steo on 7/11/2010 at 19:18
I recently built a ~£800 system for a friend:
Core i5 750
2x 2GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 RAM
ASUS P7P55D Evo iP55 - now replaced with an MSI P55-GD65 iP55
Nvidia GTX 460
Corsair 650W PSU
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD
Samsung optical drive
It's been trouble ever since we put it together, blue-screening when we first tried to install Windows 7. Since then, we've replaced the motherboard, reinstalled Windows from a different DVD and tried reseating everything to no avail. It seems to run stable some of the time - I ran a stress test in prime95 for seven hours without fault, and also tried running memtest off the ultimate boot CD which was passed. My friend says it seems to often crash at boot, but when it's up and running tends to be reliable, which makes me suspect the PSU, but 650 watts from a reliable brand should be enough for this system, right?
He's RMA'd the memory now, which I don't think will help, the next on my list to change would be the PSU. Any other ideas?
Aja on 7/11/2010 at 19:41
Haha, I don't know if you've been reading a thread down or so, but my new PC wouldn't boot, and it turned to be, of all things, the graphics card.
Sulphur on 7/11/2010 at 21:14
I've got an almost identical system to yours, and it gives me no problems. Did it bluescreen with the P7P55D?
Check if you've got aggressive OC settings on in the BIOS and what the RAM voltage is at. Also, to be safe, check the voltage on the rails from the BIOS and see if they're within spec. Anything too high or too low might point to a PSU issue.
steo on 7/11/2010 at 21:49
It did bluescreen with Asus board, yeah, that's why it was replaced. I do have a GTX 260 and 550W (650W?) Antec PSU in my machine, so I will try swapping those around when I get the time to take my machine apart. I'll also double-check the BIOS settings in regards to overclocking and such. Since I didn't set up the new board, it's not something that's been checked, though I did tinker with disabling stuff on the Asus board with no results.
Brian The Dog on 7/11/2010 at 21:55
Only thing I can think of is that the power connection to the motherboard is not fully working - make sure you connect both the 20 and 4-pin extension, as well as the 4-pin CPU dedicated power line. Although the PC won't usually POST at all if the latter is not connected.
Mr. headbone on 9/11/2010 at 00:39
I think your PSU is a little too weak to power that GTX-260 video card. Try a 750-850 class. I have a Corsair 800 GS and it works fine. :angel:
steo on 9/11/2010 at 20:13
I disagree. My machine has been running stable for over two years with a 650W PSU, E8400 and GTX260. Though this machine has a quad core i5 in it, it has no sound card, three less HDDs, fewer sticks of RAM, less fans and no USB-powered peripherals. Nvidia also only recommend a minimum 450W PSU for this card. If it were a budget brand I might think it's not up to spec, but for a ~£70 Corsair PSU, I'd say it could easily handle the spec, provided it's performing as it should.
Just checked and the GTX460 has a maximum draw of 160W vs 182W for the GTX260, while the i5 is 95W vs 65W for the E8400. So the maximum additional drain for his gfx/cpu is only 8W compared to my system, certainly less that what my sound card, 3 HDDs, 4 sticks of DDR2 RAM vs 2 sticks of DDR3, USB-powered headset and extra fans must draw.
Briareos H on 9/11/2010 at 20:14
I don't think so. A good 500W would be enough for that system, and Corsair is an excellent PSU brand.
EDIT: burned.
