[gentoo-user] [OT] Hardware Problems causing kernel panics during large compiles

[Jason Weisberger]

Here's the rig:

AMD Phenom II X3 720 (unlocked to 4 cores and OC'd to 3 Ghz, however
taking it back to stock doesn't affect the problem)
4 Gigs DDR3-1600 at 7-7-7-16
ASUS ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 Mobo
MSI N9800GT GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

other less important things would be two 320GB SATA drives, an IDE dvd
writer, internal card reader, blah blah

There are two things I can get this system to consistently lock up
while doing: a large compilation such as Chromium, open office, or
GCC, or playing Age of Conan in my separate Windows 7 partition.  For
normal everyday tasks, I can't lock the thing up.  The system even
plays WoW on maximum settings, Skyrim on max, Counter-Strike Source on
max, 1080p youtube or local videos / movies.

Watching the processor temp stays relatively low, the GPU temp stays
normal, north bridge temp is good.

The kernel panics I get are usually recoverable, I can just F7 back
into my desktop and the compile may or may not still be going.  If it
is, it's usually dead by the third or fourth panic.

Memtest86+ ran for 24 hours and found no issues with memory on 18 passes.

So, pretty much where I'm at is either processor or RAM.  Unless
anybody here has a better idea.  And how could I test whether it was
the processor or RAM without any current replacement parts?  What
tests usually show one over the other?

-- 
Jason Weisberger
jbdubbs@×××××.com