OC questions

[PTRMAN]

Using the HL guide and others I've started OCing my rig. How long do you typically run Prime95? Some say 2 hours is good, others say as much as 24. I'm left confused...

Also read that Blend is good for OC as a whole, but small FFTs is best just for CPU.

During normal use the rig folds 24/7; I only occasionally use it for surfing/gaming/video editing (4-5 hours per weekday; 15+ hours per weekend).

[polobunny]

24hrs is good. It's long, a lot deem it unnecessary but that's something I prefer to do. One of those "just in case" thing. If your rig isn't stable for 24hrs, then it's not stable for a split second either. Those inconsistencies due to overclocking can pop up anytime, whether they popped up at 23 hours and 59 minutes or at the first second your ran Prime95.

I suggest you run IntelBurnTest, one of my current favorite. It's very quick (under 20 minutes is usually enough) at finding problems.
IntelBurnTest - The new stress-testing program - XtremeSystems Forums
Use a half stress, 20 passes and watch that all the linpack results are the same. If they are, it's stable. If they aren't, it's not stable.

[PTRMAN]

So I passed the test with the settings you suggested. Clearly a 20-minute test isn't the same as a 24-hour test, so I guess I'm off to run Prime95 for many hours now...

Or would I be better served by trying a higher OC clock first? Use IntelBurnTest to find first failure level, then back off that and run Prime 95?

[drew and not u]

I'll typically run orthos for an hour once I've got the overclock I want. If that passes I'll usually save the OC profile, and then right before bed I'll start an orthos run again overnight just to be sure. That intelburn utility looks interesting, I'll have to try that out this evening.

[theburan]

IntelBurntest is much more stressful than orthos/prime95, that's for sure. We're talking stressful enough to heat a cpu up an extra 10c over what it'll hit in orthos.... so 20 minutes of that is a really, really nifty way to test a cpu.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by drew and not u

I'll typically run orthos for an hour once I've got the overclock I want. If that passes I'll usually save the OC profile, and then right before bed I'll start an orthos run again overnight just to be sure. That intelburn utility looks interesting, I'll have to try that out this evening.

Originally Posted by theburan

IntelBurntest is much more stressful than orthos/prime95, that's for sure. We're talking stressful enough to heat a cpu up an extra 10c over what it'll hit in orthos.... so 20 minutes of that is a really, really nifty way to test a cpu.

Yup. More stressful, but also more stringent than Orthos/Prime95. I've had overclocks passing 24+hrs ORTHOS runs but fail after 20 passes of IntelBurnTest. The downside is that it's Intel only.

[drew and not u]

Looks like the current version is AMD compatible. Tested it out on my laptop at work (die computer, die!), took the CPU to 91 (within like 3*c of tjMax), orthos got it up to about 80*. Hopefully my 8400 will pass, I hate having to add voltage...

[NoctisReitop]

I'm not going to claim that I'm any good at overlcocking. Lately, I've been trying to cut the stock cpu's voltage to lower temps (being my board automatically changes voltage higher than it needs). I've been running stressprime (will try IntelBurnTest) and often, it took 13+ hours (two separate voltages) before it reported a failure; and as previously stated, if it can fail at 13 hours it can fail in 13 minutes. I believe that anything lower than 13 hours is too little -- just from my experience. I can't say I've dedicated 24 hours yet, either. Just my two cents.

[PTRMAN]

FSB 380 w/IBT = OK
400 = fail
390= fail
running Prime 95 @ 380 overnight...

With a little luck then it's on to the memory timings!

Does anyone use a memory heatsink/fan? They seem very cheap on NewEgg -
Newegg.com - Memory, Fan&Heatsinks, Memory & Chipset Cooling, Fans & Heatsinks

[PTRMAN]

OK, so I'm stable at FSB 380Mhz / 3.42Mhz overall. OCed the memory to 4-4-4-15 (so far) from 5-5-5-15. Gonna try 4-4-4-12 now. Haven't done any volt mods yet. What next?

Still wondering about cooling. Using EVGA Precision I'm up to a stable core of 625/shader of 1464 (linked to core)/memory of 925. Will adding something like a VF1000 cooler help (just have stock now)?

OCing CPU, memory, and (potentially) VGA, each of which might need its own dedicated heatsink/fan. Just wondering if I'd be better off going with WC for all of this. Is it practical to try to cool CPU/NB/RAM and VGA with water? Or am I better off loading up with heatsink/fans on each item and letting the case fans do the aircooling?