Benching Steps

[cold.nut]

mk guys so I am starting up my benchmarking first time ever this weekend, running some graphics and cpus on DICE. Give me a run through of the steps to benching. Do I run an OS from a USB drive, should I just get a new SATA drive and load up the OS on it. What is most preffered... and what are the steps you guys follow?

[Sam__]

get a hdd that you can install ur OS's on and all ur benches.

what i would have advised is get used to benching without extreme cooling so you can learn how to get the most out of the hardware you have when you do use DIce but ifyou like throwing urself in the deep end then good luck to you but dont expect miracles.

what pots do you have?

[KonaKona]

Be sure to insulate, don't wanna be breaking any hardware your first time.

Also, if you have a spare hard drive to use (one that isn't slow), then just take that and install your favorite version of windows and all the benching apps you want. A bare minimum should be 3dmark 01, 03, 05, 06, Super PI, and Wprime. You should also have CPUz on there for validations and all that jazz.

Or at least that's how I'd do it. If its your first time then don't push things too hard. You might want to have everything running so you can enter in the upcoming overclockers.com-forums-beats-a-bunch-of-other-forums-that-don't-know-how-to-bench competition, more commonly known as forum wars. :)

[icebob]

get a hdd that you can install ur OS's on and all ur benches.

what i would have advised is get used to benching without extreme cooling so you can learn how to get the most out of the hardware you have when you do use DIce but ifyou like throwing urself in the deep end then good luck to you but dont expect miracles.

what pots do you have?
Good advice here, get the feel of the bench apps and your hardware before going cold. Will save you some frustration. Good luck tho and like Kona said when you go cold be sure to insulate properly:salute:

[cold.nut]

alright so I am getting a set of hard drives this week. I want one for my OS, one for storage, and another seperate for benching. I plan on getting Caviar Blacks 640gb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319) x2 and I have a 320gb caviar blue (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074) currently. Give me some input to get the best deal for my money!

[OnDborder]

Hey, hey... Lookie who's joining the fray...
Shoot, I use a Raptor 36/74 gig or a 80 maxtor ide for my benching.
And put my apps on a flashdrive and install from there.

[cold.nut]

Hola OnDborder! I think I might just throw it all on my Caviar Blue then. Oh and btw OnD, I need to check my system specs before asking for benching parts from now on lolz. I don't have a AGP slot! HeHe one of those benching DOPE! moments ya know. So I am just gunna bench under my regular 8600gt and radeon 5770. Gunna send your merchandise back over the weekend mk

[cold.nut]

I have seen the majority of benches that Kingpin and AndreYang have pulled off have been on XP SP3. What OS do you guys recommend benching under for the best performance?

[Sam__]

each bench has its own os+tweaks. u gots a lot of reading/learning to do.:)

[MIAHALLEN]

I have seen the majority of benches that Kingpin and AndreYang have pulled off have been on XP SP3. What OS do you guys recommend benching under for the best performance?

http://www.overclockers.com/windows-showdown-8-operating-systems-6-benchmarks/

I get by with only WinXP x86 and Vista x86 :beer:

[nzaneb]

"Most" 2D benches run best on XP 32 bit, "Most" 3D run best (or close to it) on Vista 32. Each bench can slightly benefit from different operating systems, but to avoid having to install so many operating systems, you can compromise and use just these two.
These are the two primary OS's that I use, so I'm in the same boat as Miah. I also keep W7 64bit handy.

[cold.nut]

so to follow up with both of your suggestions... Would partitioning my hard drive be a bad choice to bench under, or not a big deal?

[Bobnova]

If you have two hard drives, i'd partition one into win7 (or vista) and XP, and install all the various drivers and benches on both partitions, and then i would clone the drive to the other, so you have two identical benching ready hard drives. Don't want to have to re-install a corrupted windows on dice :beer:

I second the motion of getting used to benching before going cold.

[nzaneb]

so to follow up with both of your suggestions... Would partitioning my hard drive be a bad choice to bench under, or not a big deal?

That's a great way to do it.