What's at fault mobo or PSU?

[FiL]

I have a very cheap case, it has very bad airflows (one very weak exhaust one at back) thus it gets warm....i also have a very cheap PSU, currently the 5V line is reading 4.83V in Mobo Monitor 5. (is that significant?)


I have crashes when i push the computer (eg long gaming sessions, or mp3 or DivX encoding)

does anyone have a clue as to what is wrong, and thus what i need to upgrade first (case or PSU)


<font color=red>isit alan?</font color=red>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

4.83 isnt too bad... is this its voltage at full load or idle?

anyway, its unlikely to be your motherboard. the most likely culprits are of course the PSU or the CPU getting too hot thanx to poor airflow. what heatsink do you have?

does the computer freeze or reboot itself?
freezes signify the cpu locking up.
and in motherboard monitor, does it allways freeze at the same temperature or not?
if it keeps dying at a specific temp then you have overheating issues.

possibly the cheapest way to solve this is to cut out the rear casefan hole. i did that with my cheapass case. VAST improvment in airflow.
can do it with a pair of very sharp metal cutters or a dremel drill.


<font color=green>Proud member of THG's</font color=green> <font color=blue>Den Of Thieves</font color=blue> :lol:

 

[FiL]

mmm, 4.83V is on idle mate. It's an AthlonXP 1900+ in a Soltek 75-DRV2 board.

the computer locks up, and the CPU is at 55 C when that happens, it always seems to be this temp...but surely 55 is too low to lock up an AthlonXP

The Heatsink is a CoolerMaster HCC-002 which is a pure copper heatsink with a 7500rpm fan on it (32 cfm).

The lockups have almost disappeared since i got this HSF, the original el cheapo HSF led to lock ups all the time.

When i close the case up the temperatures rise and even with the new HSF i get lock ups, it could well be time for a Al case, but i've always had the suspicion it was the PSU too.



<font color=red>isit alan?</font color=red>

 

[upec]

I think you shoud get both a new case and a new PSU. They are not that expensive and they usually last a long time.

 

[FiL]

mmm well a good case and PSU DO cost a lot, my cheap case with PSU was £30 (45 dollars) but for an enermaz PSU it'll be £65 and a Coolermaster Al case is £130 so that's in total a £195 (300 dollar) upgrade, which aint cheap.

<font color=red>isit alan?</font color=red>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

hmmm.
your right in that 55C is a bit low for a xp to lock up. that motherboard has thermal protection does it? and reads from the internal diode?

a better powersupply i reccomend as a first step. 4.83 on idle would probably dip to 4.75 under load, and that isnt great.

<font color=green>Proud member of THG's</font color=green> <font color=blue>Den Of Thieves</font color=blue> :lol:

 

[FiL]

I'll get that 430W Enermax supply and see what happens

it should be way better than my el cheapo 300W PSU.

oh and yeah, the Soltek 75-DRV2 does have some anti burn stuff on it and it does read the diode, but i think i disabled all that in the BIOS.

<font color=red>isit alan?</font color=red><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by FiL on 06/26/02 05:00 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[FiL]

Well i got my comp to lock up twice, after the first time i thought (lets get Mobo Monitor to log what happens before a lock up)

Unfortunely the 2nd lock up corrupted mobo monitor and it erased the log file which had been monitoring every second for 2minutes before the lockup. The only clue i got was that MBM reported the 5V line had dropped below 4.69V about 20 seconds beforehand.



<font color=red>isit alan?</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

It's your power supply. And you can usually improve the cooling performance of a cheap case.

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

4.69??? wow. Your PSU is crap.
get a new one. 300W in enermax should be suficient.



<font color=green>Proud member of THG's</font color=green> <font color=blue>Den Of Thieves</font color=blue> :lol:

 

[FiL]

I'll get a strong enermax supply soon, then if that cures the problem i'll wonder about a new case.

cheers!

<font color=red>isit alan?</font color=red>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

new case????
BAH!!!

all you need is a sharp pair of metal cutters, aggression and an evil attitude.

whats the worst that can happen? u loose a cheapass case worth a few bucks.
simply remove all your stuff, and hack a few holes like i did

my case had those dumb "punched hole" vents for my casefans... utterly useless IMHO.
i cut them out, leaving jagged gaping holes.
trimmed the edges, put grills on then fans back in. end result MUCH better airflow.
so much better infact that i removed the front casefan perminantly and the rear one runs at 2/3 of its usual speed (on rheostat)


<font color=green>Proud member of THG's</font color=green> <font color=blue>Den Of Thieves</font color=blue> :lol:

 

[FiL]

ok i will gain an bad ass attitude set to work on this case, it already has my blood stains on it from where i was punching the back slots open for PCI cards....i've spilt so much blood on it already. a bit more wont hurt

you're right too, the air flow coming out of the exhaust is minimal because of the sh*t back vent....i'll let you know what happens

<font color=red>isit alan?</font color=red>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

:lol:

goooood. its fun to hack things apart.
least for me anyway
and those punched hole grills are next to useless, i found over half the air moved by the fan to be wasted with em.

course i had to spend 2 bucks getting a fan grill and the back of my computer looks pretty ugly... but who cares... and who looks there anyway?

if your more professional u can use a dremel and do either a top fan hole or a side one... but thats to sophisticated for me LOL

moot point anyway. u really dont need that much for effective cooling, just a steady flow from front to back.


<font color=green>Proud member of THG's</font color=green> <font color=blue>Den Of Thieves</font color=blue> :lol:

 

[FiL]

hehe i'll have to post a picture of the blood stains on the case, shows how much the case rocks...

<font color=red>isit alan?</font color=red>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

LoL wouldnt happen to be an Omni would it?
and ur not in australia by any chance (given your posting at this late hour)

<font color=green>Proud member of THG's</font color=green> <font color=blue>Den Of Thieves</font color=blue> :lol:

 

[FiL]

i'm not sure what the make of the case is, i'll have a butchers when i get home.


Oh and I'm not an Aussie, I'm in England, so it's not so late here it's 2.50pm right now, i'm wasting time at Uni

<font color=red>isit alan?</font color=red>