I think my old psu is not keeping up, need some recomendations for my build.

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ellover009

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have a i7 920, 6gb of ram, a 580gtx, corsair 620 modular psu.
My friend sugested the occt torture test program to push my cpu and gpu all the way up, the system didn't crash but at the end I saw the system usage spike down in 4 occations so I am guessing that thats when the psu couldn't keep up during those moments, I also got some memory errors on the memory test but evga had me change some ram settings in the bios to get my video card and machine stable again. Gonna talk to corsair about testing the memory modules.
What psu do you guys recommend? I heard the hx1200 corsair is a pretty good unit, I want to go a little future proof leave some space in case I get a 2nd gtx 580 and I could possibly use my 8800gtx as a physics card.
 
Uhhhh.... 620 watts is enough for your system as it is.

i7 920- 150-200 watts (overclocked).
GTX 580- 250-275 watts.
8800GTX- maybe 120 watts, much less if only being used for physx.
Motherboard, RAM, hard drive, etc.. - 50 watts.

That puts you at 645 watts AT MOST. You should be fine with that PSU. If you were really overloading it, you would experience a complete computer shutdown, not a temporary drop in system usage. The computer cannot detect when it is or isn't overloading the power supply. It sounds like you have some overclocking issues, or bad memory/motherboard/CPU/GPU, not a power supply issue. If you are having memory errors, that almost definitely points at bad RAM, but it could also be motherboard.

Go to a 750 watt power supply if you want to use a 2nd GTX 580. 850 watts if you want to feel safe. No need for a 1000 watt power supply for just SLI.
 
that has nothing to do whit overloading a psu if you overload it its going do one of a few things
1 shut off
2 give really bad V
3 over heat and burnout

now if you do want to go sli il get a bigger unit nut not in tell you about to order your 580, you may never get that 2end one or by the time you do a better psu might be out
 
My pc has crashed whenever I started some games so I thought my video card was causing it when it switched to 3d in games also the intel turbo mode would o/c the system causing to crash.
 
Once again, power supplies do not cause system crashes, unless the voltages are way off and are damaging your system. Given the fact that your system still seems to be running for the most part, that is not the case.

Overloading the power supply has several consequences, all of which shut down your computer, not cause it to crash.
1. OPP (over power protection) kicks in and shuts down the power supply to keep it from being damaged. Usually you can turn it on immediately after it shuts down.
2. A thermal protection limit is exceeded, and kicks in to shut down the power supply to prevent it from overheating. Have to wait for it to cool down, then you can power back on.
3. Something burns up in the power supply, with which there will be an electrical burning smell and it shuts down due to being unable to function properly. Your computer will not power back on.
4. A capacitor pops and it shuts down due to being unable to function properly. Your computer will not power back on.

There is something else wrong with your system, not your power supply. If you really want to check, get a multimeter out and check the 12v and 5v rails as you put your computer under load. If the 12v drops below 11.5 at any time, then you can conclusively say something is wrong with your power supply. Otherwise, that seems to be an overclocking/component problem.
 
I did some test on occt, read the results and had a friend of mine look at it too. Saw some power drop for short ammounts of time according to the benchmark.
Recently my pc has been acting up. Whenever I run any intensive task mostly related to gaming, my pc locks up or crashes. On battlefield bad company 2 ill do some loud annoying beep noise from my speakers and I have to shut the speakers off because its a horrible sound, then I will get a green scree, black screen, sometimes a bsod. Only game I been able to run and degraded to play (still awesome game) is peggle. My friend keeps insisting that it's a good chance it's the psu, i've had it for at least 5-7yrs and he says that efficiency degrades over time so I might be closer to maxing it out or the psu is just getting old.

What do you guys suggest?

If you guys recommend swapping out the psu what do you guys recommend? I was thinking I wanted to go to a minimum of 1000watts, preferably 1200watts, and modular. I am considering going dual 580s in the future so extra power could come in handy. Is it worth it paying extra for name brand? i
Is it really worth it paying extra for the big brands? I have a corsair and i've been happy with it but there's so much selection these days I don't know whats good and whats bad, also some of the higher end corsairs are no manufactured by seasonic anymore.
 
You just had several people explain to you why your psu is fine, and why 620w is enough for any single gpu machine. If youre really planning on another gpu, get one and then upgrade your psu. Since you seem dead set on replacing it anyway, with an obscenely overpowered psu, just get an antec hcp1200. Even with sli 580s and a physx card, you probably won't break 800w. Then once you save up some money, you can fix whatever is actually wrong with your machine.
 
1. Software readings are never accurate. You must use a DMM to get a sense of whether or not it is running correctly. I have already told you to use a DMM, measure the voltage on the molex adapters as you put it under load.

2. Those errors are hardware errors. I have already explained to you what the consequences of a PSU failing are. All of which involve a complete and total shutdown, not BSOD or whatever else you're experiencing. Your friend is either stupid or ignorant, or both. He is not an expert, we are. Are you at stock settings or overclocked? If stock, then you have a hardware problem that needs to be RMA'd, either motherboard, CPU, RAM or graphics card.

3. I have already told you that a 750 watt or 850 watt power supply is enough for SLI. But go ahead and and listen to your "expert" friend and get a Antec HCP-1200. Hell, why stop at 1200, go for a Silverstone Strider 1500 watt.

4. Do not get fixated on brands. That is a very stupid move in the computer business, especially with power supplies.

5. To really troubleshoot hardware, you must have spare components that are known to be good, and swap them.
 
ellover009 said:
I did some test on occt, read the results and had a friend of mine look at it too. Saw some power drop for short ammounts of time according to the benchmark.
Recently my pc has been acting up. Whenever I run any intensive task mostly related to gaming, my pc locks up or crashes. On battlefield bad company 2 ill do some loud annoying beep noise from my speakers and I have to shut the speakers off because its a horrible sound, then I will get a green scree, black screen, sometimes a bsod. Only game I been able to run and degraded to play (still awesome game) is peggle. My friend keeps insisting that it's a good chance it's the psu, i've had it for at least 5-7yrs and he says that efficiency degrades over time so I might be closer to maxing it out or the psu is just getting old.

What do you guys suggest?

If you guys recommend swapping out the psu what do you guys recommend? I was thinking I wanted to go to a minimum of 1000watts, preferably 1200watts, and modular. I am considering going dual 580s in the future so extra power could come in handy. Is it worth it paying extra for name brand? i
Is it really worth it paying extra for the big brands? I have a corsair and i've been happy with it but there's so much selection these days I don't know whats good and whats bad, also some of the higher end corsairs are no manufactured by seasonic anymore.
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If you think it's the PSU, swap it out for a spare and see if the problem goes away. That will tell you definitively whether or not it's causing your issues.

If you intend to go with two GTX 580s, I would suggest a 750W or 850W PSU. 1000W or more would not be necessary. As for "name brands", there are many PSU brands out there, and there are quite a few low quality models from brands that some people consider good. When choosing a PSU, you need to research each particular model and ensure that your choice is a quality unit before you purchase anything.
 
Things got progresively worse with my pc, got to the point where it would shut down for no reason while web surfing. Tried my friends backup psu and everything worked fine during a limited test run. Got a new psu, still need to put it in, will prob get a new case and do a small overhaul on it.
 
Send the Corsair PSU in for an RMA. You'll probably get an HX650 back. Even if you don't use it, you may as well.
 
It doesn't need to be registered, but you probably will need proof of purchase.
 
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