2x Bricked OCZ Vector 128 GB SSDs - MoBo or PSU?

TheCardPlayer

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Mar 5, 2012
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Hello everyone, so i just spent my hard earned money and bought a new $2k desktop. Configuration is the following:
AMD FX8350 8-core Vischera
ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0
Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB DDR3 2133OC 11-11-11-24
OCZ Vector 128GB
Radeon HD 7870 Royal King OC
Thermaltake Level 10 GT LCS case
Thermaltake BigWater 850 Water Cooling Kit
Thermaltake M750W PSU

...and it is driving me crazy.

I started with RAM problems not being able to boot at 2133MHz (OC) but i guess that was me cause i didnt configure additional Voltage and correct timing settings.
Then i got a major problem. After 5 days of BSOD and 3 windows 7 & 8 installations the OCZ Vector 128GB drive died on me... I sent it back and got it replaced, the same again... After 5 days everything going slightly better, suddently after a freeze i hit the reset button, and boom, there goes the replacement Vector, died just like the first one. I would really like to know if it is a MoBo or a PSU Issue. Can a MoBo destroy an HDD because of bad RAM settings, oc, etc? (when saying oc i only changed RAM to 2133 MHZ, DRAM Voltage to 1.65 and timings to 11-11-11-24 nothing else like CPU or other frequencies)

Or is it more likely a PSU Problem? I Find it jard to believe its the Thermaltake 750 Smart power, it really seems like a good psu.. The mobo is a really complicated unit, maybe it got some bad SATA ports or something, it also gave me serious trouble with its very own Asmedia SATA drivers, freezing the pc when opening HWiNFO 64 and stuff like that...

So in short : Can my mobo have fried both of the OCZ Vectors? Or is it a PSU malfuntion?!

I never had any psu problems (power cuts, power loss or anything... it is a really expensive psu and it all seem se strange :(

Please help guys!!!
 
I just want to comment on the power supply.

The Thermaltake Smart Series and Smart-M series are not very good power supplies. Some of the models qualified for the PSU Lemon List I maintain. Here is the link:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/power-supplies/psu-lemon-list.html

Scroll down to the Thermaltake section and you will see why. You can also follow the links to competent technical reviews that describe the problems in much more detail.

I do not know whether your psu or motherboard might have fried your ssd's due to insufficient information
 

TheCardPlayer

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Mar 5, 2012
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Thanks a lot for your fast reply, So what would be the best brand for PSU? I can spend up to $150 on a psu.. And IS it possible then that a MoBo with a bad SATA port and/or bad configurations can fry 2 SSDs?
 

TheCardPlayer

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Mar 5, 2012
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I Have to add something, while the SSDs are fried i have a backup installation on a HDD which seems to work fine. No problems whatsoever. The problem seems to be specific on SSDs. I naturally run them in AHCI mode.
 

TheCardPlayer

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Mar 5, 2012
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Furthermore, when i mean ''Bricked'' i really mean the SSD wont work for any reason on any system. I also have a Laptop with a HDD dock i put them on to see if they died and they do not even light up the indicator. Its just dead metal doing nothing.
 

redeemer

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A power surge or malfunction would likely kill your Motherboard. Anyway you may want to check your voltages 3.3v 5v and 12v in the bios to make sure that those rails are providing their rated power. No pinning this down under load will be more tricky. The best thing to do is to RMA your SSD's again and pick up another PSU for testing.

 


Seasonic is King. Corsair and Antec are very good. Corsair is good because it gets it psus from Seasonic. XFX is the same.

This one is great. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151087
 

TheCardPlayer

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Mar 5, 2012
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Ok, so i'm one step away from RMAing SSD and PSU instead of MoBo. In my bios i get the following readings: +3.3v = 3.24v +5v = 5.014v +12v = 12.097v which seem totally normal and have been so for 2 boots now. i will be checking them further under stress with the Asus Ai Monitor... Looking for a replacement Seasonic one but it just seem to be working perfectly :S

In addition im getting Money back for the OCZ and thinking of switching to Samsung. I consider OCZ to be the best since i also got a perfect Vertex 3 in my laptop gut i just cant trust the Vector anymore, seems kind of 'Fragile'. I really hope its not that Mobo though, i'd really like to swap it for the Sabertooth... Well lets see, thank you all guys for your help!
 

TheCardPlayer

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Mar 5, 2012
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Ok so i checked the voltages under stress (not too much stress well, just running AION) My 12v stays pretty much the same. the 3.3v falls from 3.24 to about 3.21 and my 5.014 falls to 4.99... Is that indicating a psu problem?
 


No those are pretty good voltages for the 3.3V and 5V standard.
 

TheCardPlayer

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Mar 5, 2012
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I cannot determine the cause of the problem... :( Voltages seem fine.. since nothing else gets affected i am RMAing the Mobo and buying a Sabertooth ASUS, and getting a Samsung SSD instead of the OCZ. as of the PSU i am keeping it for the moment, if it fries the samsung drive then ill swap it for the SeaSonic Platinum... :S dont know if its the right move and im so frustrated that ASUS is getting cretid for the best mobo builder when they use the worst Asmedia SATA ports and unbelieaveably buggy Drivers :(
 

whitesites

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Jun 25, 2009
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Years back (1997) a buddy of mine built an AMD system, then over the next year he had to replace the CPU once, and the motherboard twice. Not sure if it was from a cheap power supply or not, but this scared me from ever buying an AMD product. I have since then stuck with Intel CPUs and never had a single problem with the 4 systems I have built since 1997.
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
I would move the ssd off the asmedia controller and put them on the 990 chipset controller. I use my asmedia for optical drives only. I would just disable it in the bios but I have all the other sata ports filled with hdd's. LOL