Testing my new machine

[deanlaing12]

Hey guys. I recently built a new machine.

windows 8 pro
Cosmos 2
Sabertooth 990FX r2.0
FX8350
H100I
AX1200i
Two red Wesern Digital Drives in raid
M500 SSD - for some reason is slower to load windows than on my M4. The M4 would literaly flash the windows loading screen before being on the desktop, this ssd cycles for a few extra seconds.
Trident X Ram 7-8-8-24 2X8 1600
and using my old gpu for the moment. 5770

How can I run tests to ensure all my hardware is working as it should? Is there any single program to do it?

Windows has crashed a few times on me, and it is a clean install so I think there may be some hardware fault done the line somewhere.

 

[dividebyzero]

Basic troubleshooting 101. I will assume that the connections are solid ( RAM well seated, SATA cables secured and known working, power cables well seated etc.), so going on laws of probability I'd start with the RAM assuming you haven't already narrowed down the possibilities by checking the Event Viewer in Win8
Check the BIOS to see that the RAM's setting are correct (timings and voltage) for the specification.
Download Memset to check that the minor timings concur with the specification. You can check this post for dl link and some basic info.
Download Memtest and run. You can check this post for links and basic instructions.

Unfortunately, Memtest works in a DOS environment, so while the RAM may be stable in an idle system it may not follow that the same can be said when the board is pulling heavy current (CPU, GPU, drives).

One other thing to note is that the 970/990X/990FX chipsets have a number of SATA issues. To minimize this make sure you have the latest BIOS installed (1903 I believe).

I'd start with the RAM. If it passes we can look down the probability options.

A full system stress/stability test would be a CPU intensive game - preferably a stage of a late-game RTS or a FPS with a high level of AI and CPU physics (BF3 fits the bill). Most stress test utilities test a component in (near) isolation. LinX/IBT/OCCT Linpack or Prime95 will really only stress the CPU and RAM.

 

[deanlaing12]

Basic troubleshooting 101. I will assume that the connections are solid ( RAM well seated, SATA cables secured and known working, power cables well seated etc.), so going on laws of probability I'd start with the RAM assuming you haven't already narrowed down the possibilities by checking the Event Viewer in Win8
Check the BIOS to see that the RAM's setting are correct (timings and voltage) for the specification.
Download Memset to check that the minor timings concur with the specification. You can check this post for dl link and some basic info.
Download Memtest and run. You can check this post for links and basic instructions.

Unfortunately, Memtest works in a DOS environment, so while the RAM may be stable in an idle system it may not follow that the same can be said when the board is pulling heavy current (CPU, GPU, drives).

One other thing to note is that the 970/990X/990FX chipsets have a number of SATA issues. To minimize this make sure you have the latest BIOS installed (1903 I believe).

I'd start with the RAM. If it passes we can look down the probability options.

A full system stress/stability test would be a CPU intensive game - preferably a stage of a late-game RTS or a FPS with a high level of AI and CPU physics (BF3 fits the bill). Most stress test utilities test a component in (near) isolation. LinX/IBT/OCCT Linpack or Prime95 will really only stress the CPU and RAM.

Running bf3 is not really a stress test since I was running that game on full settings before I upgraded.
I did run prime 95 for a long time, testing the ram and cpu with no flaws.
First thing I did was update my uefi, so no problems with the cpu at all.

Turns out that I made a stupid mistake of plugging my main sata into a hot-swap sata port which then removed connected items temporarily during installing processes.

Machine is working flawlessly now!