Best way to test my Athlon XP overclock?

[PrinceXizor]

I've read through some archived threads and other ones dealing with stress testing. I've seen some excellent discussions on the subject and hope to get some verteran OC input.

Question 1: How long (approximately) does memtest86 take to go through all of its tests?
Question 2: Should this be looped a few times to ensure stability? or is once enough?
Question 3: Is looping Prime95 the best way to stress test a 1600+ O/C'd? I'm not equipped to do any encoding. Are there any other applications that stress the CPU that I can use in conjunction with Prime95?
Question 4: What is considered "long enough"? 12 hours? 24 hours? Until the CPU temps level off?
Question 5: Is there a difference between the voltage listed in CPU-Z for the processor and the voltage listed in the BIOS?

If anyone has any other O/C'ing advice or links to old archived threads I missed in my search, that would be appreciated.

P-X

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: PrinceXizor
I've read through some archived threads and other ones dealing with stress testing. I've seen some excellent discussions on the subject and hope to get some verteran OC input.


Question 5: Is there a difference between the voltage listed in CPU-Z for the processor and the voltage listed in the BIOS?

Yes, CPU-Z is giving you the voltage in Windows (often called the "actual" voltage). Another good program for measuring actual voltage is MBM5 (motherboard monitor 5). In the BIOS you set the voltage, but depending on your Power Supply, CPU load (ie how hard it's working, etc) your actual voltages can dip substantially lower than what you set it to in the BIOS. Having a good PSU helps keep it a lot more stable (and keeps those voltages up), however.

As for Prime95, I think 3-12 hours is fine. 6 hours is plenty for me . If you're running the machine as a server, you'd want to bench it for a couple of days, but if you turn it off every night, I see no point in exceeding 12 hours for prime.

Edit: by the way, are you really a prince?

 

[Doh!]

I'll add that your voltages may actually be higher than your BIOS setup depending on the motherboard as some motherboards overvolt (some undervolts as noted above).

 

[PrinceXizor]

Thanks! Anyone else have answers to the other questions?

A clarification to number 5. I was talking about CPU-Z reading (which is 1.584V) vs. the CPU Health BIOS reading (not the actual BIOS setting) which usually reads about 1.79V. I'll post what the vcore is set at after I reboot to finish the install of MBM.

Edit: My stress testing currently consists of Running the Prime95 TortureTest, Scheduling a virus scan every 30 minutes in NAV during the test and looping an AudioCD playback in WMP. I let this run all night appx. 10 hours. As I post, Prime has been running for 14. After SiSoft Sandra 2004 Extreme Edition finished d/l'ing, I'm going to install it and then post Prime95 results and temps from CPU Health BIOS.

Edit 2: 14 hours, 22 minutes no errors
Temp in Sandra: 53.5C
Temp in CPU Health: 53C
Not sure what mbm5 is doing, seems I've got alot of worthless data in it...have to read up a little.

P-X

 

[Doh!]

Try encoding an avi file. It can really test the stability more than running an audio cd.

 

[PrinceXizor]

Originally posted by: Doh!
Try encoding an avi file. It can really test the stability more than running an audio cd.

And how does one go about doing that

P-X

 

[PrinceXizor]

Ok....MBM5 takes a little set-up work...anyone got settings for an 8RDA+?

Edit: LOL...found the help file...don't know how I missed that before
Edit 2: Ok, mostly set-up...a few questions though.

It is incorrectly reporting the speed of my processor. Is this normal?
What is the third temperature sensor on this board? Case, CPU, XXX?
What's the difference between Core0 and Core1 on this board. Core0 seems to be 1.6V while Core1 is 1.79V. 1.6V is what is reported by Sandra as processor voltage, and 1.79V is what I get from the CPU Health BIOS readout....hmm...

P-X