prime95 questions

T

Tanatz

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 13, 2006
Messages
271
Background:

I previously had a garbage GIGABYTE motherboard that wouldn't OC for crap. Thankfully the heatsink broke on it which was why I was having overheating issues so I got the ASUS board in my sig. No BIOS update needed as far as I can tell ( I'm gonna stick with the old adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it" ). I built this system over 2.5 years ago, and armed with the confidence that a new OC'able motherboard has brought I'm diving head-first into Overclocking the crap out of this system. If it dies on me, it dies and I have an excuse to do build myself a new system :D

I've read a few good OC'ing guides. I've been experimenting and I let prime95 run after every change I make. So far all that's been stable for me is a bump up of the FSB to 215 x12 with the CPU voltage set to auto. AMD site says voltage for this CPU is between 1.35 and 1.40, yet with it set to auto I see it at 1.52 for V core. But it's stable in prime95 for over 10 hours, so that's fine with me. ( fyi, manually setting the voltage to 1.5 is unstable ) ( another fyi, going to 220x12 all other things equal is unstable, the system wouldn't even boot into windows )

So, 215x12 is my new starting point to experiment from. From there I've tried to up the PCI-E from 100 to 105 which was stable in prime95 for about 4 hours, at which point the test halted.

Question 1 - is four hours in prime95 considered "stable enough"? i.e. if prime95 stops its testing due to instability after say 5 minutes, yea that's bad. But what about four hours? Ten hours?

Question 2 - is 215x12 the highest I'll ever be able to set the FSB? Or do I need to manually raise the CPU voltage to allow it to go higher?

Question 3 - is prime95 100%? i.e. if my OC is stable in prime95 for 10 hours or more does that guarantee that I'm not going to fry my system playing a game for 5 hours straight?

Thanks in advance.
 
1. No - it means that the system could be unstable under load
2. I'm not an AMD user but I'm sure you can get more than that by dropping the multiplier - but let someone who knows AMD tell you about that.
3. To avoid 'frying' anything you need to keep it cool. So monitor your temps at all times when overclocking and when testing under Prime95. If your using a stock cooler then use some AS5 to get good cooling. In fact always use it anyhow.
 
AS5 is on there, perfectly I might add.

I monitor temps while running prime95 using ASUS Probe - the software that came with the motherboard. It tells me V-Core readings, CPU fan rpm, CPU temps, motherboard temps and 5 & 12 rail readings. How accurate it is, I don't know, but the highest I've seen is 52 degrees under full load, which even I know is pretty damn good.
 
Could use a bit more input please.

Do I need to provide more info?

Am I an idiot and answering my own questions without realizing it?

Am I an idiot and just missing something that I've probably read in one of these guides?
 
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