Whats the big deal about Prime95 and OCing?

[Renob]

My system mobil 2600 is running at 11.5 x 200 for 2300mhz

It never locks up, never gets hotter then 43c with a $20 cooler runs at 1.6 volts
I can run any bench mark over night and it is fine.

But will not run Prime95 for more then an hour.


I say my system is rock solid stable, what do you guys say.

I have seen people say if it cant run Prime 95 for 24hours then the system is not stable??

 

[myocardia]

If it's stable enough for you, then feel free to call it stable, but unless it can pass a minimum of 12 hours of Prime95 torture test (Blend on the newer ones), plus a few other things, I say it isn't stable. Just raise your vcore to 1.65v, and it will be Prime95 stable. I have the same chip, and it requires 1.65v to be Prime stable at 2.3ghz. Mine's an AQYHA stepping, if that makes a difference to you.

 

[Renob]

myocardia


Just curious why you would not call it stable, Like I said I have never had it lock up or have a BSOD, it does everything except one little number cruncher that in the real world for 99.99% percent of the people out there have never even heard of, and has no effect on any of the things I do with my system.

I respect your opinion even if I don?t agree with it.


BTW thanks for your input.

 

[ColossusX]

I agree with myocardia, if it cant pass Prime, then it isnt truly stable. I have a mobile 2500 running at 11.5*200 @ 1.625 volts (which my mobo undervolts) rock stable through 24hrs prime, memtest, seti, etc. I thought mine was stable at 12*200 @1.7 volts, but then i had problems with Unreal Tournament 2004. Did some research, and ran Prime. Now I have no problems what so ever. Like myocardia said, bump up your voltage and you should have no problems.

My stepping is IQYHA if it matters.

Here is some info from the Prime95 stress.txt:

Keep in mind
that the faster prime95 finds a hardware error the more likely it is that
other programs will experience problems.

The second school of thought is, "Why run a stress test if you are going
to ignore the results?" These people want a guaranteed 100% rock solid
machine. Passing these stability tests gives them the ability to run
CPU intensive programs with confidence.

 

[Sokratz]

if you read the prime95 readme it kind of goes into it. at some point during that crunching your system replied with the incorrect #. if i ask my computer 10 million times what 5-2 is, and it replies 3 all but once. Can I ever trust it?

The real problem is that, is 24 hrs really stable? one week? who knows. you'd have to subject your computer to the min and max in enviromental changes as well for x period of time.

all that being said, perhaps ppl go a little overboard on it. i like the 2048 test, and i like it to get my temps high w/folding running too. It's a nice quick test to weed some of the folks out who say "yeah well i can do [insert amazing oc]". Sure, we could boot into windows on some of those settings, but if it's going to crap out on me in 20 mins, I dont' call *that* stable.

Does this help? Doubt it. Make a decision for yourself and stick to it

Sokratz

 

[THUGSROOK]

Originally posted by: Renob
myocardia

Just curious why you would not call it stable....

eventually you will try a new program or game, and itll crash your system.
chances are even just a few degrees hotter in the room and it will crash under full load.

youre too close to the edge at only 1 hour prime95 stable.
you should be at least 5 hours stable ~ 12 hours is concidered "fully stable".
but even then, 12 hours may not be enough.

what it comes to is this:
there is no one program that can tell you if youre system is 100% stable ~ but there are plenty of programs that will tell you it isnt
(p95 is one of them)

 

[myocardia]

Thank you for respecting my opinion. Let me tell you why it's my opinion. Your computer is making some calculation mistakes sometimes. If all you're doing is gaming, that's no big deal at all. Hey, I used to have an XP2400 that would run 12x200 or 11.5x210, but it was only Prime95 stable up to 10.5x212. That's what I ran it at 24/7, because I was doing DC (distributed computing) then, and my computer not making any computational mistakes would (well, could) have been a big thing then. If I have to drop my overclock by 25mhz, like I did with my XP-M 2600 to attain that added bit of stability, I don't mind, because I know for sure that whatever I do with it is going to come out completely right. For instance, when I finally buy myself a dvd burner, I don't want to have dropped frames/screwed up rip, etc, just for that added 25-75mhz. I'd rather wait one minute longer for the process to finish, and know before I even start it that it's going to come out right. But it's your computer. If it were mine, I would just raise the vcore to 1.65v (which is stock voltage for the Bartons, remember). If you don't want to, I can respect that, but I wouldn't rely on you to do my taxes with your computer!

 

[Renob]

but I wouldn't rely on you to do my taxes with your computer

Good one, I think what I will do is just leave it the way it is until I have that 1st problem, then bump up the voltage.

Thanks guys

 

[Zebo]

Read the prime docmentation.

Personally I', happy with about 6 hours. Get impateint after that. Also you will not error if you apply some decent voltage ~1.65. This is CPU-Z voltage not bios as you board undervolts about .05.

 

[Margalus]

Originally posted by: Renob


But will not run Prime95 for more then an hour.

exactly what is happening? is it reporting hardware errors? or is it just stopping? what exactly is the problem when p95 stops? Also, the most reliable version of p95 is the 22.13v http://www.mersenne.org/gimps/p95v2213.zip it doesn't have all of the bugs that were introduced in the 23.xx versions

 

[Renob]

exactly what is happening


it reports hardware errors

 

[JBT]

If it can't pass an hour I would say its unstable I go for atleast 12 personally. But it really depends on what you thnk is "good enough" I would bump up the voltage a hair and I bet it will make it through fine.

 

[Whitedog]

I agree with what everyone else is saying. Just because your computer hasn't locked up on you doing your normal stuff, doesn't mean it isn't gritting it's teeth.

If after one hour of p95 it dies with hardware failure messages, then you certainly can't claim it to be a "rock stable" computer as you put it.

"Stable enough for my use" should be the term, and used loosly.

Who knows, some day you might get into a game (or other program) and the scales tip and *WHAM* lockup/crash/whatever.

It sounds like it concerns you a little, otherwise you wouldn't have posted this thread. So I'd suggest tweaking it a little till it passes p95 overnight. THEN you can claim it to be a "Rack Stable" computer.

I'm with most people, stability is FAR more important than 1 or 2 more FPS. Of course I believe most people here tweak their systems out NOT to get more FPS, but rather to have those higher numbers in their benchmarks to post up here... Give themselves some bragging rights.

My XP will run somewhere around 2.45 before it dies in the blue coffin, but I run it at 2.25 just because I want 150% stability.

 

[Margalus]

if you are getting the hardware error, I am going to have to say that your system is not rock solid stable. You may not have done anything on the computer to cause a problem yet, but sooner or later you will have a problem.

One other thing to do is download and run memtest86 and see what happens. You could also try loosening your memory timings a bit and trying prime95 and see if it helps. But if you can make it an hour, your not too far off of the max oc of the current setup. Personally I like to go 24hours before I say it is 100% stable. But generally if you can go 8 hours it is stable enough for most uses, and probably would go 24 hours if you don't stop it.

 

[Connoisseur]

As an aside to what everyone else is saying, if your cpu isn't running prime properly, then it means that your processor is having trouble keeping at that frequency, which in the long run means decreased life. Bumping the vcore gives it the juice to properly sustain the higher frequencies. Now I don't know exactly how MUCH it'll decrease life since i've never had any of my o/ced CPU's in the past 8 years die on me yet. But still, either bring down the freq. or up the vcore. Personally, I get very nervous if my system can't run prime for a long time. I have an athlon xp 1600+ (1.4g) that'll run any game and 3dmark fine at 1.75ghz (166x10.5) but it won't run prime for more than a couple minutes. So I bumped it down to 162x10.5 and now EVERYTHING will run on it reliably.

 

[Renob]

Ok dang it, I will up the vcore and see what it does.

While Im at it I will go for the 220x11 I know my mem and proc will do it, just not sure if my cooler can do its job.

Might have to break down and buy a nice cooler.

Thanks for all your input guys.

 

[chinkgai]

my mobile will go up run 2526 for about 3 hours and 30 min and die every time even with the bumped voltage. i am pretty sure its my memory thats killing it since i have some crappy pc2700 that im oc'ing to 178 mhz and i think the power is killing it over time. temps are 25/26c for case and 44 full load, so i dont think heat is the issue.

anyways buy my vantec aerocool =D

 

[Renob]

anyways buy my vantec aerocool

Thats funny, its what Im using.

 

[Granorense]

Originally posted by: Renob
My system mobil 2600 is running at 11.5 x 200 for 2300mhz

It never locks up, never gets hotter then 43c with a $20 cooler runs at 1.6 volts
I can run any bench mark over night and it is fine.

But will not run Prime95 for more then an hour.


I say my system is rock solid stable, what do you guys say.

I have seen people say if it cant run Prime 95 for 24hours then the system is not stable??

Man....Anandtech users are benchmarkers! They will be allover you about this my friend.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Granorense

Originally posted by: Renob
My system mobil 2600 is running at 11.5 x 200 for 2300mhz

It never locks up, never gets hotter then 43c with a $20 cooler runs at 1.6 volts
I can run any bench mark over night and it is fine.

But will not run Prime95 for more then an hour.


I say my system is rock solid stable, what do you guys say.

I have seen people say if it cant run Prime 95 for 24hours then the system is not stable??

Man....Anandtech users are benchmarkers! They will be allover you about this my friend.

Haha, you quoted the wrong person!

 

[lobadobadingdong]

my torture test is a little more real. I run seti at home while running loops of 3dmark. for afew days, I turn off 3dmark to do the programs I actually use (though by the 3rd 3dmark loop if anything is going to happen it would have happened already.