Prime95

[Smitty]

Forgive me if I sound a little ignorant on the subject.  I know there's a 32 bit version of Prime95, but is there a 64 bit version as well?  Does it matter which one I use--I'm using Win7 Ultimate x64.  This seems to be the most common overclocking test/verification tool, but are there others that you folks would recommend?  This is my first attempt at mild overclocking, and therefore, my first attempt at "stressing" a PC.  My PC has been running fine for about a week now, and I intended to run Prime95 before I began overclocking.  I assumed this would identify instability, before I begin overclocking.  Or is that a bad idea?

[absic]

Hi Smitty,

As you are running a 64Bit version of windows you really need the 64 bit version of Prime95. You can download it from Extremeoverclocking.com here: http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/download.php?fh=84aa92208050bf61b75f20c454fd87a7

Being totally honest and going much against the grain, I rarely use stress tests on my systems. I do a lot of Audio/Video work that requires a lot of number crunching so I usually run a few of these things as tests as this is the maximum stress load I will ever use and if it falls over then I know I need to make some adjustments. I do this before I get down to any thing that is important, as I don't want the system to crash whilst rendering a 3 hour film or during a multi-track recording session.

When doing any stress testing it is important that you keep an eye on the temperatures being produced throughout the system. I have found that using AMD Overdrive or EasyTune6 for monitoring are most reliable as I have had issues with HW Monitor and CoreTemp when I have pushed the CPU above 4.0GHz

[Smitty]

Thanks absic for the advice and link.  I just installed AMD overdrive.  For the moment, I intend to use it just to monitor things--like CPU temp.  Up to this point, I was using the BIOS to check temps, but that was a PITA. I understand from this forum (and others) that it's best to use the BIOS for overclocking, and not 3rd-party software.  So that's what I plan to do.  According to AMD Overdrive, my CPU temp (at idle) is 19C.  I'm assuming that's pretty good when using an aftermarket air cooler.  I also assume that my rig will probably become unstable well before my 1090T temps reach critical levels.  But since I plan on taking things very slow and methodical, I doubt I'll reach levels that could cause any permanent damage.  Being my first time, I plan on being pretty cautious.   

[absic]

Hi Smiity,

yes 19C is very good, my own CPU temps is around 20C at the moment. The max Temp for the 1090T is 62C and you can reach that pretty quickly when you start increasing the voltages and stressing the CPU.

If I can offer one piece of advice it would be to make good notes of your BIOS settings. I always jot down what these are at their defaults before I start tweaking anything. In the first few instances you will probably be able to get away with upping the CPU Frequency without changing anything else. Once you go above 3.8GHz you will probably have to increase the CPU voltage, to get my system stable at 4.2GHz I had to up this one but do it gradually and test each time.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.