Overclocking problems.

[][F][U][2][]

Okay, heres my problem. I have a 950watt power supply but when I overclock my two 5970s and the cpu the lights will dim and sometimes flip the breaker.

I'm fine as long as I only oc two of the three weither it is the cpu/videocard or just the two cards but with all three I get a restart or a breaker will flip.

Is this due to my powersupply or just to much juice sucking from the wall?
Do I need to just go ahead and get a new powersupply, or is there a ups that could slove this problem for me.

I have a coolmaster 950b ps

 

[concher]

Most breakers found inside residential homes are 120V and can do 15 amps. Your power computer + additional whatever else is plugged into that circuit, is pulling more than the breaker is rated for.

You have a few options:
1) reduce the number of appliances pulling electricity from that same circuit
2) reduce your over clock
3) locate the circuit on your electrical utility box, a replace it with a breaker rated for more amperage (20 amps)
4) purchase a more efficient power supply like the OCZ 1000W Z Series

There are other things you can do, but these 4 make sense and are listed in order from easy to hard / expensive.

 

[BillParrish]

Item 3 is unsafe.
Item 4 is iffy, could help but not sure if enough.

One way you could find out what is going on is to take the excellent item 1 advice and do a little test.

Flip the computer room breaker off and find a close room that the recptacles still work. (If all the wall outlets in the entire place go out, you are screwed.) That will indicate that the other room is on a different breaker/circuit. Run a heavy duty (made with #16 wire or larger - the wire gets bigger as the guage # goes down) extension cord with as little extra length as possible from that other room to the computer room. Put a surge outlet or other multi-outlet on the end of the extension cord and plug everything else into that. As per item 1 what you are doing is getting everything off of the outlets in the computer room onto the extension cord. While that breaker is flipped off see if the compuer room outlets are shared with any other rooms, their outlets should be dead too. See what is plugged into them and if possbile for a short time unplug turn off (or at least be aware of what is plugged in and when it is on) anything plugged into the wall outlets/recpetcials shared with the computer room).

The idea is that now the only thing plugged into the circuit powering the computer room outlet is the computer. A 15A standard home circuit is good for 1440W which should barely be enough at the wall. Now if the problem persists, yes you do need a more powerfull supply. If the problem goes away, you need to run a dedicated 20A circuit to the computer room just for the computer. This may or may not be something you can do depending on your skills, if you own the house, etc. etc.

Since you are apparently a gamer and that OC peak load will be continous or close to it for hours at a time, this might help. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_watts_on_a_15A_circuit The point is the 80% figure meaning that really 1440 x .8 = 1,152 watts available to be absolutley sure the breaker will not trip after a while do to heat build up. Breakers have delay curves but thats too much to go into here.

You really need a 20A circuit to put this issue to bed for good. You might need a bigger power supply. Anywho one way you can find out is the procedure above.

Anyway that is one way of finding out what your problem is. Likely there is an easier way but it eludes me ATM.

edit: ah HA! knew I would think of it. If you get a really good extension cord (should be #12 wires but #14 would be ok for a hour or so) , if the home/whatever is less than 30 years old, it if very likely the kitchen counter outlets are on an individual (not shared) circuit and by code it is susposed to be 20A, you can see if a 20A breaker is labled "kitchen" in the panel. This is because toasters etc. pull ungodly wattage/current. Run that and just plug the computer into the extension cord and game for a couple of hours. (dont let anyone make toast or run the dishwasher at the same time) Problem goes away, you need 20A circuit, problem still there, you need a bigger supply.

Of course with the bigger supply you may still find the 15A circuit in the comptuer room is insufficient. Make many friends with that ID name ?

 

[][F][U][2][]

The name rocks. lol

Since my computer can hold to ps I added one to the bottom with a switch so I can turn it on by its self and run the hd,cd and the 5870 on it and the rest on the 950. It works like a dream now. Just to brag a little, I do get 39874 on vantage now.