PSU Anxiety

miseryguts

miseryguts

miseryguts

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Workington, Cumbria
I had one replaced about 4/5 months ago with a: Powercool PC-850AUBA-B a user here has suggested that this particular model not being up to the task is what is probably causing my system to suddenly restart when playing (some games) i7 920 (3.45 O/C) HD 5870 a friend however has suggested that the CPU temp would most likely be causing the problem (which Is why Iv'e just bought a Noctua NH-D14, not installed yet though)

How can I find out definitively what is causing the issue as I'm looking to further upgrade the Graphics card etc & would like to solve this problem (or at least know what's causing it) before installing/upgrading anything..?

Thanks.
 
It's pretty simple to monitor the CPU temps using a number of programs. Some will even log them for you to text file so you can see what the ultimate temperatures were at time of shut down. I've seen my i7 920 go into the early 90s and not shut down so find it hard to confirm your thoughts regarding temperatures, at least until you provide more information.

PSUs can and will cause reboots and shutdowns, if for example a voltage rail dips too much. It's quite tricky to accurately monitor PSU voltages though so the easiest way to determine if the PSU is at fault is to replace it with a known good unit and retest. If you have a multimeter you could probe the 12v relatively easily and watch for movement of that when you apply loads.
 
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An intel CPU won't shut down till it gets to over 100C. Before it gets there it will start throttling back and cause slowdown and freezing. If the shutdowns are with no warning at all it's much more likely to be PSU.

Install CoreTemp and run Prime95 and you'll be able to see the maximum temperature your CPU will hit.
 
jamesfreddie said:
I can see the problem. "Powercool PC-850AUBA-B" These PSU's are terrible it is unlikley to output half of what it is rated for. And about a third of what it is rated for on the 12V rail.

I would look at replacing that very soon.

OCZ: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-056-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098
Click to expand...

This

Change it before it goes bang and takes the rest of your system with it. Even if it's not the PSU causing the problem (which i'll bet it is), i'd still change it for peace of mind.

This would be another decent choice:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

I seriously doubt it's the CPU temp anyway, as you'd get throttling first rather than shutdowns. The D14 is a great cooler though, so you've not wasted money as such :)
 
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SIGH, thanks for all for the comments..

More money that I can't afford to spend.. another couple of questions if I may, will the two PSU's mentioned in this thread be OK in my case (and OK for a potential OC of up to 4.5Ghz currently at 3.40): Coolermaster CM690 Dominator & I am a complete novice having never built or replaced anything before, is it something that I could attempt without too many headaches..?

Thanks.
 
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Blue160 said:
An intel CPU won't shut down till it gets to over 100C. Before it gets there it will start throttling back and cause slowdown and freezing.
Click to expand...

Yup - the CPU itself won't cause a shutdown until a very high temperature (I think it's about 130c). However, some motherboards have a separate feature in the BIOS which shuts the system down if the CPU reaches a certain temperature. Have a look in the BIOS to see if you have such a feature enabled.

I'd go for PSU over CPU temps, though. Cost is generally a fairly good indicator of the quality of a PSU. I found that Powercool PSU online for £42... bearing in mind that an 850W Corsair is £96 and the Cooler Master and OCZ equivalents are £120, Powercool must be cutting corners somewhere!

As the others have suggested, though, you don't need an 850W PSU for that rig. A decent 550W-650W would be perfectly fine (for a single graphics card).
 
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miseryguts said:
Thanks, but would it also handle the Noctua NH-D14 I'm soon going to install and one (maybe 2 GTX 570's)
Click to expand...

A quality 550 - 650w PSU will be fine with one GTX570 in your system. However, two of them in SLI would maybe be pushing it a little. I think i'd want a quality 750w for SLI 570's.
 
For sli 570's and an overclocked i7 920, id be looking at a quality 800w + psu. It would allow more headroom for oc'ing the cards as well as the cpu.
 
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