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Power Supply Problem or not?

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Is this a problem supply problem or something else:

my system is - e6750; 3gb ddr2667; 8800GT; 1 HD; 1 DVD-RW; X-Fi.

The power supply that I bought when I built the system is a HEC orion 585watt with 2 12v totaling 39amps, but isn't eps12v compatible (i'm using just the 4 pin on the 8 pin slot) it also doesn't have a dedicated PCI-E 6 pin but instead an adapter from a molex to the 6-pin. It's cheap. I've suddenly started having weird crashes, specifically pixelating screens in FEAR, of all games, followed by a bsod. I'm thinking that it is instability from the cheap psu and was going to upgrade to something a little nicer now that it is completely built. Does the random crashes sound like something that is something from the psu? I'm getting a little worried that the if this is from the psu it is going to go and take some hardware with it.

So should I upgrade to a PC Power & Cooling or OCZ PSU or should is this something unrelated and I can afford to keep this in there?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by hasten on 12-28-2007 at 05:12:41 AM

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do some testing first. try running two psu's on your system at one time. if it stops crashing, then yes, your psu is at fault.

and remember, total rail amps does not equal 12v1 +12v2.

are you running your processor and gpu at stock speeds?

pixelating screens sounds more like a gpu problem. try playing the game with lesser settings. update your drivers. is your 8800 new?

Message edited by frozenlead on 12-28-2007 at 05:29:37 AM

Reply to frozenlead

Could be you new spanking new 8800GT is getting too hot. If you have a case with poor airflow that could be making the situation worse. Do you know the temps your 8800GT is running at?

------------------------------ Gigabyte K8N-Ultra 939
AMD X2 3800 OC to 2.4Ghz w/ ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro
2Gb Corsair XMS
XFX 8800GT OC 700/1000 W/Zalman Cooler
Reply to brett_monkey

I got the 8800 on release day and my case has pretty good air flow. I wouldn't think that I would need more than 20 amps on a single rail unless the for some reason It's only running one rail... both the cpu and gpu are at stock. I haven't seen heats over ~85 but I don't really run a monitor for it. The strangest part about it is I haven't had any problems running any newer games (bioshock, COD4, Crysis) maxed out just a couple of the older guys, particularily FEAR. I hope it's not the gpu, I do know that the cooling system on the GT is not the greatest being single slot but still I'd hope. Maybe I'll throw another case fan in first and drop the ambient a little before upgrading the power supply, I'd still like to eventually run an EPS12V PSU to ensure maxiumum stability, but if I can hold out I'm going to as long as I can.

Reply to hasten

In the long run I suggest this for you graphics card so it lasts long. My 8800GTX peaks out at only 68C on the stock cooler, just imagine if I were to put this Zalman cooler on..>>>>

By systemlord at 2007-12-27

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ Intel C2D E6600 @ 3.2GHz * Asus P5E * 2x1 GB Crucial Ballistix Tracers * Raptor X * EVGA Geforce 8800GTX 768MB 651MHz/1525MHz/2100MHz * X-FI Fatal1ty Pro * Enermax Infiniti 720W PSU * Creative THX5.1 * Tuniq Tower 120
Silverstone TJ09 * Windows XP
Reply to systemlord

The pixelation indicates an overheated or damaged video card. A power spike can damage a video card, and poorly made power supplies let more of those through, so the power supply might be related to the problem.

I'd get a decent power supply PLUS figure out whether the card is too hot or damaged.

Reply to Crashman

hasten wrote :

I've suddenly started having weird crashes, specifically pixelating screens in FEAR, of all games, followed by a bsod. I'm thinking that it is instability from the cheap psu and was going to upgrade to something a little nicer now that it is completely built. Does the random crashes sound like something that is something from the psu?

This can definitely be a PSU problem. If you have a voltmeter, that would be the best way to test. The spec allows of +/- 10%, but I prefer to see no worse than 5% on a high performance system.

Message edited by tlmck on 12-28-2007 at 07:27:12 AM

------------------------------ I know what I know, and I don't know what I don't know.
Reply to tlmck

Quote :

It's cheap.

On this statement alone I would get a better quality PSU like the PC Power & Cooling even if the graphics card turns out to be bad. It might be that your cheap PSU over time killed your G-card, but thats just a guess.

I know this is off subject a little; but I decided that I'm going to purchase a new PSU. Any opinions on a OCZ gameXstream 600w? It seems to be acclaimed by most media.

By the way, where are you supposed to find that massive VGA cooler, the thing is f'in huge. Do they sell it? What is the pipe coming off the side of the fan, it isn't water cooled is it?

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by hasten on 12-29-2007 at 03:40:33 AM

Reply to hasten

The game extreme is very good. Here is a good deal on it right now. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341001

For whatever reason, the 700 watt is more popular. I remember seeing dozens of them at the last QuakeCon. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341002

------------------------------ I know what I know, and I don't know what I don't know.
Reply to tlmck

I just got the 600 from newegg (is there anywhere else). I honestly don't see any reason to have more than 600w with my current set up, even if I went 8800GT sli. Thanks for the help everyone.

Reply to hasten

hasten wrote :

By the way, where are you supposed to find that massive VGA cooler, the thing is f'in huge. Do they sell it? What is the pipe coming off the side of the fan, it isn't water cooled is it?

The cooler is no larger than the stock cooler, those heat pipes have coolant in them that turns into a gas to expell the heat away from the heat source. Where to get it I don't know.

The stock cooler on the GT is a tiny single slot, which I'm not complaining about since I have a pretty small cooler master case, but it's at least 2x as big as stock on this card. I understand that the heatpipes over the gpu have the coolant in them and the whole process with that, but there is an extra pipe leading to no where on the pics that could be some type of water in. The 8800GT is rated to like 100c (g9x tech) so it's not that huge of a problem besides rising ambient temps a lot. I still would love to get some third party cooling on the thing to see how high I could push it, I've seen some pretty rediculous numbers. I haven't overclocked anything on this rig, it's the first high end system I've built and it has that crappy PSU (oximoron).

Reply to hasten

systemlord wrote :

In the long run I suggest this for you graphics card so it lasts long. My 8800GTX peaks out at only 68C on the stock cooler, just imagine if I were to put this Zalman cooler on..>>>>

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/5152/rhs88gq0.jpg
By systemlord at 2007-12-27

You can get the cooler from http://www.frozencpu.com/ Its under air cooling.

Reply to IH8U

Here's a good deal on the Corsair VX550

http://www.buy.com/prod/Corsair-VX [...] 52646.html

Reply to chuckm

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