Random shutdown due to under powered computer?

[Mister Inveigler]

Hi All,

So my computer has been shutting down randomly. It's so sudden and despite everything I've done, I can't seem to figure out what the problem is. Someone mentioned it might be a power supply issue (but the PSU is brand new) and I just thought I'd get some informed advice

This is my setup:
ANTEC Nine Hundred Gaming Case
HDD: 2x SATA300 1Tb 7200 SEAGATE Barracuda
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5850
MoBo: Gigabyte P55-UD3L
RAM: 4gig of DDR3
CPU: Intel i5-760
PSU 620W Seasonic

Is the PSU enough to run all of this? Or do you think something else is going on?
Any help would be really appreciated. I've never experienced this issue before.

Cheers!

 

[Sean W.]

hmmm... not only is that a little less power than id like to see in that rig but its also a crap brand... i think if it was a corsair 650 wat itd be better, but still iffy... im going to go ahead and conqure with that assment that its the powersupply... why dont you try unplugging the power cords to one of the graphics cards and take it out, and see if ti still crashes...

 

[Mister Inveigler]

Thanks for the quick response!

I only have one graphics card. So you think I should try running the computer only using the onboard graphics and see what happens?
The problem with testing it is that sometimes it runs all day no problem. Othertimes it shuts down before it even boots up. I'm nervous cause the only other thing I can think of that would do this is overheating.

Is there a PSU you recommend? (I live in Switzerland, don't know if that changes anything, but incase it does...)
If possible I'd like to limit how much I'm spending, replacing an already brand new PSU is frustrating.

 

[Sean W.]

oh sorry, for some reason i thought i saw that you said you have crossfire 5850's... ( its 230am gemme a break )

but yea, if your motherboard has on board graphics id try that...

how long ago did you buy it, best case scenario you can return it and get a name brand powersupply...

in order of my favorite to least favorite brands:

Corsair ( all time undisputable best powersupplies on the market, i wouldnt build a computer with anything but a corsair PSU )
Cooler Master
Silver Stone
Antec
Rosewill

 

[Mister Inveigler]

Wow, thanks so much for helping me out so last in the night!
I'll give it a go. It's just the shutdowns are so sporadic that I don't know if it will tell me anything.
No chance I can return it. Got it via mail order (prices here are insane) and they don't take returns.

Okay, so definitely look at Corsair. 650W is enough or should I buy a full 700W? What do you think I need?

 

[Abstract Hero]

I'd say if you have the cash get a 700 because you can than have room to upgrade.

 

[Sean W.]

Corsair doesnt make a 700W PSU, it goes from 650 to a 750...

i think a 650W should be enough, especailly a corsair one, and i know without a doubt a 750 is more than enough... either way you are going to be in a better place then you are in now. like Abstract Hero said, if you go with a bigger than necesarry PSU, itll give you some growing room and " future proofing " for down the road.

EDIT: you know what... its so easy to spend other peoples money... lets see if there is anything else wacky about this setup... what happens when your comptuer crashes? does it just turn off or is there a blue screen or something else? have you over clocked your processor at all? do you know the temperature of your processor? what operating system do you have?

lets start there

 

[Mister Inveigler]

Okay, let's see.

I've recently upgraded the computer, so pretty much all of the hardware is new (except the hard drives). The hard drives were formatted and I just reinstalled Windows 7. The power off issue was pretty much there from the moment I first switched on the computer.

I've received one Blue Screen at some point, it went up for less than 5 seconds (so I barely saw anything), dumped memory and restarted. It's never returned, so I didn't feel a need to investigate too much.

Computer literally goes from normal operation (playing a game, idling, booting, anything) to off. It's literally like someone pulled the plug. Which leads me to think that it's either a power issue or overheating.
I've never overclocked my system because I'm fearful of burnt out hardware. And I have no idea how to do it.
Temperature of processor? Well last time I looked in the BIOS it said 88 degrees celsius. The thing is, that didn't change for around 5 minutes, so I'm not sure how accurate it is. The fan is the stock fan for the CPU is the stock one, comes in at around about 1950rpms, and there was no problems fixing it to the computer so the thermal paste that it came with should be fine.
There are three or four other fans in my case and everything is so spaced out that air flow should be fine.
I am planning on buying a sound card (the onboard sound for this MoBo is crap and doesn't take 5.1), I was thinking of the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium, which seemed to give good quality for money, so that will take up my final PCIe slot, below the graphics card. But there would still be a good amount of space between the cards.

I've plugged the PSU into the auxilary power on the MoBo, and plugged the PSU into both power slots on the GPU as instructed.

Not sure what else to say. Let me know if there's anything else you need.
Thanks!

 

[kmote]

hmmm... not only is that a little less power than id like to see in that rig but its also a crap brand... i think if it was a corsair 650 wat itd be better, but still iffy... im going to go ahead and conqure with that assment that its the powersupply... why dont you try unplugging the power cords to one of the graphics cards and take it out, and see if ti still crashes...

OMG! What? 620W is easily enough for that rig and Seasonic is one of the best brands around!

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Not all brands hold there rep after a long time, similar to how certain companies where once king, they are now trash.

IMO, it's a power issue of some form, get a digital volt/ohm meter, put the black probe into a black wire, and a red probe into a yellow wire from your PSU, set the meter to 20v DC, and monitor the voltage, it should stay close to 12v, -/+ 0.5V. If it dips to much, or goes up to much, your PC will power down with out warning.

I once had this issue, and it was a combo of bad capacitors on my motherboard, and a faulty PSU.