes above 75degrees, feel free to stop it, [you should be safe up to 80+ and the motherboard should automatically stop it going above that by throttling the CPU] but I can't see that happening

Give it a crack!

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:55

ok - im currently downloading windows 7 - will i need to stop this download before i do the prime95 test?

StevenRaith · 5 May 2009 at 10:58

Nah, should be fine

benenhausen · 5 May 2009 at 10:58

and how do i know which is the maximum test that you talk of?