RAM testing software

[MontyMM]

I agree with that part. If you were to ask a Microsoft engineer responsible for providing Windows support what he thinks of amateur overclocks, you will hear much cursing. Not because they blow up their systems, but because they introduce all sorts of insidious problems that are nigh impossible to troubleshoot.

 

Many overclockers don't know that there are several elements affected by overclocking, and that by messing around with frequencies, you can cause all manner of complications beyond CPU stability, causing problematic interactions with other system components. A favourite is disk IO, risking data corruption. Professional companies that provide overclocked systems go to great trouble to examine and address all these factors. IMO, that is the place for stress testing - in the factory, where, if it goes wrong, the parts are replaced and the losses are costed in to the pricing.

 

I've often heard things like: "My problem can't be my over clock. I've run prime95 for 48 hours, so it's rock solid!" That person imagines that now he has passed hat test, he now has a PC that can be relied upon to operate at that clock, in general use. That is a misunderstanding.

 

I do overclock my gaming PC, because I don't care too much if I cause instability or data loss; I'm happy to experiment, up to a point, but I'm then very conscious that said PC is now marked "experimental". I then use benchmarks to establish the stability of the OC, appropriate to that use case. But, I also accept that the overclocked PC may not be trustworthy for serious work - any data critical work or storage will be done on another machine.

[TechAngel85]

I'm not a believer in overclocking. I believe if you want a certain amount of performance you should pay for the components that will give you that performance. Overclocking can be dangerous to your system if you don't know what you're doing. It will also void your warranties in most cases, so if you do fry a component because you didn't know what you were doing or because you pushed it a step too far, you just screwed yourself out of a $200-$300 component. You'll have to eat the cost and buy another one. I'm a trained and certified computer tech and I can't tell you how many computers that's come across my path that I was unable to fix because they, their son or grandson decided to "play around in some system screen" or "did something with some weird software to make it faster". :facepalm:

 

If you want a certain amount of performance, just buy the components that will give you that performance, keep your warranties and maintain a stable computer. If you do overclock, you best do your homework and know what you're doing.