Okay, here's the story. My computer has a track record of dying, and especially of blowing up power supplies. This all started when I got DiRT 2. At the time, my system was pretty standard. In fact all I had changed was the graphics cooler to a Vortexx Neo, and added a rear exhaust fan. Even the AMD cooler hadn't been moved from when it was fitted. As a result of this, DiRT 2, which stresses my CPU far more than my graphics card, started causing the CPU to overheat and the system to shut down. It did this a couple of times until while checking that the CPU was in fact overheating, the CPU overheated... and died. Oh joy of joys. So I did what anybody would do, dropped some cash on a new CPU, the 6000+ in my sig, and a Freezer 7 Pro to keep things chilly. Unfortunately, after a few months of solid running on my Winpower 440W PSU (Y'know... those ones you can buy for about a fiver? Admittedly it did give me a good few years of service...) I am playing DiRT 2 happily and the computer shuts down. No worries, I think, maybe something just overheated. So I let the rig cool off and fire it back up, and I am rewarded with the sound of the power supply exploding. -.- I take it out, and get a cheap replacement, an EVO Labs 650W modular PSU. A step up, thought I, but it was not to be. Merely two hours after getting the system nice and happy and deciding to test the stability (with DiRT 2) and then it shuts down again. My heart sinks, and it does even more so when I am rewarded with the BANG of another power supply exploding when I try and start up again. By this point, I thought I had done something wrong. Maybe I had wired it wrong? Maybe something shorted? I'm confident in my abilities to put together a PC and diagnose the issues and stuff, but I wanted a second opinion. So I RMA the PSU, and hand it over to a friend of my dad's, who confirms that everything was okay, and puts it back together and sends it back to me. By this point, I thought I would just leave the rig alone for a while and see if anything happens. Cue a couple of months of contented running before, while idly playing Assassin's Creed, it shuts down again. Gah. Another wait, and another BANG confirm the death of another PSU. I lucked out however, and gratefully received a 700W Silverstone Strider (Thank you! ) and dropped it into my system. I decided to be careful and not play any games until I could assess what was wrong with careful testing. I thought it was the position of the PSU, for a while, as my old case had it mounted in the top, sucking hot air in from the Freezer 7 Pro, but my new case, the M59, has it floor mounted, so overheating is far less likely. My suspicions finally fell on my new CPU, the 6000+ I had bought. I knew it was a higher TDP (129W!!!) than my older 5200+, and that my old Biostar motherboard was cheap and had a very very basic power system. I got to thinking that maybe the power load was too much for the motherboard, and somehow it was taking out the PSU? Before I got any real testing done, my worries about the cheap mobo were confirmed when it burned out. Oh joy of joys, I thought to myself. I looked around and bought a shiny DFI AM2+ motherboard. I chose this one because it was fairly cheap, what with DFI going out, and the CPU list, while not mentioning the 6000+ under supported, does support various other AMD CPUs with 140W TDPs. Perfect, thought I. And here we are. My system seems to be running fine. I've had 8+ hour sessions in TF2, played FUEL and L4D2 for hours, and even raced a bit on DiRT 2. What I can't do, apparently, is relax when playing DiRT 2 on this system. It's killed two PSUs, and it puts my CPU under the heaviest load of anything I frequently play. This system has been through various benchmarks to test stability, but part of me doesn't want to relax when playing DiRT 2. Which is a shame, because I love that game. So, your verdict, ladies and gentlemen... am I being too cautious? Have I likely eliminated the weakest link? Should I just forget about it, crank up the volume and fly around the tracks? This is a hella long post. For the ADHD amongst you (and me)... tl;dr: My computer's broken a lot, but I think I fixed it, but I'm not sure.
Yeah, sounds like you've sorted it. However, I would leave it on for a day or two and run some benchmarks. Stress the CPU out and if it's ok, you can relax
Never go cheap on PSUs', as you have found out . A Silverstone Strider 700w is a good psu and will have no probs running your rig. Relax and enjoy
Not so much of a sleepygamer now, more stressed gamer This just shows why cheap'o PSU's are so bad, your luck it didn't kill everything in your system, but they probably are what caused you motherboard to die. Quoting you 'grow a pair'
I've had it running for days on end, and it did so when running the dodgy mobo and PSU, and benchmarks seem stable enough. I will certainly try my best! I asked for that, didn't I? I lay a little bit of suspicion on the motherboard, though. It died after a few days of pretty happy running, while I was using the Silverstone PSU. It was an older mobo with teh 24 pin in an awkward spot, and the angle made the 4 pin part of the 24 pin connector come loose and disconnect during use. However, the system kept running happily until I shut down for a restart and BAM. No more mobo. I probably should just chill. I'm most surprised that my original Winpower PSU lived so long. It powered the old Sempron rig for two years, and then this one for a couple more. :O
I'm going to reference the original post every time someone in a build advice thread recommends bargain-basement parts in general and PSUs in particular. Jesus. Were you using the stock cooler prior to the Arctic Freezer?
Yeah, stock cooler for ages, and I moved to the Freezer 7 Pro when I bumped up the CPU. Even under big load, the CPU doesn't top 56C, even after a few hours. Considering this is a high TDP processor, and as it's the 7 Pro Rev. 2, mounts with the air being sucked from the graphics card's back, is not too bad. Thankfully I managed to get rid of all the bargain parts. The useless mobo (with the vcore adjustments of +3.3%, +6.6% and +10%, rather than discrete choices) and crappy PSUs are history. I think the only parts from the original build that still remain are the Kingston ValueRAM and the 250GB WD HDD with XP still on it. And even that's clicking when I access it.
