enough power?

[barney]

Just finished building my new rig but having some problems. Its all fine until i try to run a game then it just falls over and reboots.

The system is.

3x Maxtor 6L300S0 DiamondMax 10 300GB 7200RPM SATA/150 16MB Cache
1 x Connect3d ATI Radeon X1900 512Mb Crossfire master card edition
1 x Connect3d ATI Radeon X1900XTX 512Mb DVI + DVI + VIVO PCI-E
1 x MSI RD480 Neo2-FI SKT939 2xPCI-E Crossfire support DDR400 8channel audio LAN ATX
1 x AMD Athlon 64 XP3000 (my 4800 didnt turn up today)
2 X 1GB Paired PC3200 Ram (in duel channel config)

580w PSU


I have set it up in crossfire mode (just enabled via the ATi software?) and everything seems to be running fine apart from games. Did have the cpu overclocked to 1900 but put that back to normal and it still falls over. Im thinking that maybe its just not enough power.

The PSU says it has X2 12 volt rails one at 20amp one at 18amp but the manual doesnt decribe if one of the sockets is the 2nd 12v rail or not (its a moduler deal where you plug your cables into the psu).

(just found link to it: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Hiper.html )

Is it what i think it is or is it something else? How much power do you think i need for this system (im now thinking a 700w the Sparkle FX700-GLN maybe)?

I Both video cards have their own cable with nothing coming off it to leech power that way. Im going to try unplugging the DVD and 1 of the harddrives to see if that helps.

If all else fails would it be safe to use a second psu just to power the video cards? (have it outside of the case conected to both of them?) just until i get another psu?

Edit: just read in another post that someone had problems running a crossfire setup with a 600w supply and it worked with a 700w supply so i think this is the same problem. Wouldnt mind some confirmation though and a suggestion for a good PSU.

Edit 2: just tried putting the cards back to single cards and removed the slave card and it run amazingly, for about 20 seconds, then fell over again.

 

[barney]

Well just ordered the FX700-GLN Epsilon. Hope this will sort it all out.

 

[stvmor]

It may be that you havn't got high enough Vcore of Vdimm?
Have you checked temperatures, the CPU may be getting too hot?
Is the case getting enough ventilation, the rest of your parts may be too hot?
Try the memory at 2T!
Try the memory one stick at a time to check it's not one of these!
Also try with just your OS HDD!
Just a few of the simpler things to try before you fit a new PSU as I have a suspision it's not that

 

[barney]

Cpu is running at between 32-35C, System temp around 30-33C so overheating isnt a problem. The ram is ok because i put it in another PC overnight under full load and didnt have any problems, its getting 2.6 volts.

Have tried removing the 1 spare harddrive but the other 2 are in Raid0 so have to keep them both in.

Im a bit concerned because i thought a 580w PSU would be able to at least be able to cope with one card in there. I have been told that the 1900xtx is very power hungry though.

 

[wam7]

The Epsilon is a great choice of PSU (and not just because I have one ). Did a lot of reading before getting mine as I was thinking about Crossfire sometime later. A few people (I think Jokester on here is one) have been having problems running Crossfire with even OCZ Powerstream 600W. Once they've changed to the Epsilon their problems are sorted out. It's not the amount of watts it's the 12V ampage. The higher the better. Off the top of my head Crossfire is recommeded to need around 38A.

With the Epsilon 700W you will have a combined 50A on the 12V line;although it's 4 x 15A rails, you don't add them up to get the combined total. I have also been informed by a technician at FSP that the Epsilon has been ratified as been able to produce 18A on each 12V rail. It is a monster of a PSU.

Also OcUK were doing the 600W Epsilon dirt cheap. Everywhere else is £100+ when OcUK was £82. (Hope that don't notice this and bump up the price! )

 

[brightside_]

they are power hungry, plus the hipers aren't that stable under high load (12V rail wavers a fair bit) even though I use one now, i wouldn't reccomend it to anyone lol

 

[barney]

Thanks a lot for the advice. Is it right though that a 580w PSU can power even 1 card though??

The other thing i just noticed is that when i set up my raid0 i only put it on 16k striping. Would this cause it to crash when under load? (going to go and try a CPU/Memory/Hardrive stress test as i may have been short sighted in thinking it was just a video problem) going to ghost over everything to some spare drives and redo the raid to 64K strip size.

Any other suggestions on things to check?

 

[barney]

I rebuilt the raid with 64k and reinstalled and same problem, flashed the Bios and made sure all my drivers where upto date. Stress test was fine, system is completely stable until i use 3d graphics. Just hope that it is just a greedy card and that a better PSU will fix it

 

[wam7]

Thanks a lot for the advice. Is it right though that a 580w PSU can power even 1 card though??

The other thing i just noticed is that when i set up my raid0 i only put it on 16k striping. Would this cause it to crash when under load? (going to go and try a CPU/Memory/Hardrive stress test as i may have been short sighted in thinking it was just a video problem) going to ghost over everything to some spare drives and redo the raid to 64K strip size.

Any other suggestions on things to check?

It's not the fact that it's 580w it's the quality of the PSU and also nowadays how good/strong the 12V rail is. Exactly what 580w PSU is it?

Older systems used to draw most of their power off the 5v line and this is where you will see older PSU's put there ampage.

As to stripe size it shouldn't be the cause of your crashing but incidentally for windows use 64K/128K stripe are better than 16K which is just good for benchmarks.

 

[barney]

Thanks, I just wanted reasurance that it really was likely to be the PSU.

The psu is a hiper http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Hiper.html

Will wait until the Epsilon comes and see what happens form there (unless i can find a semi decent psu in the piles of spares i have sitting around). I think that the PSU just cant supply enough when everything is under high load (38Amp isnt that much, especially with 3 SATA hdd's).

 

[wam7]

Hmm I would have thought that the Hiper would have been up to it as it's a decent PSU, not as good as the Epsilon mind you. We will see what happens when the Epsilon arrives.

 

[Noni]

Elipson kills the Hiper, IMO i dont like hipers, more bling than performance.

 

[barney]

Got my new PSU today, plugged it all in and it works perfectly. Just waiting for my new CPU now and im all set

 

[stvmor]

Got my new PSU today, plugged it all in and it works perfectly. Just waiting for my new CPU now and im all set

Great news, it just goes to show how important the PSU is

Lots of threads on this and it's nice to see the evidence.

 

[wam7]

The Epsilons are really very good PSU's and IMHO the best value for money PSU at this moment.