Testing your overclock

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Hi Guys,

I am just wondering how you test your system is stable after you have overclocked it ?

I have just had my motherboard replaced by OCUK as the previous one was faulty and I rebuilt the system yesterday and for the first time tonight I played some BF3 for about 2 and a half hours. At which point the system locked up :( :(. I was running it in ultra at full HD res but in all fairness it handles that without any issues and it looks glorious !!

I quickly checked the temperatures and they seemed fine so I was going to turn down the overclock to perhaps 4.5 (down from 4.6). Then let it run for about 3 hours and see if it has locked up or rebooted etc.

Which tools do you use and which configurations within those tools do you use ?

I have downloaded prime95 but have no idea what I am doing with it ? It would be good to have something that tests the graphics card as well or separately.

Any advice is appreciated.

Dan
 
For CPU always testing IBT - Maximum settings, All RAM and All threads for quick check ,before 3 h Prime95 testing.
If all good I am running one game Crysis/BF3 for at least 1 hour and is all ok then CPU is stable.

GPU - 3DMark Vantage two runs and then again - gaming to check everything fine.
 
also agree with Intel burn test,
slightly disagree with other post, its better to run a custom test, imo

I have a quad core so i set it as

in IBT i set threads to 4 (for 4 cores) and then click on custom ram and enter an amount just below the free amount. (check in task manager under the performance tab, you want the 'free' ram amount)
eg. i have 2520mb free ram. so i enter 2500 into the custom ram.
Ideally you should have at least 75% of your ram being tested
run the test for 10 passes. for now, (during overclock process)
and then at final speed you want, run for 50 passes.

i dont know if its a 2500k how many threads it has, someone will be along shortly to tell you, but just set it as all threads for now
 
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Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advice guys , I have just run up the following :-

6692235637_fb9843f24c_b.jpg


The temps look a little high for my tastes... I will knock it down to 4.5 and see what we are looking at, for max load then...
 
Sorry but i think you should have a higher gflop score.
have you got SP1 on windows 7?
iirc you should be around the 100gflop score

where is Wingzero30 or Joeyjo when you need them? :D

edit. a 2500K at 4.5Ghz should be getting around 122 gflops, so the test is not running properly.
Is HT turned off? if not, then turn it off.
set threads to 8 or 4 (i am not familiar with SB) and not all.

then use the custom memory thing i said before, using max. ram uses cached memory, this will slow down IBT, you need to run 'free' ram

similar thread here
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18339571&highlight=2500k+gflops

edit. higher gflops will give you higher temps, as the test is running properly, so i would reduce it to 4.5GHz and redo the test properly.

thread here on how to run IBT properly
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18297411&highlight=2500k+gflops
 
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i'm getting 114 gflops at 4.5

122 you say? wonder why mine is a bit lower

also is ther a reason i'm getting higher voltage in burn test compared to prime? 1.328 for prime but burn test goes up to 1.352 for some reason
 
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turning llc down to high intel burn test comes more into line with prime 95 voltage usage

still a bit higher though, prime fluctuates between 1.328 - 1.336

intel burn test is 1.336 - 1.344

burn test get them temps a lot hotter it seems, this program seems better than prime to me, it's quicker, give the absolute possible max temps and catches instability quick

prime 95 i was getting around 60c

overclock45intelburntest.png
 
IBT is a good initial indicator of stability, but a long run of Prime (say 12 hours or so) may well show instability that isn't exposed by IBT. The two tests complement each other.
 
Yeap all the above testers. But with my overclock I had 10 runs on IBT and passed a couple of hours of prime. But KOTOR 1 made me bsod after an hours playtime, everytime lol. I had to go from 4.7 to 4.6ghz and now all is good. Very strange indeed
 
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