Computer random power-offs

[kick1ass20]

At the begining of last year I had a custom pc built. Everything was going fine until I installed Gigabyte face wizard which broke my mb ( GA P55 UD3) altogether. So since then I bought a GA P55A UD3 and had a guy at a pc store install it. Although now I am often getting random shutdowns when I am either using high stress things e.g. loading large or many files from my hdd or using things that rely mainly on my video card e.g. streaming a divx movie or playing a flash game.

Here are my specs:

MB: GA P55A UD3
CPU: Intel i7 860
Memory: 2x 2gb 1333mhz
*Graphics: nVidia GT220 or ATI Readon 5870
PSU: 600W Huntkey
HDD: 500gb WD sata

Idle info from HWmonitor:

Voltage 0-       1.06 Volts [0x42] (CPU VCORE)
Voltage 1-       1.58 Volts [0x63] (VIN1)
Voltage 2-   3.38 Volts [0xD3] (+3.3V)
Voltage 3-   4.97 Volts [0xB9] (+5V)
Voltage 4-   2.18 Volts [0x22] (+12V)
Voltage 5-   -12.61 Volts [0xC5] (-12V)
Voltage 7-   3.63 Volts [0x87] (+5V VCCH)
Voltage 8-   3.28 Volts [0xCD] (VBAT)

Temperature 0-   40°C (103°F) [0x28] (TMPIN0)
Temperature 1-   25°C (76°F) [0x19] (TMPIN1)
Temperature 2-   31°C (87°F) [0x1F] (TMPIN2)
Fan 0      1274 RPM [0x212] (FANIN0)

Hardware monitor   Intel Core i7 860

   Power 0      n.a. (Processor)
   Temperature 0   42°C (107°F) [0x39] (Core #0)
   Temperature 1   39°C (102°F) [0x3C] (Core #1)
   Temperature 2   42°C (107°F) [0x39] (Core #2)
   Temperature 3   38°C (100°F) [0x3D] (Core #3)

Hardware monitor   NVIDIA GeForce GT 220

   Temperature 0   34°C (93°F) (GPU Core)

Hardware monitor   WDC WD5000AADS-00M2B0

   Temperature 0   36°C (96°F) [0x24] (Assembly)

I have already testing things such as my hdd that I have totaly swapped for another with no avail.
I have tested removing all my perifials including my disk drive, mem card reader and front panel ports, this had no effect.
I have tried using a different pci port for my gfx card, no effect.

*One thing that I have tested which would indicate that the problem is with my psu is that when I use my ATI 5870 rather than my nvidia card my pc seems to crash a lot more, especially during games e.g. crysis on max settings. The ATI card also requires a lot more power, using two 6pin pci-e power connectors.

Another thing that might be important, lately my pc has been occasionly beeping once every now and again. It is a short beep and nothing in HWmonitor indicates it has anthing to do with temperature, possibly voltage though.

Thanks for any help.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

Firstly a couple of questions.

When you had the last build done was everything new ?

Did the builder do a clean install of the OS on the hard disk afterwards ?

Was your PSU new last year too?

[kick1ass20]

Everything was brand new and unused when when this computer was built. The psu came in the case.

Since I had my new MB installed I haven't done a clean install on the HDD I am using now but I did a clean install on another HDD and tested that. Come to think of it though my pc seems to crash for two reasons, one that I am unsure of and the other is when I use my ATI 5870. Since I had done a clean install on my other HDD, the only reason that crashed as far a I know is because I used that in Crysis on max settings. Knowing that would you say it is likely that my psu is at least one of the reasons?

[Dark Mantis]

I would junk that PSU and buy a decent one before you have a real catastrophy and lose your components!

Try a Corsair, Seasonic, Gigabyte, Enermax or similar  and try and get one with a single 12v rail of about 650W plus. If you are planning any upgrades in  the next couple of years I would go even bigger to give yourself some headroom.

[kick1ass20]

Hmm, thanks for the suggestion but why a single 12v rail? Isn't having 2 better? This is the one I am considering:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230536273353&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Also as I noticed I could only find PSUs with multiple rails.

[kick1ass20]

As an edit to my prior post, I am looking at this now, it has a single 12v rail:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Corsair-TX-650-650W-ATX-Power-Supply-120mm-FAN-SLI-PCIE-/170605174963?pt=AU_Components&hash=item27b8dc60b3

For the extra $40 do you think I should go with Corsair?

[Dark Mantis]

Personally I would go for the Corsair. It is the better of the two and has the single rail. A single 12v rail is better in most cases as it doesn't split the output  between two or even four rails which can mean that if you have a power hungry device like a graphics card sometimes the split rail doesn't supply enough power but there is power to spare on the other rails.

[kick1ass20]

Well I just installed my new 650w corsair psu and so far so good. I will post again if the problem starts again. Anyway thanks for all the help Mantis, I really appreciate it.

[Dark Mantis]

You are very welcome and it is surprising how many times the problems are down to the power supply. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.