Probably a related issue....

[Cafem]

Hi there,

I recently started fiddling around trying to OC my PC using as many guides and wiki's I could find, including the ones in the OC'ing section of this forum; I confess that I am . I have had some moderate sucess; I got my 2.8GHz i7 930 on an Asus P6X58D-E mobo with OCZ 6x2GB DDR3 (stock value 1066Mhz) to go to ~4GHz and ~1600MHz. While I did change the CPU ratio, BCLK, UCLK and DRAM frequencies, I did this without changing any voltages, everything in the BIOS is still set to auto.

On Saturday, my 750W PSU blew up. I'm reasonably certain it was the PSU due to the smell of burning transistors and solder, and the scorch mark on the inside of the PSU casing.

Is it likely these two scenarios are related? And if so, have I blindly skipped over a plainly obvious cardinal sin of overclocking?

Many thanks.

 

[GhOsT1321]

Hi there,
Is it likely these two scenarios are related? And if so, have I blindly skipped over a plainly obvious cardinal sin of overclocking?

Many thanks.

Yes. You most likely bought an unreliable power supply, or had too little of a wattage/amperage.
Also, every time that you overclocked, did you do a stress test to ensure stability?
Stress tests not only test CPU and RAM, but also if the PSU is able to sustain the maximum load necessary to support that overclock.

 

[Cafem]

Looking at the PSU's make and model, it doesn't seem like it could be too reliable (Novatech.co.uk own brand.)

I didn't do a stress test. The best I did was run a game and alt/tab out to check SpeedFan and check the temperatures. Once I get my new PSU, I'm guessing a stress tester like prime95 would be a good idea?

 

[GhOsT1321]

Any time that you overclock, stress test is a must. Make sure that you are buying a reliable power supply, look at our Power supply List.
Essentially Corsair and Antec are the two most commonly bought reliable power supply manufacturers, either of those brands are a good choice, excluding the corsair CX line.

 

[Cafem]

So one of these would probably be ok to work with without a likelihood of exploding anytime soon?

 

[MindoverMaster]

You never need that much, unless you are running a server. 650W is fine for what you wanna do.

 

[Slaymate]

I would probably go with this.

Corsair 750W TX PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency.. | Ebuyer.com

or this if you just want to go overboard.

Corsair TX 850W V2 PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified | Ebuyer.com

If your planning on SLI or CrossfireX with (2) top of the line video cards then this would be a good choice.

Corsair 950W TX Series PSU - 78A 12V Rail | Ebuyer.com

 

[GhOsT1321]

So one of these would probably be ok to work with without a likelihood of exploding anytime soon?

Yes, one of those would most likely never explode. As mentioned, that wattage is overkill, Slaymate posted some excellent power supplies, and the wattages are just what you need.