Stable ???

[Tech Geek Deluxe]

I have overclocked for years since before the Celeron 200mhz days.
Overclocks for me earlier were what I could get away with all the way to the edge of a crash BSOD.

Well ... I have actually perfected these skills and leared what works and researched for the various few degrees and tweaks that really increase performance ... however I must have become more conservative in what I consider stable ... because I can reach beyond what others claim pretty easily ... yet they claim their system is stable ... and ... well I just can't claim it is stable since I am keenly aware of slight system hangs and many things that simply aren't evident in whatever 24 hour stress test one wants to put the PC through.

So ... [rant] just what is stable?

An overclocked PC that has the Ram timings set at 8-8-8-24 ... so that one can claim their overclock is real?

An overclocked PC that sounds like a Jet taking off because one has 12 Fans blowing at high speed?

An overcloked PC that passes all the stress tests and still has hangs or glitches or has random data-loss?

For me Stable is "Better" ... better when it comes to quiet performance. Better when it comes to speed. Better when it comes to "crashless" operation. Better when it comes to cooling. Better when it comes to just about everything.

The only thing I don't mind not being "Better" is CPU life ... I could care less if my CPU is fried after 4 years. Heck ... I really haven't ever kept a CPU for longer than 3. I actually want to squeeze it for every bit of juice it can produce on a stable platform for its short bright burning life.

So ... what are 3 or more requirements of "Stable" that satisfy your sensibilities? And does your system remain stable during the summer months and after your filters get dirty ... etc. ... or do crashes still happen?

[gvblake22]

For me, it it will pass 12 hours of StressPrime, a run of PCMark05 and 3DMark05 or 06, SuperPI, and 30 - 60 minutes of MemTest86+, without ever going more than about 20ºC or so over ambient temperature, then it is stable. I start feeling uncomfortable when temperatures get above 50º but I probably won't bother changing much unless temps break into the upper 50's or more.

[Yellowhello]

For me stable is 8 hours of Prime95 (v25.5 for multi-core), 3DMark06, 2-3 passes of MemTest, and it doesn't crash when playing system-intensive games. Unless I REALLY notice it, being a little unstable doesn't really bother me.

[polobunny]

You're mixing stable, quiet and fast in my opinion.
For me, stable = no crash, freeze or hiccups due to hardware failure of some sort. Does need to pass some basic stability test (prime, memtest etc) but also more "realistic" tests.
I've had overclocks not failing a 24h prime but still hanging in games from time to time, or even at a specific point. Reducing my overclock on memory fixed this problem.
So overall, I guess stable means my system is able to run 24/7 without locking up on me, crashing up my games or rebooting all of a sudden. I'll close my computer whenever I feel like Windows is acting up, but that's about it.

[Lead Head]

I usually run 1 hour of Orthos, maybe a few rounds of memtest, from there I just use my rig as I would normally for a few days, check for data loss, and corruption, etc..If its all good, I just continue with that OC

[RangerXLT8]

I run my CPUs hard, near their max rated temp, hence why I have a xeon, they have a higher tjunction. I keep my air filters clean and do not down clock in the summer...

For stability, I run the CPU for 12+hrs of ORTHOs, which heats up the CPU well beyond what an intense game will. Memory, I run memtest for a few hours, numerous passes.