- Apr 28, 2011
- 424
- 0
- 18,860
Hello, enthusiasts,
tl;dr I would like a PSU recommendation to “future proof” my system. I would like something that can comfortably handle a SLI system with two very high end GPUs (560ti or similar), three hard drives, two optical drives, an Phenom X4 processor (with overclocking headroom), 4x 2GB DDR3, and a few USB devices. I would really appreciate recommendations from those with similar systems.
Current System:
Phenom II 555BE @3.2 GHz (unlocked)
ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600 Watt
2x 320 GB HD (RAID 0)
Windows 7 64-bit
8GB DDR3 @ 1600
2x GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB (SLI)
“Monitor” is a Sony Bravia, 1080p, 60 Hz
Long version:
The issue I have is that during games that hit my entire system really hard (currently: Crysis and Hydrophobia) I get bluescreens after about 20 minutes. The cause has been somewhat difficult to track down because both games are notoriously buggy and will very occasionally BSOD a stable system. After a few weeks testing I figured out that if I take either GPU out, the system is very stable and as soon as I put both of them in, I get the BSODs after a few minutes of gaming. I think my current 600W PSU is *almost* sufficient for the current system and only when the entire system is stressed does it become unstable. Portal 2 and Half-life 2 play flawlessly (max settings, AA, 1080p, Vsync) which, I think, is because they do not actually stress my system very much. I didn’t have this instability at all until I installed two more sticks of RAM and started playing Crysis and Hydrophobia.
Tests I have done to conform identify the PSU as the culprit:
-Gamed for some time with each video card in (but not both). I tested both PCIe slots this way. The cards and PCIe slots are fine.
-Prime 95 run for 8-10 hours at a time with and without the CPU cores unlocked.
-Memtest86+ for 27 hours <--- HEY! This only means the DIMMs are fine. RAM configuration could still be unstable!
-CheckDisk to make sure the HDDs are ok.
-Temps monitored. My CPU runs quite cool. The GPUs can get up around 75 C.
-Reinstalled Windows and removed a lot of non-essential programs (rivatuner, punkbuster, GPU OC software)
-Some testing with OCCP (Linpack and GPU tests) but I found that program to be buggy and I decided that actually playing Crysis was a better indication of stability
-Tried several different driver versions, using Driver Sweeper to make sure driver installs are clean.
-Tried running with only 2 (of 4) fans running and without the optical drive hooked up.
-I suppose the problem could be the motherboard. I’m not sure how to figure that out other than to replace the PSU and see if the problem persists. Any suggestions for more tests I could run would be welcome.
UPDATE: It's the RAM/motherboard combo. I had my RAM set at it's recommended speeds and timings which put it at 1600 MHz. At this speed any combination of two sticks was stable in any dual channel configuration. Adding the other two sticks introduced instability. Raising DRAM voltage past 1.6 V made it even less stable. Slowing the RAM down to 1333 MHz allows me to run 4 sticks. So there you have it. Since it was kind of stable at 1600, I guess I can play with the NB voltage and try to get the RAM back up to 1600 but right now I'm just enjoying a rock solid system. In hindsight, I recall that the AM3 boards aren't rated for 1600 and getting RAM to run that fast was just a bonus. It should have been one of the first things I checked but I assumed my RAM was clear when Memtest86 didn't error. TIL Memtest doesn't test the memory controller - just the RAM.
UPDATE #2: I can't get the RAM stable at 1600. Raising the RAM voltage AT ALL leads to instability. The CPU/NB voltage doesn't seem to help. However, I've managed to tighten the timings a lot which makes me happy. I'm at 7-7-7-20 with 1T. So that's cool.
Thanks for all the input.
tl;dr I would like a PSU recommendation to “future proof” my system. I would like something that can comfortably handle a SLI system with two very high end GPUs (560ti or similar), three hard drives, two optical drives, an Phenom X4 processor (with overclocking headroom), 4x 2GB DDR3, and a few USB devices. I would really appreciate recommendations from those with similar systems.
Current System:
Phenom II 555BE @3.2 GHz (unlocked)
ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600 Watt
2x 320 GB HD (RAID 0)
Windows 7 64-bit
8GB DDR3 @ 1600
2x GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB (SLI)
“Monitor” is a Sony Bravia, 1080p, 60 Hz
Long version:
The issue I have is that during games that hit my entire system really hard (currently: Crysis and Hydrophobia) I get bluescreens after about 20 minutes. The cause has been somewhat difficult to track down because both games are notoriously buggy and will very occasionally BSOD a stable system. After a few weeks testing I figured out that if I take either GPU out, the system is very stable and as soon as I put both of them in, I get the BSODs after a few minutes of gaming. I think my current 600W PSU is *almost* sufficient for the current system and only when the entire system is stressed does it become unstable. Portal 2 and Half-life 2 play flawlessly (max settings, AA, 1080p, Vsync) which, I think, is because they do not actually stress my system very much. I didn’t have this instability at all until I installed two more sticks of RAM and started playing Crysis and Hydrophobia.
Tests I have done to conform identify the PSU as the culprit:
-Gamed for some time with each video card in (but not both). I tested both PCIe slots this way. The cards and PCIe slots are fine.
-Prime 95 run for 8-10 hours at a time with and without the CPU cores unlocked.
-Memtest86+ for 27 hours <--- HEY! This only means the DIMMs are fine. RAM configuration could still be unstable!
-CheckDisk to make sure the HDDs are ok.
-Temps monitored. My CPU runs quite cool. The GPUs can get up around 75 C.
-Reinstalled Windows and removed a lot of non-essential programs (rivatuner, punkbuster, GPU OC software)
-Some testing with OCCP (Linpack and GPU tests) but I found that program to be buggy and I decided that actually playing Crysis was a better indication of stability
-Tried several different driver versions, using Driver Sweeper to make sure driver installs are clean.
-Tried running with only 2 (of 4) fans running and without the optical drive hooked up.
-I suppose the problem could be the motherboard. I’m not sure how to figure that out other than to replace the PSU and see if the problem persists. Any suggestions for more tests I could run would be welcome.
UPDATE: It's the RAM/motherboard combo. I had my RAM set at it's recommended speeds and timings which put it at 1600 MHz. At this speed any combination of two sticks was stable in any dual channel configuration. Adding the other two sticks introduced instability. Raising DRAM voltage past 1.6 V made it even less stable. Slowing the RAM down to 1333 MHz allows me to run 4 sticks. So there you have it. Since it was kind of stable at 1600, I guess I can play with the NB voltage and try to get the RAM back up to 1600 but right now I'm just enjoying a rock solid system. In hindsight, I recall that the AM3 boards aren't rated for 1600 and getting RAM to run that fast was just a bonus. It should have been one of the first things I checked but I assumed my RAM was clear when Memtest86 didn't error. TIL Memtest doesn't test the memory controller - just the RAM.
UPDATE #2: I can't get the RAM stable at 1600. Raising the RAM voltage AT ALL leads to instability. The CPU/NB voltage doesn't seem to help. However, I've managed to tighten the timings a lot which makes me happy. I'm at 7-7-7-20 with 1T. So that's cool.
Thanks for all the input.
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