Yes, thanks Scott.
And sorry for jumping on your thread Mike.
It just so happens that I was also confused by Prime95 and read good things about AIDA64.

Most of the info on these type of programs are gaming related.
Not a bad thing but I'm also setting up and testing a DAW, of course. 
I just like to be sure that what works for one is also adequate for our needs. 

I'm sure AIDA64 is fine but I'm going to go with the DAW pro's suggestion here.   
And I'm also a fan of the word FREE.
I don't do this for a living and while $40 won't break me it's not something that's going to get a lot of use.

Now as far as how long to run these test's, I've seen everything from 4 to 24+ hours.
I ran my last test for 12 hours figuring that I realistically will not be running my PC that hard for that long.
Should we be running them 24 hours or is 8 - 12 plenty?

Mike 

I can see the merit of having the tools to figure out where a bottleneck is... if I could do something about it.

It seems like that sort of tool is suited for some one who encounters several boards/builds a week.

I don't know how I could make use of that data if I didn't have a shelf full of parts to try out.

I certainly respect the idea that having that sort of first hand experience is the only way to understand what's going on and I appreciate the people that maintain that level of awareness.

I can't see how it will be practical for me, as an end user, when I only have one (or maybe a few) example(s) of each part to test, to hope that the detailed info will lead to further tweaking.

all the best,
mike

For me the whole reason for testing is that I just finished this PC build and as Jim mentioned above "Don't assume that because something is new... that all components are fine." 


A little assurance that I done good. :-)


Mike too.

Mike,

prime 95 is not as heavy hitting (stress testing) as Sandra that's the biggest reason
 
prime 95 will wear out your video card but note stress other areas much

ChefMike,

we do a minimum over night burn in.. well moer actually let me splain..

ok systems are built outside the case first
memtest 3 full runs  32-64gig ram that takes a long time. (a whole day)

then windows gets installed updated most tweaks down.
then an over night burn-in with Sisoft testing all memory tests, all CPU tests nothing else.

then it gets benchmarked ram, cpu, hdds to be sure all is where it should be. and yes we do find weak items (hdds, ram)
then and only then is it cased..
then it goes to a different area where those guys install software/hardware for audio/video and do more tweaks, benchmarks for chosen software/hardware.
then its burned in again with si-soft.

now here is the kicker, a system can pass all this and then have issues right at the end. and you can only scratch your head as to why..
many a stick of ram replaced at this point.. and then we have to hold it for a few more days and try to wear it out.

nothing worse than spending all that money for a new shiny system to have it BSOD on you the first few days you have it...
or me having to pay shipping back and forth to fix it..
thus the absurd amount of testing

Thank you Scott.
And here I was feeling that over the last week I was damaging my system by running test after test using Prime95, AIDA64 and memtest. 

I was just about to fire it up and run Si-Soft too.

Well, I'm off to burn.

Mike 

 
Let's say I had a friend who wanted to try the SiSoft stuff as has been advised.
 
Which package would I tell my friend to buy?
 
:-)

its free.
 
http://www.sisoftware.net/?d=&f=downandbuy&l=en&a=
 
the lite version is all you need

Thanks Scott.

mike_mccue
I'm one of those guys that assumes that old is just as good as new.

In fact, I know of a lot of examples where old stuff is better than new.

That doesn't mean I am not interested in what is new.





Any body want to elaborate?

:-)

Ooo, Oooo!
 
Could it be 8.5.3 Classic to which you refer?

 
Mike