PSU failing?

[Conroe]

I made a new gaming rig for my son this Christmas. It's a Biostar Z87 mobo, 4670K and a Radeon HD 7870 with a SSD and a single hard drive. I reused a Cooler Master real power pro 850w PSU. I think I've had that unit six years or so now. It's powered a rig with a Asus P5WDH, Q6600 and 4870 crossfire. It ran F@H 24/7 on the CPU overclocked for years along with gaming. One of his 4870's dyed not too long ago. More recently it has had some blue screens. Memtest came up with some errors so I assumed the old DDR2 was failing too.

This new rig has been crashing under heavy gaming but stable doing anything else. My boy took a pic of what happens with his S4. He said sometimes the screen looks a little different.



Not a very good pic but there are just a bunch of red vertical lines. A reset and it boots back up fine. I guess it could be a defective video card but I'm thinking a failing PSU. What do you think? Any recommendations for a PSUs that could power this rig with another 7870 in crossfire if I get him another one someday?

 

[Torn Mind]

Without an oscilloscope to verify my guess, I cannot assert with certainty this is what is going on. But one possible explanation is that the caps on the PSU might be failing with low capacitance, meaning that the output DC current is being not as well-filtered as it was when the caps were good. Given that the caps were Teapo ones, 6 years of strenuous service seems about the right time for them to die. Given that other components were dying left and right, voltage and/or current regulation within the PSU or on the mobo could have not been up to snuff either. Or, something on the 4870 itself died from the tough environment it operated in.

But a new PSU is easy to obtain and does not need much thought.

The Rosewill Capstone 450-M should serve that box just fine and comes at a good price of $40. Japanese capacitors, solid voltage regulation, and well-filtered outputs. And a 7-year warranty.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182261

The TDP of the Haswell is 84 W and the video card is 175 W. Even overclocked, the components should not exceed the max wattage spec on the Capstone 450.

 

[Dr-Kiev]

I bet it is videocard. In 99% cases when i was getting vertical lines on the screen under the heavy games , it was video card MCU overheating.

 

[xSneak]

I had a bad psu that would just turn my computer off instantly when i was playing demanding games. If the computer is still running but the video output is messed up, that could point to your video card.

If possible, I would just install the card in another system and see if you get the same errors.

I would recommend a 600 watt or higher power supply for crossfire 7870s.

 

[Conroe]

I could put it in my rig but I have a spare 650 w True Power Trio (I thought it was a earth watts 380.) I'll put it in and see if it fixes it soon but my son has had it over to his friends house for the last few days.

Sadly right after I had cut out and mailed the UPC for the rebate on the video card he told me about this problem so I don't think I can send it back to newegg. If it's not the PSU I'll probably have to deal with Sapphire. I thought it was a great deal at $135 but now maybe it wasn't.

Anyway for a PSU I think I want one with four PCIe connectors and about 45 amps on the 12 volt rail. I'm going to stay away from Rosewill because I got him a headset from them that was garbage.

 

[Torn Mind]

A 7870 and 4670K will struggle to break 300 watts DC power consumption.

Newegg contracts Super Flower to make their Capstone units. Super Flower is one of the good PSU manufacturers. I don't know who makes the headsets, but they only share the Rosewill name, not manufacturers. The reviews of the 450W's bigger siblings are favorable as well.

This Seasonic should be good enough. Unless plan to do some Crossfire, it should be sufficient for the machine.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

 

[Conroe]

My plan was get s PSU for 7870 crossfire without using adapters. Yeah I understand the Rosewills are fine but I just can't put that name in my son's rig.

The plan might change. He has been packing around a full tower. I'm starting to think a smaller form factor might be in order. My rig is due for a upgrade soon too (E8400/8800gt). I might build a ITX or mATX rig and trade him.

 

[Torn Mind]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0045L4BJ6/?tag=pcpapi-20

This XFX 750 W should serve most Crossfire/SLI needs. Made by Seasonic. Just make sure to register the product to get the full warranty.

 

[Conroe]

I finally got a real chance to troubleshoot it. I ran a couple of benchmarks and got it to crash. Once I got the vertical lines. The fans spun but it seemed to have locked up. Another time it was a blank screen with the hard drive light still blinking. I just put the Sapphire 4870 in it (this one I bought the first day they were in stock at newegg.) It works fine (but much slower.) Power consumption is probably close. I could try it in my rig but I'm sure I just got a defective card. Thanks for the help.