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Is this overclock stable? Q6600, 3.6 @ 1.32 LinX

1843 Views 15 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  TwoCables, 
zelix
just tryed linX because i dont have patience for prime lol.

I think i hear that you need 20 runs to be deemed stable, but im not sure.

Successfully passed the 20 runs first try with this clock and voltage am i good to go?
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TwoCables
How much memory did you tell LinX to use?

Also, check out the Read Me file that comes with LinX; it explains that 50-100 runs is best to determine final stability, and it also explains that the more memory you use, the more effective the test is.

Finally: you can do 12 hours of each of the three tests in Prime95. All you have to do is run the tests while you're sleeping - especially if you have to leave for work or school when you wake up.
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zelix
Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoCables View Post
How much memory did you tell LinX to use?

Also, check out the Read Me file that comes with LinX; it explains that 50-100 runs is best to determine final stability, and it also explains that the more memory you use, the more effective the test is.

Finally: you can do 12 hours of each of the three tests in Prime95. All you have to do is run the tests while you're sleeping - especially if you have to leave for work or school when you wake up.
just did like 777 mb or somthing, w/e it was all at when i started the program.
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TwoCables
Quote:

Originally Posted by zelix View Post
just did like 777 mb or somthing, w/e it was all at when i started the program.
Then that's definitely not enough. :/

For the best results without getting too crazy (such as disabling tons of services), I recommend this:
  1. Change the theme to Windows Classic
  2. Close any Gadgets that might be open
  3. Disable any startup programs (like Steam, any anti-virus stuff, any instant messengers, etc. Disable everything you can so that it won't start with Windows)
  4. Set the screen saver to None (if it's not already)
  5. Change the Power Options so that absolutely nothing happens automatically, such as the monitor getting turned off
  6. Pin Real Temp, CPU-Z and LinX to the Taskbar, or just copy shortcuts to the Desktop
  7. Reboot
  8. Open Real Temp, CPU-Z and LinX using the shortcuts
  9. If LinX is showing a total physical available memory of more than ~3550, then try using 3300MB. If it's like 3400MB or something, then try 2275MB, or 2250.
  10. Set it to 100 runs and see how long it lasts. The farther it goes past 50, the better (it should take about 4 to 5 minutes per run)
However, I recommend experimenting with the amount of memory before just setting it and walking away. What I mean is try 3350MB, and then try like 2250. There's a point where you can actually be using too much memory where it actually begins to reduce the effectiveness of the test. It actually produces less heat from the CPU. So one goal is to try and find the highest amount of memory where you notice that choosing anything higher produces lower temperatures, but choosing any memory amount that's lower doesn't give you higher temperatures. I recommend adjusting the memory by 10-20MB at a time.

Unfortunately, overclocking requires patience. They go together like peanut butter and jelly.
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ntuason
Wow! Thats amazing if it is! I had to put 1.44V on mines to get 3.6GHz.
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ZealotKi11er
Use Prime Blend and see if that stable. You must have a 1.2v VID to go so low with voltage @ 3.6Ghz. I needed 1.35v for my 3.6Ghz VID 1.2375v
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L
I like prime less and less to be honest.
You don't need 30+ hours of stress testing imo.

intelburntest

Same kind of linpack gui but better than LinX in my opinion.

Put the stress level on extreme and it will determine what is extreme for your system based on the amount of total ram you have. It takes the guesswork out of it. Change the Times to Run to like 20-30 and go.

Good Luck I hope you're stable.
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TwoCables
Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucretius View Post
I like prime less and less to be honest.
You don't need 30+ hours of stress testing imo.

intelburntest

Same kind of linpack gui but better than LinX in my opinion.

Put the stress level on extreme and it will determine what is extreme for your system based on the amount of total ram you have. It takes the guesswork out of it. Change the Times to Run to like 20-30 and go.

Good Luck I hope you're stable.
Except, 20 to 30 is not that much.

And unfortunately, Prime95 is different, not inferior.
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Quote:
different, not inferior.
Motto of the inferior.
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ChvyVele
Eh 20 passes of LinX using max available memory should be more than enough. So just change the settings to use max available memory and run it and see how it goes. I usually only do 5-10 passes...
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We Gone
Nice I need 1.41v (bios) for 3.6 stable
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TwoCables
3
Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucretius View Post
Motto of the inferior.
I've been a member on here since December 17th of 2008. As you can see, this is my 23,567th post. So obviously, I am here every single day for several hours at a time. During my time here, I have seen countless situations that range from people saying that their system is rock solid stable for linpack (IBT or LinX, obviously), but not for Prime95, and people who have rock-solid stability in Prime95 but not linpack. If I remember correctly, then I would guess that I have seen at least 95% of these people increase their system's stability so that it's stable enough for both.

The end result is that see an increase in their GFLOPS. Seeing an increase means increased stability.

So no, this isn't the motto of the inferior; it's just the truth.

Also, I just tried IBT on Maximum (or "extreme" as you appropriately called it) using my method that I explained above where I streamline down to Windows Classic, disable any Gadgets, and disable as many startup programs as possible (like Steam, for example), and then reboot.

So upon my fresh boot, I opened IBT and then chose Maximum. It chose 3494 MB of memory. Impressed, I clicked Start and this is the result:


The only way for me to get it to run is to lower it bit by bit until it runs. And just like LinX, the amount of memory where I see the highest load temperature (where using any amount higher results in lower temperatures) is about 3300MB just as I described above.

This is why I prefer LinX.


Speaking of LinX, here is its Read Me file:

LinX - a simple GUI for Intel® Linpack Benchmark.

The main point of Linpack is to solve systems of linear equations of the given size (Problem Size). It is designed as a benchark to test the performance of a system in GFlops - billions of floating point operation per second. But being highly optimized it is also the most stressful CPU testing program to date and is a great tool in determining stability/instability of a CPU, outperforming other CPU testing software at least time-wise. One and the same system of equations is solved repeatedly; if all results match each other - the CPU is stable, otherwise the instability is obvious, since the same equations system cannot produce different solutions.

A brief overview of LinX' functionality and interface:

«File -> Save Screenshot» menu item. Saves main window's screenshot into program folder in a PNG format.

«File -> Save Text Log» menu item. During or after testing saves a text log with testing results into program folder.

«File â€"> Exit» menu item. Exits the program. (Who'd had thought?)

«Settings» menu item. Opens a window with Linpack's and LinX's additional settings.

«Settings» window:
Main Linpack Settings:
-testing mode (32-bit/64-bit). By default is set to OS type;
-Linpack rocess priority. Setting this value higher than «Normal» is not recommended;
-number of threads Linpack creates. By default is set to the number of logical processors (including HyperThreading-cores);
-data alignment. 4 KiB by default, equal to the page size in Windows OS;
-optimal Leading Dimensions. The Leading Dimensions value will be set to the nearest odd multiple of 8 higher than or equal to the Problem Size value (supposed to produce better performance)

Advanced settings. These are to be changed only if you have problems getting Linpack to work.
-maximum Problem Size for 32-bit Linpack. Lower if on higher Problem Size/memory values Linpack reports not enough memory
-amound of RAM that will be left for OS when using the All memory option. Can be increased to increase OS «responsiveness».

LinX settings:
-auto-stop testing when an error is detected
-auto-save log file during testing (as in Linpack, lowers performance a bit)
-enable sounds upon success/fail
-tray icon and the ability to minimize LinX to tray area to save some taskbar space
-add current date/time or date/time of testing start to screenshot and log files respectively
-disable context hints

External Applications Import:
-monitoring data source (None, Everest, Speedfan):

Allows LinX to receive some data like core temperatures, CPU voltage, frequency, CPU fan RPM and +12 V voltage from either Everest or Speedfan. The temperature of the hottest core as well as CPU voltage and frequency (when importing data from Everest) are displayed in status bar during testing, other values are used to create graphs. To import data from Everest go in Everest to «File -> Preferences... -> External Applicatons» and check the «Enable shared memory checkbox». For Speedfan you need to first fill in the values in the "Speedfan.ini" file in LinX directory. These values are numbers of temperatures/voltages/fan speeds as they are displayed in Speedfan, from top to bottom starting with 1. For example, if core0 temperature in Speedfan is listed 5th from top set in the INI file CPU_core0_num=5 and so on.
Note that Everest or Speedfan should be running with LinX for all this to work.

-stop the testing once the desired temperature is reached. If LinX is getting data from Everest or Speedfan testing will stop when the temperature reaches this threshold to prevent CPU from overheating.

«Graphs -> Create» menu item. Allows you to choose which graphs to create during testing: you can choose from CPU temperature, CPU fan speed, CPU vcore and +12V voltage values. To display the graphs use the «Graphs -> Display» menu item. Graph windows can be resized in real-time, graphs can be saved by double-clicking on them in the corresponding window.

« ? » menu item. Opens a window with some info about the program and a very short version of this file.

«Problem Size» & «Memory to use» fields. The first one is the amount of equations to solve, the second - the corresponding amount of memory that will be allocated by Linpack for this Problem size. You can either set the Problem size and the amount of memory to be used will be calculated automatically or vice versa. There is also an «All [memory]» button available to use all free physical memory. The effectiveness of finding errors as well as the amount of stress to the processor increase with increased memory usage/Problem size.
1 MiB = 1024 KiB = 1024^2 bytes

«Times to run». This is how many times the test will be run. Once again, the more the better. To consider a CPU fully stable you should set this to at least 50-100, for quick testing lower values are acceptable.

«Start» & «Stop» buttons. Used to start and stop the testing process respectively.

Status field/progressbar. Displays the amount of available memory before testing, the elapsed/remaining/finish time during testing (these can be switched by clicking on the field or even turned completely off by double-clicking if you need another 100th of GFlops) and the result (success or fail) with the time spent on testing after testing.

Bottom status bar. Displays some useful information like the current test # and the total number of tests, maximum performance in GFlops so far, testing mode (32-bit or 64-bit), current number of threads, and with Everest or Speedfan data - CPU temp, voltage and frequency. There's also table(default LinX view)/log(Linpack) toggle button available after the testing has finished.

Double-clicking the main window will make it stay on top.
List of available command-line keys: LinX.exe /?

If you made it this far you're very patient. I hope you enjoyed reading this ReadMe as much as I did writing it. Thanks for reading!

According to this, 50-100 runs is best as well as using the highest amount of memory possible.
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zelix
Quote:


Originally Posted by TwoCables
View Post

Then that's definitely not enough. :/

For the best results without getting too crazy (such as disabling tons of services), I recommend this:
  1. Change the theme to Windows Classic
  2. Close any Gadgets that might be open
  3. Disable any startup programs (like Steam, any anti-virus stuff, any instant messengers, etc. Disable everything you can so that it won't start with Windows)
  4. Set the screen saver to None (if it's not already)
  5. Change the Power Options so that absolutely nothing happens automatically, such as the monitor getting turned off
  6. Pin Real Temp, CPU-Z and LinX to the Taskbar, or just copy shortcuts to the Desktop
  7. Reboot
  8. Open Real Temp, CPU-Z and LinX using the shortcuts
  9. If LinX is showing a total physical available memory of more than ~3550, then try using 3300MB. If it's like 3400MB or something, then try 2275MB, or 2250.
  10. Set it to 100 runs and see how long it lasts. The farther it goes past 50, the better (it should take about 4 to 5 minutes per run)
However, I recommend experimenting with the amount of memory before just setting it and walking away. What I mean is try 3350MB, and then try like 2250. There's a point where you can actually be using too much memory where it actually begins to reduce the effectiveness of the test. It actually produces less heat from the CPU. So one goal is to try and find the highest amount of memory where you notice that choosing anything higher produces lower temperatures, but choosing any memory amount that's lower doesn't give you higher temperatures. I recommend adjusting the memory by 10-20MB at a time.

Unfortunately, overclocking requires patience. They go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Alright thanks, i think tonight ill just put prime95 on throughout the night and day till i get off school,

LinX was getting to high of temps for my liking upto 72C
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zelix
Quote:


Originally Posted by zealotki11er
View Post

use prime blend and see if that stable. You must have a 1.2v vid to go so low with voltage @ 3.6ghz. I needed 1.35v for my 3.6ghz vid 1.2375v

1.2250
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3
Quote:


Originally Posted by TwoCables
View Post

I have seen countless situations that range from people saying that their system is rock solid stable for linpack (IBT or LinX, obviously), but not for Prime95, and people who have rock-solid stability in Prime95 but not linpack. If I remember correctly, then I would guess that I have seen at least 95% of these people increase their system's stability so that it's stable enough for both.

I understand where you're coming from. I like Prime, just not as much as LinPack. All the "inferior" crap is just me being a nerd... don't pay any attention to it. Its about the same as me cheering for a school mascot (Go LinPack Go!!!).

In all likelihood those that are stable in LinPack but not Prime have outdated LinPacks. Those that are stable in Prime but not stable in LinPack probably have an up-to-date LinPack.

The main thing is that LinPack is improved more regularly, and designed by a company that manufactures the same microprocessors they designed the tool to stress. If OP were using an AMD chip I would definitely recommend Prime...

I would be willing to bet that a significantly high percentage of LinPack users don't update LinPack because they don't know you're supposed to (I didn't know until not too long ago)... and just use whatever comes with LinX or IBT when they download it. This is a huge variable, and would account for you seeing people all over the map with varying levels of success with different utilities.

Quote:


Also, I just tried IBT on Maximum (or "extreme" as you appropriately called it) using my method that I explained above where I streamline down to Windows Classic, disable any Gadgets, and disable as many startup programs as possible (like Steam, for example), and then reboot.

So upon my fresh boot, I opened IBT and then chose Maximum. It chose 3494 MB of memory. Impressed, I clicked Start and this is the result:


The only way for me to get it to run is to lower it bit by bit until it runs. And just like LinX, the amount of memory where I see the highest load temperature (where using any amount higher results in lower temperatures) is about 3300MB just as I described above.

This is why I prefer LinX.


1) What version of LinPack do you have installed?
2) Obviously you didn't disable enough stuff.

...although it doesn't help that you've only got 4GB of ram running Win7x64. The Microsoft minimum requirement for Windows 7 is 1GB of ram, so I'm surprised you can get IBT to run with 3300mb. Also as I look back it looks like OP is in the same boat with only 4GB, so Prime probably would be better for him.

Quote:


According to this, 50-100 runs is best as well as using the highest amount of memory possible.

50 runs gets you to an unquestionable level of stability, but minor problems are going to be found much sooner. The intensity of the tests delivered by LinPack is going to find a problem in 20. I've never seen one fail after 20, I'm sure it happens but its pretty rare.
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TwoCables
5
Quote:


Originally Posted by zelix
View Post

Alright thanks, i think tonight ill just put prime95 on throughout the night and day till i get off school,

LinX was getting to high of temps for my liking upto 72C

Fortunately, 71°C is not the maximum safe temperature. It's closer to 90-95°C for this CPU.


Quote:


Originally Posted by Lucretius
View Post

I understand where you're coming from. I like Prime, just not as much as LinPack. All the "inferior" crap is just me being a nerd... don't pay any attention to it. Its about the same as me cheering for a school mascot (Go LinPack Go!!!).

In all likelihood those that are stable in LinPack but not Prime have outdated LinPacks. Those that are stable in Prime but not stable in LinPack probably have an up-to-date LinPack.

The main thing is that LinPack is improved more regularly, and designed by a company that manufactures the same microprocessors they designed the tool to stress. If OP were using an AMD chip I would definitely recommend Prime...

I would be willing to bet that a significantly high percentage of LinPack users don't update LinPack because they don't know you're supposed to (I didn't know until not too long ago)... and just use whatever comes with LinX or IBT when they download it. This is a huge variable, and would account for you seeing people all over the map with varying levels of success with different utilities.

1) What version of LinPack do you have installed?
2) Obviously you didn't disable enough stuff.

When I changed it to about 3375, it ran. But when I lowered it to 3350, the core temperature went up. When I lowered it to 3325, it went up again. When I lowered it to 3300, it went up even a little more. When I lowered it to 2275, I didn't get any difference, so I left it at 3300MB and called it the maximum.

Anyway, I don't have linpack installed. I'm just using LinX version 0.6.4 and IntelBurnTest 2.50 (they're portable). But the only reason why I have IBT is just in case I might be able to use it to answer somebody's questions (like, I might have to look at it to understand what they're talking about).

Quote:


Originally Posted by Lucretius
View Post

...although it doesn't help that you've only got 4GB of ram running Win7x64. The Microsoft minimum requirement for Windows 7 is 1GB of ram, so I'm surprised you can get IBT to run with 3300mb. Also as I look back it looks like OP is in the same boat with only 4GB, so Prime probably would be better for him.

lol @ 1GB. On a fresh boot with nothing but Task Manager open, I usually see ~650MB of memory used. I didn't use a lite installer either; I just streamlined my system so that there's absolutely nothing running or installed that I don't need or use. After all, it's my computer, so I customized it.

But even the default state doesn't consume all that much memory. For me, 4GB is extreme overkill, but I love it.

Quote:


Originally Posted by Lucretius
View Post

50 runs gets you to an unquestionable level of stability, but minor problems are going to be found much sooner. The intensity of the tests delivered by LinPack is going to find a problem in 20. I've never seen one fail after 20, I'm sure it happens but its pretty rare.

100 runs only takes ~7-8 hours. I can easily run that while I'm sleeping.
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