With all due respect, I use my computer for work as well as play, and I don't want it crashing "everyday" and losing my work... and hence money. Just because you had a rig that was 24hr stable after only doing a 1hr prime test doesn't mean everyone will. I've had a set up fail after several hours of LinX... likewise, I wouldn't trust Prime95 as a sole means of testing stability. If your rig crashes while playing Left 4 Dead.. well ho hum.. if it crashes while you're 3 hours into editing an image that a client needs yesterday... different matter. Well worth spending a few more pence on electricity.
Of course, everyone has different needs. An individual (in this case westside, the OP) needs to determine what his demands are, and act accordingly. I was not suggesting that if you need something of mission critical importance level that you skimp on testing it. However, I would suggest that equipment of mission critical importance was either a) not overclocked or b) overclocked extremely conservatively. I overclock my systems that aren't 'vital' if something goes wrong. Due to the fact that I really can't afford to have a ridiculous power bill (it's high enough already) I don't leave my computers on 24/7 - the system on longest is a laptop that even at full load draws a fifth of what my desktop does. Determination of the tasks ahead and action appropriate to those tasks is required. I am not suggesting that my experiences will be the same as everyone else's - however, each can only chip in with the advice that they have gained through their own experience.
Quite true. However, if 24/7 running costs are an issue, maybe you shouldn't overclock at all. For the purposes of testing, running it for 24 hours isn't going to cost much, and it's worth it to make sure it is stable. As for daily running, you can overclock and use speedstep in most cases. I do and it idles using 43 watts (CPU) just like it would if at stock speeds. If you're concerned about power usage, you need to look at the components in your rig to begin with: Worrying about the extra power because of overclocking if you have a i7 and 2x GTX285s seems a little pointless... it's going to munch power at stock speeds... the little extra 'cos of the OC is incidental. I can't remember what the OP has in way of equipment (apart from the CPU)... that was just an example. If you want low running costs... build a low power rig As for rigs still crashing after a 24hr linpack test.... well.. yeah.. but these types of random crashes can just as easily occur when not overclocked at all. An overlcoked rig can be mission critical stable if you do it properly. Mine's not crashed once while running photoshop, premiere, lightroom, or any of the other apps I use for work. In fact, it's not crashed once at all, and is far more stable than the Mac Pros I use at college, which have crashed on me several times for no apparent reason. The OP is only at 3.6GHz. There's no reason why that can't be a stable, 24/7 OC even for mission critical apps. How many of you are folding on OCed rigs and never had a single error?
