What programs should I use to test my components?

[MattTheMayor]

Title. Is Prime 95 all I need? And what program should I use to check my cpu temps and other crap. does cpu-z work?

[MattTheMayor]

oops just noticed i posted on the wrong thread >.< sorry. can someone move it?

[FizzyFantom]

That depends on your PC. Prime 95 is good for older CPUs, but Intel Haswell doesn't run well under P95 (it draws too much power and puts out lots more heat). You sould use Aida64 or OCCT to test a Haswell CPU (these also work for other CPUs).

For checking on the heat of the CPU take a look at Core Temp, Real Temp, HWMonitor, Speccy and HWiNFO. Some work well with certain motherboards/CPUs, but sometimes they are innacurate, try them out and compare.

For your GPU steer clear of Furmark, instead using a more realistic test to check for artifacting. I recommend Unigines benchmarks (Heaven and Valley), they will stress your GPU plenty to show a failed OC.

For monitoring GPU you can also use HWMonitor, Speccy and HWiNFO, or MSI Afterburner which is convenient if you are already using it to OC (it also has a time based graph of temps, fan speeds and clock speeds.

CPU:

http://www.aida64.com/downloads

http://www.ocbase.com/

GPU:

https://unigine.com/products/heaven/

https://unigine.com/products/valley/

Monitoring:

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

https://www.piriform.com/speccy/

http://www.hwinfo.com/

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

 

Best of luck

 

Edit: Further useful stuff.

 

For Testing your RAM you can use Memtest86

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

For testing HDDs you can use Crystal Disk Info to check SMART data:

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html

And HD Tune or Defraggler to check for disk errors:

http://www.hdtune.com/

https://www.piriform.com/defraggler

[Hansell]

That depends on your PC. Prime 95 is good for older CPUs, but Intel Haswell doesn't run well under P95 (it draws too much power and puts out lots more heat). You sould use Aida64 or OCCT to test a Haswell CPU (these also work for other CPUs).

For checking on the heat of the CPU take a look at Core Temp, Real Temp, HWMonitor, Speccy and HWiNFO. Some work well with certain motherboards/CPUs, but sometimes they are innacurate, try them out and compare.

For your GPU steer clear of Furmark, instead using a more realistic test to check for artifacting. I recommend Unigines benchmarks (Heaven and Valley), they will stress your GPU plenty to show a failed OC.

For monitoring GPU you can also use HWMonitor, Speccy and HWiNFO, or MSI Afterburner which is convenient if you are already using it to OC (it also has a time based graph of temps, fan speeds and clock speeds.

CPU:

http://www.aida64.com/downloads

http://www.ocbase.com/

GPU:

https://unigine.com/products/heaven/

https://unigine.com/products/valley/

Monitoring:

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

https://www.piriform.com/speccy/

http://www.hwinfo.com/

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

 

Best of luck

 

Edit: Further useful stuff.

 

For Testing your RAM you can use Memtest86

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

For testing HDDs you can use Crystal Disk Info to check SMART data:

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html

And HD Tune or Defraggler to check for disk errors:

http://www.hdtune.com/

https://www.piriform.com/defraggler

really useful info mate, going to take a note for myself