OK, the computer is setup, how do I know it's all good ?

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

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dfc
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OK, the computer is setup, how do I know it's all good ?

Post by dfc » Fri Oct 10, 2014 4:55 pm

So, I've setup my comp, and on normal usage it's dead quiet (1.5 meters away from me with a table blocking it). How should I go about stressing it to see:
A. That the fans can deal with the heat.
B. That everything works OK under sane stress (heavy quality games for example).

I've connected all the case fans to the motherboard (Z97X gaming g1) and set the bios profiles all to manual (with default settings).

CA_Steve
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Re: OK, the computer is setup, how do I know it's all good ?

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:28 pm

Prime95 small FFT stresses the CPU.
Furmark stresses the GPU.
Alternatively, OCCT has an all in one utility for stressing both as well as temp and fan monitoring.
When first starting, I run a couple of different temp monitors to see how they align. Coretemp and realtemp are two more. You may need to run a calibration cycle for the temp monitors.

Be sure to measure your idle temps (room, case, mobo, cpu, gpu, etc) and fan rpms at idle. Run small FFT Prime 95 to stress the CPU while monitoring temps. If the temps look good and stable after a few minutes, let it run for an hour to see if there are any instabilities. Let the system go back to idle.

Run the gpu stress test like above. Let system go back to idle.

Then, run both at the same time for the ultimate worst case. Your system will never see these kinds of loads.

Then, try some games while running temp monitors.

Adjust the fans as you like for noise/temps.

quest_for_silence
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Re: OK, the computer is setup, how do I know it's all good ?

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Oct 11, 2014 1:05 am

CA_Steve wrote:Prime95 small FFT stresses the CPU.

Alternatively Intel Burn Test v2 max ram: it's particularly useful when you overclock.
If you overclock/undervolt a short check for the highest setting stability is to run y-cruncher benchmark, option 0 - 0 - 7 (on a pass then you may test stability with the already quoted tools).

CA_Steve wrote:Furmark stresses the GPU.

Alternatively, for gaming-like benchmark/stressing, Unigine Heaven / Valley

About OCCT the PSU testing is the way to test both CPU & GPU at the same time.

CA_Steve wrote:Coretemp and realtemp are two more. You may need to run a calibration cycle for the temp monitors.

HWiNFO64, OpenHardwareMonitor are two more, and more comprehensive tools, if you mind.

Paid and even more complete tools are: AIDA64 and Hardware Monitor Pro.

By the way, eventually which PSU did you buy?

lodestar
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Re: OK, the computer is setup, how do I know it's all good ?

Post by lodestar » Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:49 am

The Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility (XTU) is worth considering. Apart from having built-in benchmarking, overclocking and stressing tools it also has an excellent graphic monitoring section.

dfc
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Re: OK, the computer is setup, how do I know it's all good ?

Post by dfc » Sat Oct 11, 2014 4:04 am

I went on the X-series 750W. Currently it's running in normal mode, and I can't hear it. Currently I have some other noise generation equipment so I'll wait for it to be gone, then I'll do all the tests to see how the stress effects the noise.

You all written tons about the software, but not about how I should go about actually configuration the fan speed itself. Are the defaults of the mobo / gpu / psu sufficient ?

lodestar
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Re: OK, the computer is setup, how do I know it's all good ?

Post by lodestar » Sat Oct 11, 2014 5:05 am

dfc wrote:Are the defaults of the mobo / gpu / psu sufficient ?
Like other manufacturers modern Gigabyte motherboards offer a selection of fan modes or profiles in addition to manual configuration. Try selecting the Silent profile in the BIOS for the CPU and chassis fans - this will give the slowest fan speeds (and lowest noise levels) under idle and low system stress conditions. Under higher stress, for example gaming, the fans will automatically speed up.

quest_for_silence
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Re: OK, the computer is setup, how do I know it's all good ?

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Oct 11, 2014 8:39 pm

dfc wrote:You all written tons about the software, but not about how I should go about actually configuration the fan speed itself.

Thankfully lodestar have written something about, but anyway, you asked:
dfc wrote:How should I go about stressing it to see:
A. That the fans can deal with the heat.
B. That everything works OK under sane stress (heavy quality games for example).
so that our answering are all about that (I underlined). Next time I will spare my tons for who may is better educated to appreciate them.

dfc wrote:Are the defaults of the mobo / gpu / psu sufficient ?

About the mobo fan headers, along with what lodestar said, whether you use Windows, you might give a try to the Gigabyte System Information Viewer utility bundled with EasyTune: there, under the Smart Fan Advanced tab, you'll may set up any mobo fan manually; the nearby System Alerts and Record tabs allow you to specify thresholds for different mainboard parameters (i.e. voltages, temperatures, fan speeds and so on) and to represent as your system works varying the system load: unfortunately I never used it, so I can't help about, but I bet it shouldn't be too much complicated, basically playing with it in Windows you should be able to do about anything you can do in UEFI but in a "live" scenario. So that, using the already described methodology by CA_Steve, as he said you may:
CA_Steve wrote:Adjust the fans as you like for noise/temps.
I hope I've been crystal clear, but in case anything about Gigabyte UEFI and utilities should be all better covered in your mobo manual.

Another alternative way, under Windows, is to set up SpeedFan, as you can read in the relevant SPCR guide, but I don't know whether it's perfectly doable with your Gigabyte mobo, so you have to mainly check by yourself.

About GPU/PSU, if I understood you correctly you can do about nothing, but setting a custom fan profile (if needed) with eVGA Precision for the graphics (take note, on nVidia-based cards you can't lower idle speed using utilities).

Have a good luck.

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Re: OK, the computer is setup, how do I know it's all good ?

Post by xan_user » Sat Oct 11, 2014 9:36 pm

personally i dont mess with fan speeds anymore. i find the lowest RPM that will keep my system running without throttling, and leave the fans at that speed. i rather have a fixed noise level from my computer than one that changes with use. but to each their own. :wink:

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