Stability Testing...what's your procedure?

[Shibby]

When you are setting up/tweaking a system, what do you guys use to test your system stability? (I hope this is the right forum for this)

Clearly, Memtest is the first thing to do, on each stick, then both (if you have 2).

What do you guys do next? Prime95, 3dMark (which one? or all?), SuperPi?

Setting up a new system here and want to torture the heck out of it to ensure stability.

Thanks,

Greg

 

[horndude]

memtest isnt aways all that great,ive seen it report memory as being ok when it wasnt

my tests:
all at same time-------rip a dvd into mpeg4@720x480,run setiathome,rip a cd,play a movie, and move a couple of gigs from one drive to the other,and run a browser and p2p app

if it can do all that and not have issues, its probably fine

I dont bother with memtest, the OS I use wont boot correctly unless the RAM is good

then a I compile a few large programs and compare the resulting files to test the compiler

sometimes I will tweak the swapfile size and priority, but usually not much if any tweaks are needed

 

[Trifid]

Either would be fine for stability. Playing games like DOOM 3 and hl2 would be fine as well.

Run memtest on both sticks at the asme time. Only do them seperatley if they have problems on it.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

I am happy if it passes all my benchmarks as well as plays any game except HL2 except for problems

HL2 crashes on me occasionaly, doesnt matter if it's stock or overclocked.

 

[senseless]

Sisoft Sandra comes with a burn in utility.. If you're testing a system you're going to want to use this.

 

[Him]

Prime95 for 24 hours or more straight. Also you can play Doom3 and HL2 for a long long time (like was said earlier). But Prime95 for at least a full day is the standard way most people check their stability.

 

[Shibby]

what do you mean by 'burn-in' utility?

 

[Him]

For breaking your system in. Kind of like breaking in a new pair of pants. They really arent comfortable until after you've worn them a few times. Your computer wont run it's best until it has been "worn" a few times.