Free programs to test stability of new rig?

[Triforceofcourage]

Hey guys,
I have my new rig arriving from newegg any day now and want to know what programs you guys use to stress the system and make sure it is up to snuff and stable. Free programs would be ideal.

Thanks,

Triforce

 

[parsley007]

sorry, don't know what i was thinking ...you can start with memtest86 and prime95

 

[coolroyboy2]

What is the computer going to be used for ?

 

[Triforceofcourage]

I am going to be using it for practically everything. For classes, gaming, video encoding and anything else you can think of

 

[Fokks]

Prime 95 Has a Torture test mode for cpu/ memory
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

Sisoft Sandra has a burn in mode, also mostly for cpu/memory testing.
http://www.sisoftware.net/

3DMark for video (Put it in looping mode and bump up the resolution)
http://www.futuremark.com/download/?3dmark03.shtml

 

[Robor]

As an alternative SETI@Home will stress test your memory and CPU big time. PM me or drop into the DC forum if you have any questions. Yeah, I'm pimping my favorite DC project.

 

[mrbass]

CPU Burn-in
Memtest86

 

[Triforceofcourage]

How long should I run these tests for?

 

[Triforceofcourage]

Bump?

 

[forkd]

I too would like to know how long you should run these tests

 

[CTho9305]

3dmark: loop it overnight. To stress the video card most, set the resolution (FSAA, anisotropic filtering, whatever) high enough that your framerate gets choppy.
memtest86: usually 1 pass is enough (20 minutes on my machine)
prime95: people say 24 hrs. Any machine that's given me trouble has always failed in under 5 minutes.

Sisoft Sandra is overrated.

I've used the original UT intro loop as a test also, which found some problems that other tests didn't.

edit: I don't know how long you should do the CPUburn.. probably long enough that the temperature reaches the max, then give it a few minutes at that temperature.

 

[Sid59]

Toast

 

[Triforceofcourage]

I plan on doing some divx encoding. Would ripping and encoding video into divx be a good cpu test also?

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Triforceofcourage
I plan on doing some divx encoding. Would ripping and encoding video into divx be a good cpu test also?

yes it would,encoding really stresses the cpu a lot.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: Budman

Originally posted by: Triforceofcourage
I plan on doing some divx encoding. Would ripping and encoding video into divx be a good cpu test also?

yes it would,encoding really stresses the cpu a lot.

But it's difficult to tell whether or not there was any corruption, unless you also encoded on a known-good system and compared the output files.

 

[BFG10K]

Do you have any games? Running looping demos are often a good test.

You can download UT2003 and UT2004 demos which have good benchmarks in them.

 

[eigen]

try running any microsoft product for a few hours......