LinX vs Prime 95 for stability testing, which is best?

[Maximilian]

Any thoughts? They both seem to push my cpu pretty hard.

 

[MJinZ]

Both are best.

 

[EarthwormJim]

From my testing, if a computer will pass 100 rounds or so of Linx, it'll pass any number of hours of Large FFT Prime95. However I've had an overclock that passed 100 rounds of Linx fail Prime 95 blend.

It's best to use both programs, and all 3 Prime tests. They all test different parts of your CPU and system.

I'd say Linx is the best one to start with though. A bad overclock will usually fail Linx the fastest. No one wants to wait for Prime to run for 6 hours and fail, when Linx could have been run for a couple of passes and found the failure.

 

[iluvdeal]

I use LinX mostly as my cpu temps go around 5 degrees higher compared to Prime95 and failures happen quicker.

 

[Joseph Cool]

20 passes of linX and 2 hours of OCCT and I'm satisfied, Prime 95 takes too long to find instability imo.

 

[JAG87]

Linx is a far more strenuous than prime overall.

 

[ShawnD1]

20 passes of linX and 2 hours of OCCT and I'm satisfied, Prime 95 takes too long to find instability imo.

One thing I've seen a few times is that Prime95 will just fail whereas Linpack will take down the whole system. They're testing something different, that's for sure.

 

[soccerballtux]

20 passes of linX and 2 hours of OCCT and I'm satisfied, Prime 95 takes too long to find instability imo.

OCCT is a joke in my opinion, no offense to you; when I was oc'ing my current rig I passed OCCT twice
and subsequently broke it with 2 instances of Orthos Small in about 10 minutes (which I think is Prime95 small, but it always seems to heat up my CPU more than Prime95 does).

 

[Maximilian]

Ive noticed that linX makes the system sluggish whereas with prime95 its like its not even running, except for the extra fan noise and higher temp reading.

 

[zerocool84]

How's the Intel utility?

 

[Zenoth]

Try Orthos' Small FFTs test at Priority 10, that's the best in my opinion, it takes so much of the CPU's resources that you can barely register a single mouse click, you just can't do anything else while that's running, you actually have to leave your computer alone and go do something else, I mean it takes about one or two minutes before a mere folder opens up after double clicking, that gives you an idea. And it usually takes no more than 30 seconds to one minute before it crashes under that mode if my over-clock is unstable, just last month I tried a 3.8 Ghz OC, and tested it in Prime 95, it did get an error, but it took 4 hours, with Orthos Priority 10 (Small FFTs) it took three minutes.

 

[EarthwormJim]

How's the Intel utility?

Linx is the Intel utility just with a nice gui.

 

[andy5174]

Try Orthos' Small FFTs test at Priority 10, that's the best in my opinion, it takes so much of the CPU's resources that you can barely register a single mouse click, you just can't do anything else while that's running, you actually have to leave your computer alone and go do something else, I mean it takes about one or two minutes before a mere folder opens up after double clicking, that gives you an idea. And it usually takes no more than 30 seconds to one minute before it crashes under that mode if my over-clock is unstable, just last month I tried a 3.8 Ghz OC, and tested it in Prime 95, it did get an error, but it took 4 hours, with Orthos Priority 10 (Small FFTs) it took three minutes.

I have completely opposite experience as you. OCCT took 19 hours to find the error found by Prime95 in 10 minutes.

 

[zerocool84]

Linx is the Intel utility just with a nice gui.

Oh cool didn't know that.

 

[nyker96]

I would use Linx and prime95, they seem to test differently. but i usually also run OCCT. temperature wise Linx drives the cpu hard.

 

[n7]

Both are best.

Correct.

I'm just going to quote myself from another similar thread.

There is no "best" one program you can run.
You should be running a few different ones.

Small FFTs = CPU test; useless for checking stability of anything else.

Large FFTs = board test, particularly when you are using a high FSB & putting lots of strain on the NB.
It's very good for testing VTT/NB + GTL stability.

Blend = CPU + overall system, though i don't trust it for large amounts of RAM as it will miss things.

LinX/IBT/LinPack = good for extreme CPU testing (use max RAM; sets larger calculations which = more stress = more heat) & RAM testing.

HCI Memtest = great for RAM testing; will also show NB-related errors if that's not stable.

Memtest86+ = okay for basic RAM testing; useless for stressing NB though.

Play some games as well...i've had P95 pass & LinX pass yet still have had board related instability.