dumb question....how do you 'burn in' a new comp?

It's mostly (to me) about checking for stability and reliability, that all components interact with each other as they should etc.

Basically, use it for a couple of days as it is going to be used, making sure that it works.

Nothing more complex than that in my book.

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Most people run CPU intensive things in a loop like 3Dmark2001se or prime95. You can also do things like encode mp3. Just put your CPU to work and keep it busy.

<b><font color=green>Garbage Can?</font color=green></b>

For how long though? I don't really want to NOT use my computer for a day after it's been built   Maybe a rigorous routine of Jedi Knight 2 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein with 4x AA @ 1024x768 and all details set to full will work?

yeah running JKII on full is a far more enjoyable way of seeing how stable the computer is, i recommend this way.

Oh well, if it's for yourself just go ahead and start playing!! I assumed you meant you were building it for someone else, and wanted to test it before giving it to them!

Play play play for Gods sake, play like the wind!!

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Play RTCW till your eyes crust over. If it doesn't crash, consider your PC "Burnt". If you're burning in to test temps, use Toast.exe (search in Google) and monitor with MBM 5.0. It will push your CPU and stress test you to the max. If you pc runs, it runs, but its not fun to find out you put your HS on backwards AFTER your CPU burnt while playing solitaire.

Life's a hole...dig it. - Joe Dirt

If you are checking for stability, longer is generally better. Most of the time, I do it while I am sleeping or at work so I can use my PC when I am at home. Of course, if you are worried about your temps, you might want to be around to check it once in a while.

That is a nice <b><font color=green>Garbage Can</font color=green></b> you have there!

computers are just machines. You don't really need to "burn it in" ... on my part i do have a theory about working out the bugs in the software. At first it won't work the way you want it but eventually after playing around with it you get it to the way you want it.

as for the hardware.. it's just silicon ... and you don't need to have it running all the time, but your also not suppose to power it down and up 50 times a day. that'll kill your hardware faster.

what i notice most people do is they power it up in the morning let it run all day then before going to bed the turn it off.

Hope that answered your qestion.

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Rtcw sucks for overclocking testing, I had my fsb at 153, and sandra would crash it, so would prime95, but rtcw ran fine, now a game which STRESSES a system, MOHAA, that game ass rapes a system, any kind of instability will be found and exposed roughly by that game.

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