Test Programs for New System?

  • Thread starter Thread starter QZ
  • Start date Start date
Q

QZ

I will be ordering components for a new system: P4C800-E Dlx., Cosair
PC3200, WD SATA HDD, Radeon 9800 Pro, Enermax PSU; and I
just wanted to confirm what Error Test Programs are best at the moment. I
have listed what I
last remember them to be.

CPU: Prime 95 or CPU Burn (for 48 hrs.)
RAM: Memtest86
HD: HD Tach
VGA: 3Dmark (It is 178 MB, and since I have dial-up, are there any smaller
programs?)

For the PSU, I think only a hardware tester will work? I guess it is worth
having.
For the Mainboard, seeing as I won't be able to immediately test all the
features, the vendor will be testing it for free.

Please correct or add alternatives to this list, if possible.

Thanks,
QZ
 
I will be ordering components for a new system: P4C800-E Dlx., Cosair
PC3200, WD SATA HDD, Radeon 9800 Pro, Enermax PSU; and I
just wanted to confirm what Error Test Programs are best at the moment. I
have listed what I
last remember them to be.

CPU: Prime 95 or CPU Burn (for 48 hrs.)
RAM: Memtest86
HD: HD Tach
VGA: 3Dmark (It is 178 MB, and since I have dial-up, are there any smaller
programs?)

For the PSU, I think only a hardware tester will work? I guess it is worth
having.
For the Mainboard, seeing as I won't be able to immediately test all the
features, the vendor will be testing it for free.

Please correct or add alternatives to this list, if possible.

Thanks,
QZ
Click to expand...

Monitor your temperatures with MBM5, and if you're oc'ing the 9800 use
an Arctic Silencer - it's cheap and effective (add one anyway as it's
quieter than the stock fan). Add a fan controller/temp probe unit, the
probes you can stick to the back of 9800, your HD, PSU and other
places in the case.

3Dmark01 is smaller than '03 (still about 40Mb tho).

ChrisH
 
Monitor your temperatures with MBM5, and if you're oc'ing the 9800 use
an Arctic Silencer - it's cheap and effective (add one anyway as it's
quieter than the stock fan). Add a fan controller/temp probe unit, the
probes you can stick to the back of 9800, your HD, PSU and other
places in the case.

3Dmark01 is smaller than '03 (still about 40Mb tho).
Click to expand...

Yes, I am aware of MBM, and use it now, great for monitoring the temps. and
fan speeds.

Can't the PSU voltages be intitally checked in the BIOS?
I guess the benefit of a hardware tester is to know whether the PSU is good
or not before installing it.

Is there a program to test all of the unused slots and ports on a mainboard?
 
Yes, I am aware of MBM, and use it now, great for monitoring the temps. and
fan speeds.

Can't the PSU voltages be intitally checked in the BIOS?
I guess the benefit of a hardware tester is to know whether the PSU is good
or not before installing it.
Click to expand...

They can, but it's not the most accurate way (should you be
particularly worried about voltages). Better to check the rails
directly with a voltmeter. Unless you are oc'ing and pushing the board
near the limit, or you are loading a weak PSU, it's not going to be a
problem.
Is there a program to test all of the unused slots and ports on a mainboard?
Click to expand...
Your POST takes care of hardware failures. Why would you suspect a
fault? If you boot to Windows (assuming that's the OS you are
installing) just look at the hardware list in Device Manager for any
yellow exclamation marks.

A real problem in a new box is possible high temperatures, maybe you
have poor airflow generally and need an extra fan, maybe the HSF is
not seated correctly on the CPU, maybe you've got dear air around a
critical component (like the RAM), maybe your HD or GFX card will
overheat if pushed. The rest generally takes care of itself but high
temps will kill even good hardware.

ChrisH
 
Hi,

Installing Windows is a good hardware test. Often people look at installing
windows as the end of the process and something to do only once. Windows XP
setup quite literally thrashes the living daylights out of any system and
often brings out faults. So consider running XP setup a few times and if you
do strike problems make sure you note the STOP code on screen along with
anything else you have the chance to see EG driver names - *.sys .

Having said that, running memtest86 before getting started is an excellent
defensive step. Installing mbm5 after motherboard & other drivers then
running Prime 95 keeping an eye on temps is also good.

dxdiag is a poor-mans graphics test. Anyone have an opinion on this?
defrag, scandisk.

In reality, the quality of Asus boards is very high with the failure rates
falling into two camps: Partial (EG a single COM port) being acceptably low,
and complete failure, well I have never heard of an Asus baord that would
not go at all. It is often the other components that are at issue so testing
ram is prudent. I am not suggesting to skip any facility testing (EG usb,
firewire and so on), but you could spend a lot of time setting up for this,
so perhaps write down what is important to test, and what you could live
with in the short term (EG a single com port failure). I have no idea if the
firewire ports on any of my systems work!

Fans, HDD's and PSU are the most fallable parts. PSU is usually apparent,
but the effects can be subtle and wide ranging - as you will see in this
newsgroup. Using mbm5 after windows install and testing in windows is the
acid test. Static, Heat, Shock & Vibration, Dust and Dirt are the things
that will stuff a system prematurely, so correct housing, care and
maintenance after installation are as important.

If you are looking to configure a system for high availability, then there
are other factors to consider. UPS, dual PSU would be worthwhile, driver
reliability (are they WHQL - use sigverif.exe to tell you about any non
compliant drivers) under clocking (to get a cool CPU), using fanless CPU
cooling and so on. RAID 1 disc storage... Keeping things as simple as
possible is probably the best step and doubling up on the things that can
break.

One fellow I know uses windows boot as a test: I think he uses the shutdown
command in a Scheduled Task to cause a restart after the system has gone
idle for a period - make sure you allow the system to go idle and also
yourself enough time to kill the scheduled task when done. Inspect the Event
Logs before and after.

"shutdown -r -t 120" will do a restart with a timeout of two minutes,
"shutdown -a" will abort a scheduled shutdown (XP and Server 2003 - you may
need to install the tools from the CD).

When you have done all of this, it all becomes pointless if you do not have
a firewall, av, anti scumware, crtical updates and so on. SP XP2 should be
well worth installing when it is released.

- Tim
 
Yes, I am aware of MBM, and use it now, great for monitoring the temps. and
fan speeds.

Can't the PSU voltages be intitally checked in the BIOS?
I guess the benefit of a hardware tester is to know whether the PSU is good
or not before installing it.
Click to expand...

Are you worried about damaging your board or something when you hook
first power it on? Never happened to me in all the systems that I've
put together.

Yes, I believe you can view the voltage levels in the BIOS, but you're
not going to test how solid the PSU is in this way, since the machine
will essentially be idling. You can only really torture test voltage
levels under load.
Is there a program to test all of the unused slots and ports on a mainboard?
Click to expand...

How would it test them without devices attached? If such a program
exists, maybe in the development and test labs of the motherboard
manufacturers, it probably works in conjunction with dummy test
devices attached to the ports and slots.
 
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