Problem - Can't quite Pinpoint it.

[Kainzo]

Hello all, this is Kainzo's girlfriend and I need some help. Kainzo recently upgraded his PC and gave me his old components, but I'm having some bad issues. I've asked several people already, but I figured I'd ask people who may be a little more knowledgeable. My rig consists of:
- Phenom II x4 3.0ghz Black Edition quad-core
- 4gbs 1066 DDR2 RAM
- HIS ATI HD Radeon 5850 1GB
- Thermaltake 500W PSU
- 3 20" monitors and plain stock cooling.
Kainzo didn't have any issues with this rig, but he has a GTX 480, a 650W PSU and a single monitor...

Now the problem I am having is not consistent lag, but in every game I've been playing the past week or so randomly every so often I hitch REALLY badly and drop to about 7fps for 20-30 seconds, when I usually have high FPS from Black Ops to Minecraft - The only conclusion I've come up with so far is that my PSU isn't pushing enough voltage to the card. I bought the PSU 2 years ago for a smaller, less powerful rig, and I wonder if it just isn't putting out enough power? Anyone else seen this problem before? I'm also using the 10.10e drivers as recommended.

 

[Dangman]

Even if the PSU wasn't the issue, I'd still recommend replacing it since it's basically a POS. I recommend this as a replacement:
$59 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU

Is this a fresh OS install?

 

[Kainzo]

It is, Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit. But I think if I'm going to upgrade, I'll probably get a 650W or higher, because I plan to Crossfire a second 5850 anyways. I know it's crappy, but I had to get something sufficient and cheap at the time, and this one has served me well.

 

[Dangman]

It is, Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit. But I think if I'm going to upgrade, I'll probably get a 650W or higher, because I plan to Crossfire a second 5850 anyways. I know it's crappy, but I had to get something sufficient and cheap at the time, and this one has served me well.

Then I recommend these PSUs:
$90 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU
$100 - XFX P1-650X-CAH9 650W Modular PSU
$110 - Antec Truepower New TP-750 750W PSU

What anti-virus are you using? Have you done all the normal AV scans and what not? Also during gaming, leave open task manager in one of the windows if you can. During the hitchups, see if there's any program, other than the game itself, using an abnormally amount of CPU. Also, do a hard drive scan as well just to rule it out:
[Testing the Hard Drive]
Download the CD image of Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP/Vista install CD. Test the hard drive and see if any problems are found. DFT will run on most manufacturers' hard drives. Alternatively, you can use Seagate's SeaTools for DOS to test a Seagate or Maxtor drive. For a Western Digital drive, you could use Data Lifeguard Tools for DOS to test a Western Digital drive.

 

[Kainzo]

Yeah I had previously chosen the Antec 750W, but I did a test with Spinrite and it errored out twice in a row with a Division Overflow Error. Now I haven't been able to figure out what that means, other than other who have had it just didn't bother with anything else and RMA'd it immediately. I also ran Data Lifeguard Diagnostic, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't do anything useful. It passed my HDD, even though the Spinrite gave an operation halting error. Not to mention it took 6 hours to run DLD, where Spinrite took 1. Anyways, I'll probably go ahead and try a dinky little drive and see if that's the issue - If so, I'll be RMA'ing it tomorrow.