first solo build

Rmorrison

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
May 30, 2019
144
128
I just tried updating the bios but it failed because its not compatible with windows 64 bit. That weird?

Is there any bench marking software you recommend?
 

CountNoctua

(no relation)
Jul 11, 2019
214
263
What's the motherboard? It's possible you grabbed the wrong link. I would make sure to get the BIOS file for flashing via USB drive rom the BIOS itself, and not via Windows (typically more risky).

For benchmarking, there are usually a few options for each category. Usually I get CPU-Z (CPU and general system info, mainly for monitoring clock speeds and voltage, but also has a short CPU benchmark utility that also lets you compare scores online), Cinebench (good CPU performance metric as well as short CPU stability test, and good way to check if CPU is performing as it should versus other machines or in between overclocking changes), longer CPU stability utility/torture test (AIDA64 trial or Prime95), a gaming benchmark suite (3DMark, also short GPU stress), Furmark (longer and high GPU stress, if I want to be mean to my GPU), CrystalDiskMark (SSD benchmark), memtest (usually only run this if I'm experiencing weird issues that I suspect are memory related, but good to run after tweaking memory speed and timings as well), Thaiphoon Burner (detailed memory info, good for when tweaking memory), and sometimes PCMark (not as useful as 3DMark, but I like to gauge and compare particularly for my main "workstation" builds).

Ryzen Master and HWiNFO for system monitoring; AMD's Ryzen Master is a full CPU overclocking suite, as well, and good for testing voltages and clock changes outside of Windows, as you can apply them instantly (though for long-term I always go into the BIOS itself). HWiNFO is good to leave in background to monitor temps of all components in your system that support temp monitoring (CPU, GPU, drives, motherboard, etc) as well as see things like real-time speeds and voltages all in one place. Don't run monitoring software simultaneously (at least not ones like Ryzen Master and HWiNFO which both poll the CPU), but you can use Ryzen Master to "sanity check" the CPU temp reported by HWiNFO, though I think these days HWiNFO is accurate (AMD's had trouble in the past with some software not accurately polling the right sensor or calculating the "real" core temp correctly).

There are alternatives to most of the above, and I don't necessarily keep up to date with what's the best utilities at the moment, but generally those are what I use. I also prefer to get the portable versions (except some like 3DMark which I bought via Steam) so bloat isn't installed on my system, but it also allows you to run them off a flash drive (great to have a bunch of useful utilities on a flash drive, along with other basics like flash drive bootable UBCD, a live Linux distro, and a Windows installer flash drive).
 
Last edited:

Rmorrison

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
May 30, 2019
144
128
What's the motherboard? It's possible you grabbed the wrong link. I would make sure to get the BIOS file for flashing via USB drive rom the BIOS itself, and not via Windows (typically more risky).

For benchmarking, there are usually a few options for each category. Usually I get CPU-Z (CPU and general system info, mainly for monitoring clock speeds and voltage, but also has a short CPU benchmark utility that also lets you compare scores online), Cinebench (good CPU performance metric as well as short CPU stability test, and good way to check if CPU is performing as it should versus other machines or in between overclocking changes), longer CPU stability utility/torture test (AIDA64 trial or Prime95), a gaming benchmark suite (3DMark, also short GPU stress), Furmark (longer and high GPU stress, if I want to be mean to my GPU), CrystalDiskMark (SSD benchmark), memtest (usually only run this if I'm experiencing weird issues that I suspect are memory related, but good to run after tweaking memory speed and timings as well), Thaiphoon Burner (detailed memory info, good for when tweaking memory), and sometimes PCMark (not as useful as 3DMark, but I like to gauge and compare particularly for my main "workstation" builds).

Ryzen Master and HWiNFO for system monitoring; AMD's Ryzen Master is a full CPU overclocking suite, as well, and good for testing voltages and clock changes outside of Windows, as you can apply them instantly (though for long-term I always go into the BIOS itself). HWiNFO is good to leave in background to monitor temps of all components in your system that support temp monitoring (CPU, GPU, drives, motherboard, etc) as well as see things like real-time speeds and voltages all in one place. Don't run monitoring software simultaneously (at least not ones like Ryzen Master and HWiNFO which both poll the CPU), but you can use Ryzen Master to "sanity check" the CPU temp reported by HWiNFO, though I think these days HWiNFO is accurate (AMD's had trouble in the past with some software not accurately polling the right sensor or calculating the "real" core temp correctly).

There are alternatives to most of the above, and I don't necessarily keep up to date with what's the best utilities at the moment, but generally those are what I use. I also prefer to get the portable versions (except some like 3DMark which I bought via Steam) so bloat isn't installed on my system, but it also allows you to run them off a flash drive (great to have a bunch of useful utilities on a flash drive, along with other basics like flash drive bootable UBCD, a live Linux distro, and a Windows installer flash drive).

Thanks man, appreciate it