Benchmark for buying a used CPU?

[IanDrexP]

I am planning on buying a used CPU from my local craigslist and classified ads. I was wondering what tests can I run to make sure the CPU is in top condition before making the purchase... 20 passes of Intel Burn Test at max stress level good enough? It probably should not be more than 2 hours. Any more than that and it feels like I am living at the guys place. LOL

 

EDIT: It will only be for a locked CPU.

[TheRandomness]

Aida64 for 10-20 minutes.

[yourdad165]

To be honest I don't even think it would have to pass 20 times. I think if it was to crash it would probably do it from 1-5 tests. You could run Intel Extreme Tuning Utility for like 10-20 minutes too.

[IanDrexP]

Aida64 for 10-20 minutes.

So CPU, FPU and cache?

[Praesi]

Prime95 1h

[yourdad165]

Aida64 for 10-20 minutes.

Yeah something like this. ^ Nice suggestion!

[DarkBlade2117]

Prime95 1h

No Prime95 puts the cPU under unreasonable stress and is not trustworthy.

[Altecice]

To be fair either a CPU will work or it wont. Its VERY rare to get a CPU that will get all the way to Windows and still have issues (excluding bad overclocks).

[Samfisher]

No Prime95 puts the cPU under unreasonable stress and is not trustworthy.

Nonsense.  Prime95 AVX2 (and ONLY v 28 and above, 27.9 is still perfect for Haswell) only affected first gen Haswell CPUs and remains the gold standard of CPU stability stress tests.  Don't listen to the FUD the internet likes to rehash over and over again.

[Praesi]

No Prime95 puts the cPU under unreasonable stress and is not trustworthy.

Unreasonable Stress?  :rolleyes:

I use it for Years and never had any Issues with it.

[RefurBuilds]

So CPU, FPU and cache?

Any stress testing will do.

However I highly suggest prior that overclock the tested CPU.

 

That is because I had a lot of AMD CPUs tested which had their pins bent and then straightened. 

I've seen a lot of times that a CPU without any OC performs flawlessly in a stress test.  However that CPU which had pins straightened had issues when stress testing with mild overclock.

Dunno if that would help with Intel CPU's

[ThomasD]

In a non-overclocking situation it will either run, or it wont.  Fifteen to thirty minutes of pretty much anything - iXTU, AIDA, Cinebench, 3DMark, etc.   Should tell you whether it has issues with operational heat levels.   You might even have some games with built in benchmarking (e.g. Crysis 3) and if that is a game you commonly play, then that is about the best test there is.