Opinions On Stability

[D-r0cK]

Hey all,

 

New to the scene here, but have been constantly reading up on other ppl's post.

I've used Prime95 (stress test) to check for system stability on my comp and it always seems to fail every minute or so, but this is not always the occasion. Sometimes it may go for a good couple hours then fails, with a hardware error on both occasion. I know there could be many reasons why, but i want to narrow it down to 'something' specific.

 

System specs:

 

AMD Athlon 2500+ @200x11 @1.70v

ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe ver. 1.006

512MB Kingston Value PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 @2.7v

ATI Radion 8500 128

Audigy MP3+

Thermalright SP-97 w/Panaflo 92mm 'ULTRA'

WD SATA 80GB 7200rpm

WD PATA 80GB 7200rpm

Maxtor PATA 40GB 7200rpm

RAIDMAX Scorpio 868 Case

[battery]

you might wanna up your vcore a little more and/or up your vdimm too...that will increase your stability...keep doing that untill you get a stability you are happy with

[Rick_fourdumbkids]

i dunno bout prime 95 i use it and i like it but sometimes i think it can be a bit i don't really know how to explain urm over cautious.. for example there's been times where i've run folding at home for days on end and every thing worked okey dorey but then put prime95 on an it fail after a few seconds so i dunno *shrugz*

[D-r0cK]

for example there's been times where i've run folding at home for days on end and every thing worked okey dorey but then put prime95 on an it fail after a few seconds so i dunno *shrugz*

yea same here as well...i am able to fold for weeks, but when it comes to prime95 d**n thing fails within minutes

[ravix]

Thats what so amazing about prime95 though, it stresses your system so much that if your computer is prime95 stable, its stable. Period. For some people, who don't need ABSOLUTE stability, prime95 probably isn't necisarry, as very few programs put your computer through the torture it inflicts. But I see prime95 as a sort of "rule" for overclocks. It is a baseline you can use to say "Hey, look what I overclocked to, oh, and its prime95 stable".

 

Prime95 is the pinnacle of stability tests. Maybe not always required, but definately recommended. And, keep in mind: you can usually pass a sketchy prime test by dropping a few FSB. Will you ever notice that drop? If you must, overclock to the max for benchmarking, then drop it down to where it is prime-stable for the rest of your computer use. A few nights later when you aren't re-writing that term paper from when your computer crashed, you'll thank yourself.

 

Oh, and another thing. The programmer of prime95 made another great point in the help file:

 

Most programs you run will not stress your computer enough to cause a

wrong result or system crash.  If you ignore the problem, then video games

may stress your machine resulting in a system crash.  Also, stay away from

distributed computing projects where an incorrect calculation might cause

you to return wrong results.  Bad data will not help these projects!

In conclusion, if you are comfortable with a small risk of an occasional

system crash then feel free to live a little dangerously!  Keep in mind

that the faster prime95 finds a hardware error the more likely it is that

other programs will experience problems.

 

I understand folding@home has some error checking, but it is impossible to test every piece of data. Just keep that in mind.

[D-r0cK]

If i were to op for new ram with better timing (OCZ 3500 or Corsair 3200) will that at least be stable in Prime95, or are my timings exceptional?

[Stachman31]

D-Rock,

I was just in your position. I had overclocked and tried running Prime 95. I got an error message after 1 minute. So I went from 228 fsb to 222 and also upped my cpu Volts from 1.525 to 1.55. I just got home and I have no errors after 23 hours. The guys had some good suggestions when I posted 2 days ago. I think the title of my post was OC'ed 2.8---->3.2 or some thing like that. It is on the second page of Overclocking thread. Good luck.

Edited April 22, 2004 by Stachman31

[D-r0cK]

Yea i up my vcore from 1.70 to 1.75 and 'even' lowerd my fsb to 195 and finaly 190 where it was stable...but man what the heck (sorry for language) with an fsb of 190 it yeilds 2090Mhz for a Barton 2500+, where as some ppl are going beyond an fsb of 200. What gives...??

[xtry51]

Most of those people are using mobile 2500+'s, not the pre-week 39 desktop versions. Plus, they're not all garunteed to go that high. There are duds out there.

Edited April 22, 2004 by xtry51

[NCC10281982B]

D-r0cK, It depends on a lot of things. xtry51, mentioned having duds. Well I can't get past 210 with the rig in my sig, I think the ram, cpu, & mobo are to blame in my case. Some people can go nuts & some can't You gotta have the right hardware to be one of the people who can go nuts. 2400 mhz seems to be the max my rig can post at, prime 95 won't benchmark at that speed.

 

Anyway, my question for you all is this. I'm currently running 2315mzh (210X11) 1.85 vcore & 2.8 vdimm. Prime 95 will benchmark but will not stress test, games run fine. On a scale of 1 to 10 where would you rate the system Stability

[Nuclear]

I personally do not base all out system stability on Prime95. I've seen stock systems from Dell, HP, etc... fail Prime95 tests right out of the box. I've seen some stock "custom" comps fail at stock speeds. I think that Prime95 is a good tool for system checking, but don't let it be the end all IMO.

 

I like to run some Sandra Benches, 3D Benches, small runs of folding, and some gaming. If my system can do all that, without errors...then I'll run Prime95 and see what it does. If Prime95 fails within minutes, I'll consider upping the vcore or lowering the FSB...if it makes it 4-6HRS without errors, then it's golden.

 

That's just what I think though, my method doesn't work for everyone. Everyone probaly has their own definition of "stable" anyways.

[D-r0cK]

Going from what i hear, i think everyone wants there rig to be 'rock' solid in every test. We all want the best out of our system, do we not? (Well me anyways since I have high standards)

 

Okie another quicky here about ram timing. Which one is best suited for my rig a timing of 2.5-3-3-7 or 2-3-3-6? all at 2.7v

Edited April 23, 2004 by D-r0cK