justpassingby

Hi guys !

I bought a second hand rig for my brother :

Mobo : MSI P6N SLI V2
CPU : intel Quad Core Q6600 (G0) 2.4Ghz
GPU : nvidia Geforce Albatron 8800GTX 768MB
HDD : Hitachi Deskstar 320GB SATA & WD 80GB IDE
CD : CD-DVD burner SATA
RAM : 2x1GB ram DDR2 PC6400
PSU : Fortron Epsilon 700 (this one I think, but I will ask my brother to check on the sticker)
Keyboard, mouse, no fancy leds or whatever, additional fans : 92mm at the front, 120mm at the side, 120mm at the back.

I thought the 700W fortron would be enough for a single 8800GTX rig with few drives and no additional cards. When I bought it I noticed the 12V line was at 12.44V. The seller is a friend and he told me he would help with the PSU cost if I had to replace it. Last night I got a BSOD involving the nvidia drivers, usually those are caused by unsufficient supplies.

What do you think : is the Fortron 700W not powerful enough for that rig ? Is it failing ?

What supply would you recommend to get a clean 12V line with the 8800GTX ? My local shop has these :

Fortron Epsilon 700 RO 700W : 125€ ($163) (can't find model on Fortron's site)
Corsair TX 750W : 105€ ($137)
Zalman ZM750-HP 750W : 149€ ($194)
Antec Quattro 1000W TPQ-1000 : 215€ ($280)

The 750W Corsair is the cheapest, do you think it'll do a better job than the 700W Fortron ?

Thanks in advance.

dai

go with the corsair
8800gtx min 750w preferably 850w
the antec you listed just received the thumbs down on a atomic testing

linderman

I cant guarantee you your problem is power supply ....... however if possible see if the shop will let you try the corsair for a couple of days

I dont use fortron any more ...... their quality has gone down the tubes in the last 3-4 years

magnethead

agreed. corsair 750-850.

justpassingby

Ok, Corsair it will be. Thanks a lot guys

magnethead

also, give us the text of your bsod errors.

justpassingby

Don't have it here, I'll see if I can get my brother to upload the .dmp file. Else I'll analyze the dump file next time I visit him and I'll post the bugcheck analysis.

magnethead

on the bsod, we just need the 0x line of error code. but dmp works too.

justpassingby

BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, bfa3f7c0, b6a98a90, 0}
Probably caused by : nv4_disp.dll ( nv4_disp+6a7c0 )

The video drivers are the latest stable release from nvidia, I'll ask my brother to uninstall/reinstall them but all his games work fine, only got the crash once when playing a really ressource-heavy game and the 12V line @ 12.44V doesn't seem healthy to me.

magnethead

it's a 5% swing being acceptable by EPS, or a .6 volt swing either way on 12 volt rail.

justpassingby

I'm aware of the +/-5% regulations but isn't the closer to the nominal value the better ?

magnethead

yes. However, get a multimeter/voltmeter out and make sure it is indeed high...sensors arent the most reliable thing in the world.

wrench97

Sometimes the latest drivers are not the best ones to use these days try having him go back to the last set of drivers.

justpassingby

ok, but I worry more about bad voltages damaging the ram or other components than bsod's caused by driver issues. The game that crashed worked fine once I decreased antialiasing from 8x to 4x, doesn't seem like a driver related crash to me.

I'll see if can get get hold of a multimeter and test the voltages while he's playing. Won't be able to go at my brother's place until at least 2 weeks, I'll tell you how it goes then.

linderman

I would not be shocked to find that FSP is tanking ........

Stu_computer

if the 12V supply voltage is steady (not fluctuating) then no problem, being a little high will not cause errors in ram or cpu (they have step down voltage regulators supplying them).

it's when the 12V keeps changing values (fluctuating) that indicates there is a problem with the psu keeping up with load changes or may be putting out dirty voltage (ripple noise).

linderman

STU is 100% correct ....... check the 12 volt while the computer is under heavy load ....... like gaming

justpassingby

That was the plan