Prime95 is a killer

kiteloopy · 27 Sep 2010 at 21:08

So I got my SSF setup the other day...seen below.

PC-Q07B
Q6600
Zotac 9300
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500
OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB
Crucial Balistix 4gb.
Win7 64bit.
..cooled by a Alpenföhn Panorama.

I had turned the PSU the other way round so the fan was facing the CPU, and had the CPU cooler the other way round (facing the psu) so it was a Pull-pull setup. I got the idea here as others had done the same. I got the mobo 2nd hand on here, and has a small overclock previously. I think it was running at 2.6-2.7. Was about ~40deg when idle.

all well and good, and everything was running ok...until I got the idea to run prime95 to test temps.

I saw the temps slowly rise circa 60-70deg on the cpu. Went to go get a cuppa, come back to a black screen. press the power and nothing is displayed. noir, nada, nowt, black.

Tried swapping the cpu, ram and unplugged the ssd, cleared CMOS still nothing. The fans on the CPU spin, thats it. Im surprised that it didnt have a threshold tbh.

all agreed that the mobo's shot?

(Ive got a new 9300 on the way anyway. Just want a answer/ advice if anyone's had the same.)

ishoeyi · 27 Sep 2010 at 21:47

if i was you i would be stabbing myself right now

and ask why o why i go play with prime95

kiteloopy · 27 Sep 2010 at 22:11

ishoeyi said:
if i was you i would be stabbing myself right now

and ask why o why i go play with prime95

hahah...i have done already.

I was thinking that if im doing anything cpu heavy its best to test it. well, it failed...so a good test??? :rolleyes:

Lemons_Mufc · 28 Sep 2010 at 06:12

Thats the board i sold to you.... You killed it you bugger

Although got to say i Prime'd it when i had my e2180 @ 3Ghz for a good hour, All was fine.

~Lemons_Mufc

necrontyr · 28 Sep 2010 at 12:49

I think the lesson to learn is prime95 is a decent tool for testing temps etc, but not a smart program to run when you dont know the thermal limits of your CPU heatsink and then decide to leave the room

reflux · 28 Sep 2010 at 12:50

Yeah. Remember that that motherboard ain't nearly as hardcore as a proper enthusiast mobo too.

Mattus · 28 Sep 2010 at 14:11

All the same, any stable system should be able to run Prime95 easily. It's actually not an especially 'hot' test - some of the newer stress tests like Linpack get the CPU a good 10-15C hotter than Prime95 and are definitely not recommended if your cooling system's a bit flaky.

There are real-world tasks which will get your system as hot as Prime95, like video encoding and perhaps even some games. It's probably better that it failed now than later!

thingemajib · 28 Sep 2010 at 14:45

perhaps it was the combination of a mini itx board and a much beefier cpu than an e2180 overloading and killing the VRMs?

Guardsmon · 28 Sep 2010 at 18:12

I know it sounds like a stupid question but does the Zotac 9300 support 65nm quads? I know some of the cheaper mITX boards only supported the 45nm quads. Just a thought.

kiteloopy · 28 Sep 2010 at 19:09

Lemons_Mufc said:
Thats the board i sold to you.... You killed it you bugger

Although got to say i Prime'd it when i had my e2180 @ 3Ghz for a good hour, All was fine.

~Lemons_Mufc

yea, your old board.

Im on the same side as Mattus. All I needed to do was decode a dvd and the same result would have happened. Best that it happened at home where I have spares to diagnose what died.

Going to underclock my next one a lot to stop it happening again.