Once built - then what?

[mssurrey]

My system is up and running but I wanted to make sure that all components are running optimally/efficiently.

How do I test them?

I understand that there are some programs available eg memtest86+.. but i don't know what tests to run and what the numbers should mean.

Apologies if this is in the wrong section of the forum

[marine63]

http://www.overclock.net/other-softw...rclocking.html
go to the benchmark and stability section i think thats wat ur looking for

[LeftyAce]

Just pay attention to your processor temperature (using coreTemp or the monitoring program that came on your motherboard CD).....memtest and the various hardrdive testing utilities are only really needed if you're having problems/symptoms of dying hardware.

[mssurrey]

According to the BIOS temp reading - my CPU's running at 32 deg C - I wanted to find out if that's within acceptable parameters.

Generally, my comp's running well but I also wanted to stress it to see how it handles under pressure and was wondering what tests could be run on it to find out ?

[Tecumseh]

Originally Posted by mssurrey According to the BIOS temp reading - my CPU's running at 32 deg C - I wanted to find out if that's within acceptable parameters. Generally, my comp's running well but I also wanted to stress it to see how it handles under pressure and was wondering what tests could be run on it to find out ?

32° C is OK. The upper threshold upper level for Processor temp. is in the neighborhood of 65°C. A lot has to do with what type of CPU you are running.

[LeftyAce]

32 degrees is great for an idle processor. What kind of processor do you have?

There are benchmarking tests that will stress you cpu and give you an idea of how fast/well it's running.

SuperPi: http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=36
Prime 95: http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

And this one that is a gaming benchmark, so it uses lots of ram, cpu and video card:
3DMark05: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=874

Stress testing for stability isn't really necessary unless you're overclocking. CPU Manufacturers make sure that their chips are stable at their rated speed. All the same, seeing what your rig can do is fun :-)

See what the cpu temperature does under full load. A program like CoreTemp can monitor temperature in Windows so you don't have to reboot.

Temps should be below 60 degrees (far below, in most cases).