Built PC With Help From This Forum In 2011, Now Needs Upgrading

mikey1090 · 31 Aug 2016 at 05:32

Hi OCers

I've got the following setup, all purchased from OC in 2011 and built myself with the help from the community -

Product Name Price Qty Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £159.99 1 £159.99
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £116.66 1 £116.66
Coolermaster HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) £110.82 1 £110.82
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8) £89.99 1 £89.99
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £83.32 1 £83.32
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £69.99 1 £69.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £66.66 1 £66.66
Microsoft SideWinder X6 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (AGB-00006) £32.49 1 £32.49
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £31.66 1 £31.66
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) Out of stock £30.82 1 £30.82
TP-Link 300Mbps High-Gain Wireless-N USB Adapter (TL-WN822N) £14.16 1 £14.16
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.66 1 £11.66

My GFX card has seemingly reached the end of its life. I regularly get blue screens every 1-2 hours. I've got 2 x 24" 1080p monitors.

Also, my 64GB SSD is seemingly bottle-necked with Windows 10 on it now. Windows constantly freezes for 2-5 minutes just from opening emails, itunes and firefox. This build used to tear stuff like that up, never had an issue with windows 7.

I was wondering if you could suggest what I do from here. I'm on a tight budget so will need to buy whatever can give me the maximum performance gains without spending too much. What do you think? New SSD and move windows onto it? Mid-range GFX card?

I've attached a photo of my performance monitor, it keeps showing my C drive hit 100% which is what I'm assuming keeps causing my PC to hang. Apologies for the slight dis-organisation with the way I've worded all of this, 5AM wake-up and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet!

Thanks
Mike

Burr · 31 Aug 2016 at 05:50

Well the first thing i'd recommend (if you haven't done it already) is to scan your software environment for any malicious/unneeded software you might have running that's clogging up your SSD bandwidth. Run CCleaner/Anti-virus and check windows start-up for any unneeded programs. If that doesn't help the situation it'll probably be time to upgrade.

As for your BSOD issue we'd likely need more info. What does it report as the failure on your BSOD, if anything? It may be worth running health diagnostics on your CPU/RAM also. HCIMemtest is a good one.

mikey1090 · 31 Aug 2016 at 06:20

Thanks for the reply.

I regularly run CCleaner and there's nothing on my Start Up that shouldn't be there.

I've just ran the MemTest past 100% and it came back with 0 errors. The BSOD looks like this -
https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3V...us_image/image/49292097/bsodwindows10.0.0.jpg

Burr · 31 Aug 2016 at 06:44

OK found this link: http://www.deskdecode.com/critical-process-died/

Some decent suggestions in there, especially the one at the end about running the SFC scan. Have you tried a windows re-install? The more i think about this the more i think it's the SSD/windows install that's causing the BSOD's and not your graphics card. Of course i could be totally wrong.

mikey1090 · 31 Aug 2016 at 08:59

Thanks Burr, will try the SFC scan this evening when I get home.

I never had the BSOD until I bought Far Cry 3 for Christmas when it was released. It only hit BSOD when playing that game, so I jumped to the conclusion it was the GFX card.

pastymuncher · 31 Aug 2016 at 09:38

Download and run Bluescreen View and post up the error codes for the bsod's.

Lemin · 31 Aug 2016 at 11:26

Your GFX card is not listed in specs ?

mikey1090 · 31 Aug 2016 at 16:30

480 GTX

sirp · 31 Aug 2016 at 22:04

Well I have a very similar spec to yourself. I recently had issues with GPU. Popped a 1070 in and everything is great. Obviously you are on a budget so not suggesting that card of course. It might be your GPU dying though, mine was crashing my system so RMA'd it. I also used to have a small SSD like you and just dropped a larger one in.

pastymuncher · 1 Sep 2016 at 08:53

pastymuncher said:
Download and run Bluescreen View and post up the error codes for the bsod's.

Have you done this yet? If you have post up the error codes. It may be nothing to do with your gpu at all.

Burr · 1 Sep 2016 at 10:23

Pastymuncher's right, a screen from that app would be helpful, if nothing else to help pinpoint what drivers (if any) are causing the BSOD's. Post it up when you get a chance.

Lemin · 1 Sep 2016 at 13:24

Depending on budget...

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 460 Red Dragon 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £97.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 470 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with backplate= £164.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 750 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive= £68.99

Total: £331.97
(includes shipping: £0.00)

HoneyBadger · 1 Sep 2016 at 19:59

It could be a number of things.

Start with the cheapest, easiest solution.

If I were in your shoes, I'd buy a 250GB SSD, fresh install and see if the system is stable, willing to bet it will be.

Disco_P · 2 Sep 2016 at 00:03

Start with a fresh install of windows 10 to elimate the chance of a software error. Windows can get pretty broken in 5 years.

Gabbatek · 2 Sep 2016 at 10:54

i'd suggest scanning your ssd to see how healthy it is. Smaller ssd's are slower than larger ones also.

i think you need a new gpu and ssd

mikey1090 · 28 Oct 2016 at 05:11

HoneyBadger said:
It could be a number of things.

Start with the cheapest, easiest solution.

If I were in your shoes, I'd buy a 250GB SSD, fresh install and see if the system is stable, willing to bet it will be.

Bought this -

Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (SHFS37A/240G)

And re-installed windows 7 (was using windows 10). Downloaded the latest drivers for the GTX 480 and it's not crashed once in weeks. Thanks guys.