I arrived last weekend to my home to find my latest folder with the infamous BSOD. During that particualr WU I had pushed my $60 X2 4000+ to over 3.0GHz. Checkpoint times were still disappointing, so I just kept upping the FSB. It seems to run fine, and it ran after I had left it for about 35 checkpoints before it failed, about 12 hours worth.
After resetting to the BIOS defaults I decided to learn about Prime 95. I Googled the obvious "two instances of prime 95" which promptly gave me a site with full instructions. I had reached 290MHz FSB and decided to start testing at 280. Well after like 10 hours it had an error on CPU 1 just like in the example in the Prime 95 documentation. Too bad it doesn't really explain what is wrong, only what could be wrong. I felt it was memory, because people have taken the cpu far faster than what I have and the processor itself had not gone up in temp. It was still barely lukewarm. I checked the comments again about the Team Extreme memory I bought, the 8 layer PCB with the latest thermal tape, and these huge heatsinks. Comments stated it "came alive" at higher voltages. Some ran this DDR2-800 passed DDR2-1000. So for my next attempt I upped my memory voltage (it too was barely warm) and my NB voltage, which everyone fails to mention. It successfully ran passed its prior failure mark. I had to leave after 18 hours of Prime 95 * 2, so I shut it off and started folding. The half completed one had expired, and it's just as well. While running at DDR2-840 I continue to run it as CAS 4-4-4-12-1T. To lower the ratings would only slow me down and require another FSB boost, which I do not feel is advisable or worthwhile.
Prime 95 informed me that errors, like the decimal error I encountered, are not acceptable when using a PC for distributed purposes like FAH.
To legitmately fold and deliver correct results to Stanford a PC, any PC, should be be able to run Prime 95 on each core successfully for 24 hours minimum. Anything less is not acceptable.
Anyone recall that in the instructions? I sure don't. I ran the torture test by the way, you won't see any idle time here, only higher temps if your cooling is barely adequate.
This concerns not just me, but all those running $399 specials and folding as well. I wonder how many PCs out there would fail such tests even at stock speeds. Of course there isn't much I can do about it, but I will do my best to deliver correct results even if it means slowing down my C2D.
Aris
A serious FYI to Folders who OC.
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GentleGiant
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- Location: Socorro, New Mexico, USA