Best programs for stability testing?

[quarryman]

I've assembled my Shuttle and have been merrily (Christmas theme there) playing a few of the latest games. I'm having a few problems when i try to overclock with regard to stability. See system in sig.

When I push the P4 up to 3GHz it boots to the desktop and everthing seems to run smooth. Then i try to run 3Dmark and usually it runs ok. However as soon as i get to 3.1GHz or higher it crashes to the desktop during one of the demos. I think the crash is related to how high the CPU is clocked. The higher the speed the quicker it crashes.

I have also got the 9600 pro o/ced to 520 clock 600 mem. Depending on how high the CPU is i try to match the ram speed.

ie when the CPU is at 3GHz or under i set the ram to 320 which overclocks it to 380 i think (when the FSB is changed. Any higher and i drop it down to 266MHz which pushes it to 330-340.

What are the best programs out there for testing the stability of the setup? Ideally i want to run everythibg at the highest stable speed but i should be able to get the CPU above 3GHz shouldn't I? The system will also crash when overclocked when playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

I have monitored the temps and the CPU has never got to 50c at load. Also the gfx card hardware monitor shows it is running quite cool.

Does the low speed of the RAM have an effect?

Thanks for the help.

[da_ging]

memtest
3dmark
prime95

thats what i use ,the next best way is to play games all day

[SilentDeath]

try more voltage should clock bit higher

[Nox]

folding@home

atleast your stability testing is then put to a reasonably good cause

Nox

[quarryman]

Originally posted by |SilentDeath|
try more voltage should clock bit higher

not sure if that's possible with the Shuttle bios. i'll have a look. i would be reluctant to put in more voltage in case i damaged the CPU.

that got me thinking though. I had said that the game would hang when it was overclocked and that 3dmark would crash to the desktop.
Could it be related to:

1. Power? Surely the power consumption when overclocked is still less than 220W

2. Does an overclocked CPU draw so much power under stress that it might not be enough. Would upping the voltage be the answer?

[SilentDeath]

dunno if 220w is enuf for shuttles but upping the voltage would definatly help

[kingabs]

run sisoft as well as running 3dmark 2003 all at the same time for a couple of hours i would to ensure peak performance and to ensure everything is cushy

[Agent]

Prime and Toast are also good

[eldren]

Stability testing with a single program at a time is a joke (As I've said before). I use a combination of Prime95 and our very own Pifast, scripted to run three intances simultaneously, permanently, until I end the test. While doing this, perhaps copy a GB or so of files (This step can cause harddrive corruption if your compy is not stable, mind you) - works a treat.

Why do I say that using a single program is useless? A computer that ran stabley for a day on Memtest86, and then several hours on Prime95, promptly crashed when copying files and running Prime95 simultaneously.