Opinions on another newbie OC, please.

xibxang · 27 Feb 2006 at 23:06

Just wondering if I could get some opinions here, please? I'm just wondering if I've done OK for a first attempt. I'm quite happy to stay at this level but if anyone thinks that there's any particular part that I should trim, then please by all means impart some wisdom?

I was wondering if the vcore was too high. In saying that, it's the lowest I can go to get Prime95 to run for more than 5 hours. Anything smaller and it'll only run for about an hour. Could someone let me know if this is OK, please?

xibxang · 27 Feb 2006 at 23:12

Yeah, my CPU normally sits at 36-38 under load (26 idle), Memory/Northbridge at 40 (37idle). I'm thinking I'll get another 120mm fan for the front intake of my case to see if it cools the two warmer parts but otherwise I think that's ok (?).

Cheers for the quick feedback.

xibxang · 28 Feb 2006 at 17:06

Just a quick question: Could someone advise whether being able to run Prime95 for a maximum of 5 hours is an absolute fail? I know that it's much more preferable for it to run 8+ hours but I'm just trying to get a gauge on how 'unstable' my system is.

The only thing that I think is keeping my system back is the fact that I run 4 x 512 Kingston RAM, which does tend to get a little bit on the warm side (~43 degrees - a bit higher than I quoted in the previous post) under the more extreme testing section of a Prime95 Blend Test. I know this isn't ideal, but I'm looking at another month before I can get the money together to buy better stuff. I might also have a wee issue that this RAM might be getting a bit hot under a big load. However, I've just ordered an 80mm fan to put onto an intake vent on the side of my case so that might help.

I just don't want to go obsessing over how long Prime95 is able to run for without halting. Like I say, I can get 5 hours out of it and my system will run everything else that I ask it to (EverQuest 2, Half Life 2 all run for hours on end with no issues). Obviously, I'd prefer if it would go for 8+ hours at a time, but I don't want to start adding more to the vcore just to get the extra hours out of a test that doesn't really feel that important to me.

Can someone advise on this? Is it really really really that important to be able to run Prime95 for half a day or so?

xibxang · 28 Feb 2006 at 18:19

I've been googling a bit since I posted this question and I think the short answer is: Prime95 should be able to run for 24 hours. Just because. Except, in theory, it actually won't. Except it does. On some machines.

TBH I think it's down to the end user. Some people are a bit more pedantic than others so I htink there never will be a universally agreed answer. I also found a link that led to a poll on another forum and the majority agreement seemed to be that if Prime 95 ran for 2-5 hours, then your system is 'stable'.

Of course, I could be talking rot, but I have a sneaky suspicion that each individual has their own take on what they'd consider to be 'stable'.

xibxang · 28 Feb 2006 at 21:23

Heh, this is turning in to a little newbie discussion (I'm a total n00b).

I can easily get quite obsessive with things like this. I used to go mental for running the Quake2 demo to test FPS rates using different drivers way back when I used to run a Celeron 333 with 2 x vodoo 2's in SLI. At one point the average FPS became more important than the actual game itself.

Since then, I've started to watch how much importance I place on things like the above, memtest86 and Prime95 (and everything else in between). I think going forward, I'll use these tests as a rough guide, but at the end of the day I'll put the importance on my machine being able to run games and applications with as little fuss as possible (Which I get right now).

Good luck on your overclocking hobby. Hope to see you around.