D820 / ECS 945P-A - Power-related issues?

[Garion]

I'm building a new box and am (for the first time) having trouble with getting this to run right and be stable. Specs are :

D820
ECS 945P-A
RAIDMax 450 Watt PS
7800 GTS
1 GB (2X512) Geil DDR2
160 GB SATA
Optical - Generic DVD burner

When things start, everything seems fine - The board will POST and detect everything without issue. After 15-20 minutes, things go south fast. XP will BSOD with an odd error or the box will simply reset itself, just like it was a hardware fault.

After it's BSOD'd/reset, it will POST, but it won't boot the OS - After the POST it just hangs.

I thought it would be temp-related, so I got MBM5. With a bit if tweaking, I found that it didn't ever get past about 50c, even when it locked up. I've got decent HSF (gigabyte 3D Rocket) and make sure that it made good contact with the CPU and a good spread of thermal compound. I know the D820 runs hot, but this seemed like a reasonable temp.

After a lockup, I went back into the BIOS and looked at the hardware health. It showed temps of about 45c on the CPU. Odd thing was that this froze up too after a minute or so.

I'm wondering if there's something about the power supply that isn't cutting the mustard. Its' a new case - a RAIDMax Ninja. The PSU included is a farly generic one, with 450 watts rated power. There's an image of it's settings here. I noticed it's a bit light on the +12 volt rail with only 14 amps.

If I let it sit for a while, turned off and cold-boot it, things will work again for a while.

Does this sound like a power issue to you? If that's not it, it feels like a motherboard problem.

- G

 

[stevty2889]

Yeah, that generic POS PSU is almost guranteed to be your problem. 14A on the 12v rail is WAY too weak, get a 400-450w Fortron and you should be good to go.

 

[Markfw]

I have the same mobo and cpu, but a forton 450. Its fine with a 1 meg pci video card. With that 7800 GT, you would need at least a 500 watt good quality PSU. That cpu sucks a lot of power. The biggest POS CPU Intel ever made IMO.

Mine is stable at 3.43 ghz for weeks at a time, but onlt with the little video card. I even tried a X300SE, and it wouldn;t run at anything but stock. I got this one just to see what they were like as an experiment. Why did you choose the 820D ?

 

[Garion]

I'm building a couple of new PC's for some family members and thought I'd do a bit of upgrading on my own at the same time. My mother-in-law will end up with my Athlon XP 2600 and I'll get the D820. Another reason was the price - I got the CPU and motherboard for $220 at Frys. I'm not spending huge cash on my system right now, so it should be a very nice upgrade from what I had before.

I'll go snag a good PSU tomorrow and see if that helps the situation - I like the Ninja case. It's a bit juvenile in it's design, but it's laid out well and has a 120mm exhaust fan which is nice and quiet.

- G

 

[Markfw]

Get an Antec 550 to be sure....

 

[Garion]

What do you all think of the Ultra X-Finity 500 Watt PS? Looks decent and has plenty of power w/ 2 12-volt rails.

- G

 

[o1die]

It's ok to use the ultra 500. Radio shack is selling them online with 2 rebates making them free. Check their website.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Garion
What do you all think of the Ultra X-Finity 500 Watt PS? Looks decent and has plenty of power w/ 2 12-volt rails.

- G

Not the greatest brand..I would stick with Fortron, Enermax, Seasonic, or Antec.

 

[maluckey]

Not the greatest brand..I would stick with Fortron, Enermax, Seasonic, or Antec.

While Antec is hit or miss quality control, it may still be a step up over the Radimax unit.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: maluckey

Not the greatest brand..I would stick with Fortron, Enermax, Seasonic, or Antec.

While Antec is hit or miss quality control, it may still be a step up over the Radimax unit.

Hit or miss ? I have 12 of them. Not a problem with one for years.

 

[Furen]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Hit or miss ? I have 12 of them. Not a problem with one for years.

I have two, both had their thermistor controlled fan-only rails die so I had to hardmod a 5v 12cm fan into them.

 

[Qbah]

Got an Antec SP2.0 450W with my 820D. And a 7800GT. All stock. Works like a charm. You don't really need that super expensive 550W PSU to make a stable system

EDIT: Think it's 18A on the 12V rail.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Qbah
Got an Antec SP2.0 450W with my 820D. And a 7800GT. All stock. Works like a charm. You don't really need that super expensive 550W PSU to make a stable system

EDIT: Think it's 18A on the 12V rail.

@stock ? Yea, they are a big at single-threaded apps@2.8. Thats why I said get the 550 so he could run 3.4 or so, at which they are better (still not as good as a single-core A64 or X2)

 

[Qbah]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
@stock ? Yea, they are a big at single-threaded apps@2.8. Thats why I said get the 550 so he could run 3.4 or so, at which they are better (still not as good as a single-core A64 or X2)

Well, it won't harm to have a higher rated PSU (except for the wallet ). But the OP had problems running the system stable at stock settings. I don't know much bouit RAIDMax PSUs, all I was saying is he doesn't need a very expensive, high end 550W PSU to be able to run a 820D with a 7800GT. Mine ain't one and I had absolutely no problems with my rig.

As for OCing... Why would you want to OC a 820D? It's runnig hot enough at stock settings Even with my CNPS9500. Throttling and such with increased vcore and frequency... If you want to play with OCing, get a 920D. Read they're excellent overclockers.

 

[Markfw]

why would anyone get an 820D without overclocking ? They are a slug. X2 3800 much better at stock, and only a few bucks more.

 

[maluckey]

Hit or miss ? I have 12 of them. Not a problem with one for years.

Yup! Hit or miss. Stock setup, Antec is O.K. When pushed, I just don't trust them anymore. Do a search. The consensus is that Antec is slipping.

 

[Qbah]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
why would anyone get an 820D without overclocking ? They are a slug. X2 3800 much better at stock, and only a few bucks more.

Well... I bought mine half a year ago. The X2 weren't "a few bucks more" back then. There's no point in buying a 820D now, as they run much hotter than a 920D, perform the same at stock, and overclock far worse.

Summing up, if you want Intel, get yourself a 920D and OC it, cause it can hit really high clocks even on air. If you bought a 820D now, you made a mistake. If you want AMD get a X2. Though I have no idea what that has to do with the OP's problem

Thing is, you don't need a high rated PSU for a 820D and 7800GT combo. A 450W regular is fine. Maybe your PSU was bad from the start (happens)?

 

[Furen]

You need a decent PSU. Having 14amps on the 12v rail is hardly decent for a Pentium D... just think about it, you only have 168W to drive your CPU, video and most of the other hardware, too...

 

[Garion]

Well, I went out and picked up an Antec Neo 550 HE PSU - Same results. Windows gets erratic after about 10 mins and then either locks up, BSOD's or does a hard reboot. Post freeze/boot/BSOD, I go into the BIOS and temps still show 43c which is FINE.

I've stripped it down to the MB/CPU/Video/HDD and one stick of RAM. Still no joy, same reaction. For kicks, I pulled out the 7800 and replaced it with an old PCI card - Same exact thing. I don't think there's a whole lot more troubleshooting that I can do, unfortunately.

I'm thinking it's a bad board, which is a bummer. Looks like the whole thing goes back to Frys tomorrow - Today is day 13 of their 15-day return policy and I'll wait until I find something else on sale. Maybe they'll have an X2 or something in the next few days.

Thanks for all the assistance everyone - It's much appreciated!

- G

 

[Markfw]

What memory do you have ? That PSU was still not a good one, so keep the new one. It could be a memory problem.

 

[Garion]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
What memory do you have ? That PSU was still not a good one, so keep the new one. It could be a memory problem.

Dude, where have you been all my .. Well.. Last 3 days?

Actually, even before I saw your post I gave it one last shot. "Hmm... I've got it down to the bare minimum with only one stick of RAM and it is still screwed. "You know, I DO have another stick of RAM (2X 512) to throw in there. lessee what that does"

Lo and behold.. It boots and is rock-solid stable. No problems at all. Throw the other stick back in and it'll barely POST.

Looks like i just have to take the memory back tomorrow, not the whole system. Most excellent!

Edit: I bought Geil PC4200 DDR2.

- G

 

[Garion]

.. While I'm at at it, anyknow know of a good tool that I can use to monitor the hardware? MBM5 doesn't seem to have a profile for this mobo and I can't find one that works well. Anyone?

- G

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Garion
.. While I'm at at it, anyknow know of a good tool that I can use to monitor the hardware? MBM5 doesn't seem to have a profile for this mobo and I can't find one that works well. Anyone?

- G

Speedfan maybe? I like everest, but they no longer have a free edition.

 

[Garion]

Speedfan worked nicely, thanks.

Not sure why people are so unhappy about temps on these processors. Even with both cores spiked to 100% for a few minutes the temps only went up to about 55, from an idle of 42. I don't think that's too bad at all!

- G

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Garion
Speedfan worked nicely, thanks.

Not sure why people are so unhappy about temps on these processors. Even with both cores spiked to 100% for a few minutes the temps only went up to about 55, from an idle of 42. I don't think that's too bad at all!

- G

Primarly, because they run hot enough, it's very diffuclt to get a good OC on air cooling. Try running S&M for a while..then you'll see some scary temps..