RAM/PSU Trouble?

Curriemaster

Curriemaster

Curriemaster

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Joined
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Location
Edinburgh, Scotland
Hello all, first time posting here but hopefully you knowledgable gents can help me out. Basically I've just recently upgraded my system with 4 more GB of RAM (Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz), a CPU cooler (Akasa Venom Nano) and an SSD (Crucial M4 64GB).

I've had some issues that I've been trying to get to the bottom of and Im thinking its either my PSU or some kind of RAM incompatibilty. The other 4GB of RAM in my system are Geil Ultra 2133Mhz so obviously dont match the Corsair RAM, but I have set the DRAM frequency to 1600MHz and the main timings to match the default values of the lowest of the two. My PSU is unfortunately one that I bought from a reasonably well known electronics chain when I didnt know any better a few years ago (X-Power 580W if its of interest).

Basically the issue Im seeing is that during non-taxing games (League of Legends in this case) Ive had a few BSODs and random restarts. Also, while running the memory latency burn-in test with SiSoft Sandra the computer again restarted. Im not familiar enough with these types of crashes to be able to diagnose memory or PSU faults, I have read though that this appears to be consistent with a poor-quality PSU.

Should I be looking into buying a new PSU? Or procuring some matching RAM? Or could this be something else, like a heat issue? Hopefully you guys can help as I've reached the limit of my (admittedly small) level of expertise.

My current system:
-Asus M4A79XTD Evo
-AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 BE
-XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
-Geil Ultra Series 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-17000 2133MHz
-Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
-Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB
-Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB (not yet connected)
-Thermaltake Tsunami Dream

Thanks for reading!
 
First use RealTemp or CoreTemp to see what temps your CPU is reaching.

Is all ok with one stick of RAM?

If so, buy a matching set of corsair and see if that goes well.
 
Have you ran Memtest86? That should pick out any RAM problems you may have.

I'd definitely look at replacing the PSU though, never even heard of X-Power!
 
Using a psu calculator with your hardware, min power = 450w recommended power = 500w at 90% efficiency.

If the psu is performing to spec, it should give enough power, however it would be a worthwhile investment to get a better one say 650w from a reputable manufacturer.

I have geil and ocz working together at 1667MHz both 12800 spec 9-9-9-27 2T.

and welcome to the forum.

andy.
 
Thanks for the quick replies chaps.

I have been running CPU-Z to check the temps, the CPU temp hovers around 37 idle and goes up to around 43 mid-game. The Geil RAM seems to run fine by itself but I was thinking that extra power requirement from using 4GB more RAM might be the issue rather than a problem with one of the RAM sticks themselves.

I believe this PSU was specced for 80+% efficiency which would give a recommended power of just over 562W...Im starting to think I should just get another PSU to eliminate any problems with that anyway, nevermind this specific one. Good to know that you have non-matching RAM working together (mine's running 9-9-9-28 2T).

With that in mind, any PSU recommendations? I sent a webnote enquiring about the 650W OcUK Battle PSUs last week and the guy said its a decent PSU that they use in their systems; but I've read a few negative opinions on this forum about them (even though the customer reviews on the item page appear positive). Should I be steering clear of them?

Thanks again for the help.
 
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