Burning in a new PC

[Guest]

I had a friend tell me that when you get a new pc you should "burn" it in to make sure the proccessor and componets don't lock up or something to that effect anyone know anything about this ?

 

[Kelledin]

I know quite a bit about that. The main purpose of a "burn-in" is to stress-test the system as a whole--make sure there's no flakey hardware, unstable drivers, etc.

The burn-in is usually done by having some sort of software running on your system for an extended time period (say 24 hours), hammering different components with a series of performance/stability tests. SiSoft Sandra has a burn-in test suite that does quite well IMHO.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[FatBurger]

Therefore, it's to test, not like breaking in a new pair of shoes so they're more comfortable.

Apple? Macintosh? What are these strange words you speak?

 

[Kelledin]

Some people choose to relate it to breaking in a new pair of shoes. I myself don't, but that's just my opinion.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[btvillarin]

I think you should try some of these utilities to make sure nothing locks up and it's stable.

<A HREF="http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/download.html" target="_new">SETI@Home</A> - run for a couple of hours in the background, full tilt, while doing whatever you do with your computer. Maybe surf the internet, type, stuff like that.

<A HREF="http://www.tweakfiles.com/benchmark/3dmark2001.html" target="_new">3DMark 2001</A> - Just loop the benchmark a 4 or 5 times with an mp3 looping in the background as well. I know it says shareware, but you can still do the basic tests.

I'm not sure if SiSoft Sandra is any good. I don't use it, but it doesn't mean that it's a bad product.

Anyways, if your computer can run these without locking up, then you're all set...