How do you test if an overclocked system is stable?

[Admiral Horror]

When you overclock CPU, FSB and memory how do you test if the system is actually stable? Going through POST and successfully loading OS is a nice start but obviously doesn't guarantee that the system will be stable when it matters most. So my question is: what's you favorite way to make sure the overclocked system is stable?

What I normally do is run SiSoft Sandra's burn wizard, select all CPU and memory benchmarks, set the priority to high and number of cycles to 100 and let it run overnight. If in the morning the comp is not rebooted then I declare the system to be stable.

Let me know how you test your systems.

Cheers

[volt]

Best thing to do is run Prime95 (stress test) for ~24 hours and see how the it performs. It will also say if all the tests were ran successfully :)

[lagadu]

memstat86 is also a very good test imho...

[budd_wm]

Also 3DMark.

[Gator]

one thing to remember is run the test(s) before you overclock anything, to be sure your default settings are stable themselves. Otherwise you won't really know if an overclock is to blame vs some other kind of hardware or software problem ;)

[Cotita]

Originally posted by volt
Best thing to do is run Prime95 (stress test) for ~24 hours and see how the it performs. It will also say if all the tests were ran successfully :)

If your system is unstable, Prime95 will fail within 1 hour, most probably within 5~10 minutes after starting, so if your PC runs prime95 longer than 1 hour, then it's preety much stable.

3d mark2001 is a good tool for testing stability, specially if you are also overclocking your vid. card.

[DaveW]

Prime95 is where I start. Its a CPU stress test, so it doesn't stress test your bus or memory, for testing those you should run 3D Mark or something. I like to run the 3D Mark demo in a loop and the Prime 95 stress test at the same time over night.

[budd_wm]

I never thought about testing them both at once...but 3DMark is heavily CPU bound too, wouldn't that put TOO much stress on the CPU?

[VeritechK7]

folding or SETI :D

[FastM]

When im pushing my FSB i usually like to boot up with this little proggy http://www.goldmemory.cz after bumping it up each Mhz. I usually let it get to around 40-50% with no errors then keep increasing, when i start to find errors i know its time to play with voltage somewhere.

[Renzo]

I usually do my OC tests with:

- pifast with 100000000 decimals (512MB RAM required FREE) (takes about half an hour)
- memtest86 passed at least one time
- various gametests that last at least 1h or more (ut botmatch, q3 botmatch, ut2k3 botmatch with a lots of bots, everything that plays alone so I don't have to play myself that long).

[DoinkyBottoms]

Drop from a height of at least 6 feet.

[Shinri Hikari]

ROFL:D Hello operater, I need an RMA form because I broke my merchandise by dropping it.:D :cool:

[DoinkyBottoms]

The truth is, the best way to increase stablity is to throw your case in the oven for 30 minutes at 325. Works wonders for me. Just keep in mind that there is an incompatibility with Lian-Li cases and Kenmore stoves. Kenmore is working on a patch, but if you are in a hurry you can try the pencil trick as documented on their site.

[Shinri Hikari]

OMGROFLMAO:D :jumping:

[dohcmark8]

-Prime95
-Sisoft Sandra 2003
-3dmark 2003
-memtest86 (for memory ofcourse)