How important is computer stability to you?

I run a few torture tests but nothing over 8hrs, and then just get on and use it, but I have good data backup so there shouldn't be a prob if it does crash and I'll just back it off a bit - I don't go for uber high OC's anyway as I want a good blend of speed vs longevity and at the quietest I can get, so not asking for much then!
 
8hrs for me = job done.

I cant remember the last time I had the PC on for more than 8 hours at home.

(Well, 6hrs of rFactor is as close as it's got to recently)
 
In my experience the best method of testing stability is an intense render through Mental Ray in Maya.

8+hours Orthos stable and the thing would STILL crash part way through a MR render until lowering clocks slightly :/
 
Maya or any current professional render software will give a cpu, gpu and ram a good thrashing - that why workstations generally are never OC'ed.
Stability is more improtant than speed.

There's a thread topic for you - 'Extreme stability test - 30day demo maya required'
 
I have never even tried overclocking for fear of things going wrong..........
I would like to try it sometime, but would only go a little way to ensure total stability.
I am not a Grandad yet, but act like one, clearly..!
 
A clock is not a clock unless it is stable.
For me I burn in, Bench & torture test but until I have had a good 3 hour session of mental FPS without a crash I am not happy.
My system has to do Exactly what I want it to otherwise what's the point.
 
I give it about 1hour solid of Intel burn test to get the temps nice and high

Then 12 hours + of prime

Then some serious 3+ hour gaming sessions

Does all that then I am happy
 
Must be stable or why do it.. Don't like any issues, crashes, lock ups or bsod, especially when mid way through a game !! Intelburn test when testing and Prime95 it over night..
 
If it is not stable then is there not a good chance that data could be corrupted. like encoding videos and transferring data etc??
 
I tend to look for the sweet spot. The best clock i can get without increasing the coltage (and temps) too much, which is why i am at 3.4GHz and not 3.6GHz, it requires too much voltage and temps can get a bit high for my taste.

Test stability with 20x Intel BurnTest.
 
When I started I was happy leaving it running Prime95 and coming home 6 or 7 hours later, if it as still running it was stable :)

Now though Im on the edge, if I push to 3.6Ghz I get crashes almost straight away, at 3.5Ghz it lasts quite a while but will still fail, but has never crashed or had problems during normal usage so I dont mind :p Its not ideal and im hoping to improve it, but its "stable enough" haha
 
I will run prime 95 for a couple of hours. If that doesn't fail, then nothing else I could do would. I have had the feeling like others with unstable setups where you think just because you gamed on it for a couple of days you are all good. Well you are not. The crash is ever so lurking and just waiting to catch you with your pants down, learn from my mistakes!

My question is, is an unstable OC worthy of even being called an OC or bragging about? I would say no. A true OC MUST be stable. I'd rather have high temps and be stable, than lower temps and unstable.
 
Very important. My i7 rig runs at 3.8GHz on air practically 24/7, so I need stability. It's no good to have it melt on me or reboot all the time! I leave it running with loads of downloads on the go, I watch my movies on it, I game on it.
Pushing it to 4.0GHz and above is possible, but I would rather stick with 3.8GHz, which is tried and tested. It handles all the OCCT testing too.
 
Prime95 stable for 8 hours & run LinX on 20 sessions or Intel Burn Test for 10 rounds is what I would do, if you dont use Hyper Threading.

According to "Praz" on the OCZ Forums - Intel Burn Test doesnt work properly with Hyper Threading on with X58. The program isn't capable of fully loading all 8 cores. To do that you need to use LinX.

Something which I need to re do as I used Intel Burn Test with HT on. :(

When someone overclocks & doesnt show stability, to me it means nothing whatsoever, anyone can do that.
 
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