Please help

Hi, I've looked through these forums for an answer but I cannot find a satisfactory one due to the age of the threads I've read.
My sons PC will randomly shut down while playing games, ONLY while playing games. When I say shuts down I mean simply powers down, no warning, just black (power off) screen followed shortly by pc power down, sometimes you can still hear the game for a few seconds before the pc powers down.
I've also noticed the Video card gets pretty warm although not to temps I would consider dangerously high.

I'm thinking it's possibly a lack of power from PSU or a problem with the video card, let me give some more info.

PC specs.

Intel board
Quad core 6600
4 GB (also tried 3gb) DDR2 kingston ram
ATI X1950 pro 512
2 x WD SATA 40 gb (yeah I know lol but he doesn't need more space yet)
Lite on DVD writer
550 Watt PSU.

Running XP Media Center.

Now, when I bought the Video card, I bought the PSU at the same time, approx 1 year ago, at the time he only had a simple dell board with a P4 3.2 and 2 gb of ram.

This problem actually started about 4 months ago for no aparent reason, thinking it might have been his old worn out CPU and board, we bought him the QC6600 and board and new ram for Xmas. The problem persists.

I've tested it on various games from Zoo Tycoon to COD 4, FEAR, Doom 3,, Crysis, need for speed etc etc, all will crash without warning or pattern, sometimes it will go for 5 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. I tested it with the Sims 2 on full spec, dumped a load of people in 1 big room, had masses of flashing lights and set fire to it all to try and really put some pressure on it........that test ran for 10 hours non stop without so much as a hiccup.
I figure that may have been the fact that the Sims2 runs mainly off CPU rather than graphics, leading me to believe that there's an issue with his Graphics card or a lack of power to run it.

Does anyone have any tests or theories I could try before I go spending $150 on a bigger PSU or $300 on another video card, money I really do not have to spend.
With FEAR 2 and a few other games coming out it's breaking mine and his mothers hearts to see him so dissapointed.

Any help would be much apreciated.

 

Hello there & welcome to Major Geeks

I had a very similar problem with my PC, when playing GPU intesive games the screen turned black with not sigal & the system hung, it happened randomly but not long after I got a new CPU. It was power related, I got a new (name brand) PSU and all my problems have been solved.

I got a 650W Cooler Master Extreme Power Duo, I had a COLORSit 600W. The rails are the problem not the Wattage, the new PSU was only 50GBP (Sorry pond sighn still not found on my new keyboard lol).

Could you post the brand of GPU (Sapphire, MSI, XFX) & we may be able to take a look at reconmended power supplies for you

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Hey, thanks for the welcome.

I figured it has to be power although I just can't get my head round it, it worked for around 6-7 months before this started. The PSU is probably a no name brand, I don't remember and the label is covered by the case, I know that after buying the Vid card and ram I was a bit strapped for cash so had to skimp on the PSU.

I've been looking at some PSU calculators but they seem way off even to just off the top of my head knowledge, example: The system listed above they say requires 470-510 watts....seems a bit low to me and I know Aperage has a bit to do with it too.
I was kind of hoping for a "Free" answer lol

I'm basically looking for some other opinions and I know some of you guys on here know more about PC's than I know about breathing in and out lol

After your reply I think I might try another test, unplug ALL unecessary things, 2nd HDD, USB attachments etc and see if it make ANY difference.

But I think you're right, I need to spend some money........lend me $60? lol

Ok so down to business, I know a fair bit about hardware but PSU's are not something I've ever really looked into, what am I looking for other than wattage and connectors?

BTW, thanks for the help.

 

Your most welcome, it's why i'm here :cool

Now you could indeed try unpluging things you could be only a few amps/watts out, but my friend did that for 2 yrs and his GPU died because he had to cut out everthing he could to get his PSU to power everything :-D

Basically he had unplugged all the fans but his CPU fan (stock) as he couldn't power his newer better one and one hot day boom.

I learned a fair bit about power supplies when the time came for me to get a new one due to my power failures :-D. Basically don't just check total power output, find out what you need in the way of current on each power rail. If you need 20 A on your +12V rails and the supply only has 15A, it doesn't matter how many watts the supply puts out: don't buy it. Make certain that you have ENOUGH rails, too: sometimes, you need more than just two +12V rails for your setup. So you either need to find out exactly how much you need or get the manufacturer's reconmended PSU's then take a look at what they have rail wise.

This one has x2 12V Rails which should be enough in my opinion, I am running an ATI (Radeon) HD 4870 1GB, AMD Phenom X4 9750 2.4GHz on a similar model to this so you should be fine: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171013

I pad more for it... I think, I don't know the current exchange rate from Dollars to GBP so i'm not sure :-D

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Whoa....rails?.......you lost me lol

I read somewhere before something about rails. You say I need to find out what I need on each rail, how do I go about that?

I done my test, I unplugged everything I could, it wasn't going to be permenant, I just wanted to see if it made a difference.......it didn't.

BTW, the GBP sign should be on "2" unless you have an American keyboard, in which case.......there isn't one, I came across this when I moved here to Canada from the UK, kept typing things like "Yeah it only cost me @35" lol
And the exchange rate (although horrendously low ATM) is usually 1GBP = $2CAD roughly.

Anyway, enough stock market lessons lol

So when I look at the label on this PSU, the rails are the listed currents under "DC Output" or "AC input"?

 

you say the temps are fine, but you dont list them. What temp is the card running at when at full load? and also, what driver version are you using? is it certain to be the correct one for this card?

 

Yeah thats a good idea, you need the latest driver for your GPU & if you want it the latest Catylist Control Centre, CCC will tell you the temp of the GPU & the activity of the card % wise.

But also if you could find out the maker of the GPU that would be helpful in finding out the reconmeded PSU, mine is a Sapphire.

If you cannot find out the maker of the GPU, that PSU I suggested will easily fix the issue.

Regarding my keyboard, it is a UK keyboard but I must have set it to american when I re-installed windows a few days ago lol, the problem is I cannot remember how to change it to UK english :-D

Strange my smileys aren't working I now have to remember the code

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

The card is Saphire X1950pro and it does have the correct and latest drivers as far as I can tell.

As for temps, well I just looked and with just internet windows and msn open it's running at 58-60C....that actually seems a bit high to me. It's not overclocked or anything, why would it be overheating. Air temp in here is about 18C and given I live in Canada it hasn't been above 0C for months lol

What would be shut down temp? or can I set that manually?

I'm gonna test a game and see how high the temp goes after a few minutes of play.

 

Ok, I just ran COD 4 for 10 minutes and the temp shot up to 93C
Obviously thats a little warm so I think we may have found the problem.
I've hooked up a cool air fan to blow into the PC and he's now playing and I will see what happens.

So being that it's obviously overheating, possibly caused by my boy jacking up the settings way past what the card was capable of on Crysis.
Now......how do I fix other than jacking up loads of fans?

Is there a way of cooling it down in settings or some such?

 

Whoa! That's not a little warm! :eek

There are applications that allow you to control the fan speed of your graphics card, and you would need to do that to keep the card cool. Or, you can tell the Crysis addict that his options are to either turn down the graphics settings or to pay for a new video card. His choice

I'd go with the latter. If it works, just keep it that way. A good game is enjoyable on medium-low graphics settings.

 

lol try telling that to a 15y/o, I grew up with pong and a Spectrum 128k +2........yeah thats right, the one with the built in tape deck :cool

I told him at the time he was pushing it too hard, his theory is as long as it runs at..get this.....12fps he's happy, me? I'll run most games on lowest possible so I don't have to wait 3 minutes for my guy to turn round lol

Anyway, software to make the fan go quicker, excellent idea!......what software? lol

Hey anytime you guys need to know how to fix your cars or TV's or houses, just give me a shout.

 

I like SpeedFan, but it has a bit of a steep learning curve. Your graphics card manufacturer should have some available... nVidia occasionally bakes them in with their drivers, check if ATI has done that for your card.

 

I don't know about the x1950 Pro but my 4870 driver has a new option to control fan speed , or before that driver version I downloaded a program called "Riva Tuner 2.2" it can overclock & cool your GPU by over-riding the GPU's driver to do so, at one point I had mine on like 70% all the time worked wonders :-D Mind you that is still a 10C over my temps.

As far as I can see you cannot run Crysis on high specs your system will either hang or play very slowly & very hot. If you want to know what you can & cannot run on that PC you can try this: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest, It takes a lookat your PC specs and compares them with the game specs, I use it alot & it is great.

Oh and if you need anymore info about the GPU here is the Sapphire site: http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=168

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Just a quick reply cos I'm cooking......not the video card lol, FOOD!! :-D

Anyway, you guys have been awesome! Thank you all very much.

@2BitGeek.. I never heard of that Spec site, I've been using canirunit.com for a while but I never found it really acurate.

Will give this stuff a look.

Thanks again.

 

Ok I've been fiddling........it exploded...lol j/k :-D

I installed Speedfan but it has no fan control for the x1950, so I installed ATITool and it has acurate temps etc acording to CCC but again I can't increase fan speed. So I installed Rivatuner and it says it doesn't support the driver.
I installed the newest CCC and driver for the card, ran the test thing on ATITool and got the temp upto 90C in under 2 minutes:yum

So....now I have lots of new software but no solution lol

2BG, you said rivatuner worked for you but I couldn't increase the fan speed, any ideas?

I also downloaded a bios flash file but I'm too scared to use it rolleyes

Aparently the X1950 has had a lot of heat problems.....wish I knew that when I bought it, hind sight is 2020 right.

 

Ok I've been playing lol

Installed speedfan, can't change fan speed, same with Rivatuner and ATItool.

How do I alter the fan speed in any of the progs listed above? all I get is a pecentage of what speed it's running along with the GPU temp.

Got the latest CCC and driver. Ran the test in ATI tools and hit 91C in under 2 minutes.

 

They are all the fan controlling programs I know unfortunately

I thought maybe the CCC for your card might be the same as mine but it's not if you don't have a fan speed adjuster, the only reason I can think that it would crack 91C in 2mins is if you auto tuned? Have you been bad & tryed to overclock an already hot card? lol

I have one last idea (a stab in the dark really), can you describe your cooling to me? Mine look is:

Front: X2 12CM Akasa Blue fans

Side: X1 8CM Aksa Blue fans, X1 8CM Multicolor Akasa 2,000-4,000 RPM

Rear: X1 12CM Akasa Blue fan, x1 Akasa extractor

Pleanty of airflow & plenty of Akasa :-D, I know you probably don't know the brand of fans lol, just the layout can be important, Pics would be great if you can. It's always nice to see a little computer porn on the forums :-D

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

If the hardware doesn't have all the necessary sensors and switches, then the fan-controlling software will unfortunately not do you any good. I have only nvidia cards, so can't help with the ATI tools at all, sadly

It's starting to look as if your options are to either buy a new video card or to beat some sense into your kid

 

@2BG.... lol if I put a pic up it would be the puter porn equivelent of granny fisters :-D
There's no extra fans on the PC, I have found a couple I'm gonna fit but I don't hold out much hope given that the room cooling fan pointed directly at the GPU didn't do much.
Just 1 question about the fan control progs, maybe I missed how to adjust the fan speed, could you give a simple explination of how?.. Please.

@Mimsy....Beat the kid.......good idea, could be fun :major

 

Ok I MIGHT.....and I stress the word... MIGHT.......have found a temp solution, I put a mini stand alone air conditioner on it and ran FEAR on high spec for 4 levels and kept the temp under 85C (good enough since the card is fooked anyway, may as well finish it off lol)
I'm now installing FEAR 2 which he desperately wants and I think as long as he runs it fairly low-medium and takes a 10 minute break every half hour it might just work.

Anyway, you wanted puter porn, well I thought I'd give you a laugh, I realise what cooling etc it needs, the case is an old one I found because his old Dell case wouldn't hold the new mobo etc, unfortunately I'm brassick right now and seriously cannot even a $10 fan, so laugh away but please realise this isn't me being a puter noob, it's simple lack of funds.

So, onto puter grannies..... :-D

Ladies and gentlemen I give you...Frankenputer.....

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm230/Nedlamar/PCpron002.jpg

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm230/Nedlamar/PCpron006.jpg

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm230/Nedlamar/PCpron007.jpg

Laugh away, I'm sure you could all do with a giggle lol

 

What a lovely image uke

So I take it you have only 1 fan on the back of the case, a cpu fan & GPU fan?

If that is the case, airflow could very well be part of your problem, in my opinion 49C is too high idle GPU for my system, imagine what it would be like with no airflow. It may very well idle 70-80C :eek, it wouldn't suprise me.

Actually you can take a look at my cooling in this post: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=180705

I have since tidy'd up the wires inside with cable ties to further improve it

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

I posted some pics earlier but my post seems to have vanished. It done that to me earlier today so I posted again and then it appeared which is why there are 2 posts very similar.

Are posts checked by staff if they contain images or links?

 

Ok , well aparently the post I made earlier didn't actually post, so I'll post it again with an update.

First off, I took some pics just for you 2BG but please bare in mind the reason it's like this is simply due to a lack of funds, not a lack of knowledge, I moved to Canada a couple of years ago and have only just obtained a work permit so I've been skint and did my best to get the boy a decent puter, unfortunately the Dell case he had wouldn't allow the new mobo etc so I had to use an old one I had down in the basement with no side cover, so I also found an old side cover that has no case lol, I'm a hoarder :-D Yes I have EDO ram sticks and Bigfoot HDD's down there too rolleyes

But anyway, onto the disturbing puter porn, please feel free to laugh

As you can see, I found a mini stand alone air conditioner which I cleverly placed hammering the GPU with chilled air lol

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm230/Nedlamar/PCpron002.jpg

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm230/Nedlamar/PCpron006.jpg

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm230/Nedlamar/PCpron007.jpg

I know this is not really a fix but I just installed FEAR 2 and ran it on auto settings (which actually looks and runs pretty good) and kept a fairly decent 75-80C on the GPU. So problem solved until I can sort something else out, I figure the card is pretty much dead anyway so we may as well send it out in a blaze of glory :major

Thanks to all you guys for some awesome advice, without which I would not have gotten it to work at all and may have spent money on things I can't afford yet.

I think I might hang around this place a while, I used to have an account here a while ago but couldn't remember the log in info at all.

 

Hey, if it works, it works

If you have a cat, I would not let it near that room anymore though :eek As long as nothing gets into the case while you have it open like that it looks like a good emergency/temporary solution. Just don't leave anything, and I do mean anything small and sharp near the fan's air intake.

 

lol I have 2 cats and they get into everything, but you don't need to worry, seriously, I hate to blow my own trumpet but even though it looks dodgy I have made sure it's safe (those pics were taken while I was still testing, it's now still like that but more cover has been added for safety reasons) and I'm pretty good when it comes to dodgy electrical safety :major , he is only to use the cooler while playing games, I told him if I find it left on any other time then it gets removed and he simply has to buy himself a cooling system and case.

But yeah, he played for about 2 hours tonight and it stayed stable, although the first thing he done when he started the game was start to jack up the specs, jesus it's like banging my head against a brick wall, I said "Well if you want to jack it up , go ahead but since your mobo doesn't have onboard graphics, if you completely toast that card you have no puter at all"
Damn kids :mad

 

Thanks for the pics :-D

Xblade side pannel? So the only thing I can think of that will drop the temps a little bit is a good dusting, cleaning all the fans, all the componants & air extractors. My m8 recently purchased some nearly new parts from me :-D, when he opened his case up it was horrible, 2005 was the last time anything new was put into it :eek. There wer dust cretures the likes of which would scare even the bravest knights lol. But mainly his PC was hot because his fans were clogged & no air was escaping because of the dust monsters.

After that if you can get your hands on some cable ties, small ones are best but normal size ones will work too. It improves airflow a bit, you might see 5C differance maybe more that depends on how bad it is :-D

Good luck.

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

even tho riva tuner gives you that error when starting, you should still be able to use it to control the fan speed.
i posted some pics to help someone else out before:
http://majorgeeks.com/HWMonitor_d5842.html

 

@2BG..... lol yeah dust is a problem, the puter only got built on Dec 27th 08 so fans are actually pretty clean believe it or not, the dust you see is a result of stupid Canadian under floor hot air heating, you dust something clean, the heating comes on and coats everything again lol, Landlord is supposed to be having the air ducts cleaned.........4 months ago rolleyes
I'm gonna leave it as is for the time being, hopefully I get a job pretty soon and will pick up a new case and a few fans and fit it all properly.
This thread has given you guys a poor impression of my standards of workmanship I'm sure, under normal circumstances the puter would be very neatly laid out but it was only temp until I get a new case.

@Mr.Gun....Ok, I have rivatuner but couldn't really see how to adjust the fan speed, I'm new to GPU OC software.

 

I understand the woe's of joblesness all to well, after all my current pc was built on saved jobseekser alowance :-D, sorry to anyone in the UK who pays taxes. But when I did get a job I poured money into it and it's now at a great standard, luckily it got compleated just before my contract ended with the agency I was with :-D

Again I am on the hunt for a job

But hey look on the bright side I have alot of spare time to help you guys out here at Major Geeks LOL

I wish you luck in your job hunt Nedlamer.

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

sorry wrong link
here's the right one.
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1147639

 

Thanks Mimsy.

Ok, this is aimed more at 2BG, my boy got some money for his birthday so he wants a video card rolleyes I have been looking at the ATI 4850 512mb, found one for $195 CAD (about 100 pounds), how good is that card, I know you have the 4870, just want to know if it's good for the money or if there's something better I could get. Oh and the 4850 is a PCIe 2.0, from what I can see his mobo will support this but would you mind checking for me? Mobo is Intel DG31PR.

Also I found a PSU....hows this...

Rosewill 650W ATX Power Supply SLI Crossfire Ready PSU

+3.3V@24A,
+5V@24A,
+12V1@20A,
+12V2@20A,
+12V3@20A,
+12V4@20A,
-12V@0.5A,
+5VSB@2.5A

For $80 (about 35 pounds)

What do you think?

And yes I understand cooling is still neeed. But just as far as the Video card and PSU?

 

As far as I can tell from the information Intel have on that board which is hidden, it supports PCI Express X16, which form my understanding is PCI-E 2.0.

As for the power supply, I would suggest a better known brand of power supply such as, Atec, CoolerMaster. I personally have a Coolermaster Extreme power Duo 650W, it supports SLI & Crossfire so you know the rails are good enough. Here it is for $69, a nice saving on a better PSU : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171013

As for the graphics card, I found a 4870 512MB on newegg for $187.49: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102769R

I have an if option for you aswell... If you can push you budget a little as you can save with that suggested PSU, I saw a 4870 like mine 1GB for $224.99 :http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801, best thing about this card is it's ahead of your PC, so it will still be good in a couple of years time if you need to upgrade again :-D, and you can crossfire it with another and it will be a little bit more powerful than the X2 is now. I know it's a big if but it's worth it


And yes you will definately need to improve your cooling with either of those choices, airfolw is key to cooling. Cool air in the front, hot air out the back, keep it moving and you should be fine. All you need is X2 12CM fans to do that.

Hope this helped. This one took a lot of shopping around :-D, I am always happy to help in the hardware section after all it's what I know best.

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Firstly, thank you dude, you're a diamond!

Unfortunately that site is USD, when I go to the Canadian site the 4870 is $335, quite a jump, possibly because the US one is Open box.

But I can get the 4850 and the PSU you reccomend for 50 cents less than the 2 I found lol including, so I'm better off cos I got the better PSU, plus the others I found on ebay.

Ok I'm now looking at a few other Canadian sites, it's tricky hunting for this stuff here, I was ok in the UK cos I knew where to look and had contacts lol, I miss England lol

Well having looked around I can't really find anything any cheaper, why is this stuff not FREE! I'm English for gods sake lmao

Edit: Ok this is what I have sitting in my cart.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171013

Total of $321.25 CAD (181 GBP) including taxes and shipping.

Look good?

 

So does Newegg US not ship to Canada? That sux if it doesn't, if you had a friend who could get the US price then post you the stuff, probably not :confused

I love the Uk for the most part :-D, aside from my current joblesness it's great here.

If I were you and the 4870's were too much i'd save they are soo much better than the 4850's, basically in Nvidia tearms 8600 vs 9800.

But if all else fails I took another look, it's a little over budget but it's still a 4870 : http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102810

I just hope you can stretch a little, it's a good card, who needs bread for a month anyway LOL

Any good?

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

lol you really want me to get the 4870 huh :-D

No the US store wont ship to Canada, why would they, we have a store right? more expensive but we have one lol
I'll see what I can do about the 4870 but with tax, that pushes it upto $378 from $320 and right now $50 is a lot of money you know?, sucks but thats the way it is, hell if I don't figure something out in the next week or 2 we ain't gonna have any electricity to power the stuff lol
I will try but I think the 4850 will please him.... for the mean time lol, maybe when I get straight again I'll treat him to a 4870 to crossfire with it...maybe :-D

I've read and watched a few reviews on it and it's streets ahead of what he's got so it's all good, hell the boys 16, if he had a job .or hadn't have spent all his money from his last job on crappy phones and mp3 players and ipods then he'd already have a good pc rolleyes , when I was a boy... :-D Actually when I was his age I was wasting money on Sega cd :-D

Good find, that site though man, honestly I can't thank you enough for the advice.

Just out of curiosity, the rig you have, have you tried Crysis on it? I mean the game is ok as far as gameplay but graphically it's a benchmark, how high can you run it?

 

Thats because the 4870 will last a L-O-N-G time LOL

The US is a strage place, we don't have a PC world Wales or Scotland, your connected for gods sake :-D why have a differant site?

Dumb Newegg not adding tax to prices :confused, my bad. I am so strapped for cash I sold my PS2 (Boxed) with 25 games for £20.50 :eek. They have really dropped in value, mine was in perfect condition aswell. Tell you what gimme a definative budget and I'll see what I can do with it, if it has to be an 4850 at least it will be a good 4850 :-D

I'm not 100% on this but I don't think a 4870 & 4850 will crossfire.

I was cleaver when I had a job between October 08 & Jan 09 I poured all my money into this PC, luckily it was finished as the job finished LOL I also got a contract phone, which is killing me to pay ATM

I'm getting good at shopping online for you Americans LOL

As for Crysis according to Can You Run It? : http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

I should have no problem running Crysis, even at my 1440x900 res I think I should get 40-60FPS out of it. I have had no problems running all my new games on full graphics with about 50-60FPS, here are a few games I play:

LOTR: Conquest
Burnout: Paradice
Need For Speed: Pro Street, Undercover
Mercaneries 2 World in flames
GTA IV- Low fps becuase the game is buggy :confused
Colin McRae Dirt
PURE
Devil May Cry 4
Spore
Prince of Persia
Turok
Assasins Creed
Race Driver: GRID

As you can there is quite a few high end games in there, Coling McRae & Race Driver require 8800's.

Although the performance does come from all my parts, the Kingston Hyper 1066MHz RAM makes a differance, and the "Quad Core" quotes because it's a crppy Phenom LOL, but it works on newer games.

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

ehm, hi. I honestly think this temps are way too high. Then I googled it and it is, sadly, a often seen problem with this card. I would strongly recommend, instead of giving money for a new card, considering that this has the technical specs to run the games you need for, to consider spending a lot less (2x5$ or so) for 2 coolers, and just let them blow into your card. You can also go to some place where they repair PCs (recommended) and have them install some nice cooling on that card for 15-20$ (not sure, but can't be a lot more)

 

The card does get hot, but there are ways to cool it, the Catylist Control Centre for the 4870 has a manual fan control, Riva Tuner has fan controls. But I do agree that much better cooling is a must after any new card is installed.

:major2-bit-Geek:major

 

@2BG.... a score for a PS2 and 25 games? dude....I repeat.....Dude!
I know the feeling though, I'm on the verge of selling my PS3 :cry
And please do me a favour.....don't call me american or I may have to hurt you lol (no offense to Americans), nah Canada and the States are linked by land but are 2 totally different countries, England Wales and Scotland are all part of Britain, it's complicated lol, Canada is much like England in many ways, hell the queen is even on the money lol, part of the Great Commonwealth *salutes* Hell whenever I buy something electronic from the states I have to pay quite hefty duty on it.
Ok back to puters, well that $320 is pushing the limit so I'm just gonna go with what you found, besides, he's getting impatient lol As for crossfire, I read that all 4800 series will crossfire, could be wrong but thats what I read...somewhere. I'm not too worried about graphics ATM since they are getting very cheap, I think the 4850 Saphire will be enough for him but if you do come up with something better then please do, once again I really do apreciate your help.

@Pencheff.... Yeah I know it needs cooling but the card is already toasted, even with an air conditioner blowing cold cold air directly into it, it still idles at 59-60C, I've found many people who have said the X1950 has had major heat problems, besides, even when it was new it wasn't that powerful. He wasn't really happy with it, he expected much more, at least he's seen the 4850 in action with lesser CPU and ram and is impressed. That x1950 cost me $270 lol

So atm the plan is to get him the new PSU and card and I'm gonna nick his old ones lol, my pc is old....I mean old.......AMD athlon 64 3400, 1gb ram and ATI x700 512. My mums boyfriend sent me a new mobo and core duo 6000 but my puny 350w PSU wont power it, I figure I nick the boys 550w and at least I can have a puter that opens IE in under 4 minutes lol

 

i have an 8800gt that started running way too hot, even with the fan at 100%..i took it out, removed the fan/heatsink, and cleaned everything real good. there was alot of dust in the fan. I put some arctic silver thermal paste and put the fan back on , it's going real cool now, you might want to give that a try.

 

Yeah I'm gonna do that, like I said, he wants a new card so I'll have the x1950 and do what you said, I need some more thermal paste though, used the last of it on his CPU at xmas.
I might as well order some with the card, I can't remember what I had last time, it was Artic silver . which one would you say is better, the AA or the Arctic 5? I think the Arctic 5 is heavier.

 

I needed money so I traded my PS2 & all my games, tbf I didn't use it anymore. I could not get rid of a PS3 though, I don't have one but still.

Fair enough I get called Scottish enough, I am a geordie from Newcastle Upon Tyne! But can I at least picture you like the South Park canadians? LOL

Even if the 4850 would crossfire with a 4870 I wouldn't like to do it, it may cause problems with games. Besides 1 4870 is enough power :-D

If you could wait until the new beasty 4900 seris comes out 4870's will drop in price vastly :cool

As for the dust problem you have, once you have your new fans in & the case shut, I suggest some dust filters in front of the fans. I hear they work wonders in heavily dusty conditions, once they are full just run the vacume cleaner over them & they are as good as new

I suspect you may need us again once you have cobbled together your PC LOL Good luck!

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Whoa whoa whoa! You're a magpie? :***

lol j/k, I'm a Norfolk bumpkin, can't read or write but I can drive a tractor! :-D

Well I ordered it, so we shall see, the boy has been watching hundreds of video reviews on the 4850 and is very excited.

Also I may have some job prospects in the not too distant future so maybe I can start thinking about new case and some proper cooling and filters etc, then I can start rebuilding my pc.

When are the 4900's comming out? might have to look into those.

 

Norfolk ay, I don't know much about the place so I can't say anything on the subject except I can read & write but I cannot drive.... a tractor or a car... Ok I just can't drive LOL

As long as you keep an eye on the temps in Catylist Control Centre, if it gets too hot turn up the fan, if it stays hot turn the graphics down or risk overheating type death :-D

Actually there are far bigger plans for the 5800 ATI's they will have DX11 :hyper
They will be reliesed along with DX11, take a look at this I found: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/020/1050020/ati-s-hd-49x0-coming-soon-ish

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Ok, well when you buy one I'll take your old crap off your hands for a niminal price :-D

 

lol, have sold a load of stuff to m8's recently actually :-D

I sold my old GIGABYTE 8600GT 512MB, Zotac AMP Edition 9600GT 512MB, 2GB of DDR2 667MHz RAM, AMD Athlon 4400+ 2.4GHz dual core, AMD Athlon 6000+ 3.0GHz dual core & an old MSI K9VGM-V mobo. I fresh outa old parts to sell

But if I update maybe i'll let you know

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Thats ok, they don't have to be "old" parts :-D

 

Well i'm quite attached to these parts & so is my computer :-D

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Small snag, the PSU is gonna be held up for a couple of weeks :mad

So, the Grphics card will be here monday or tuesday, what are the chances of running it with his 500watt psu? just til the new PSU gets here?

I've looked on PSU calcullators, some say it will be ok others say it wont.

Here's the rig after I remove things for power saving like the 2nd HDD and cam etc.

PSU is 500watt with 1 x 12v+ rail of 30A.

Core 2 quad 6600
1 SATA 7200
2 x 2gb 5400 ddr2
ATI 4850 512mb
1 DVD rom

Thats it, no fans except the CPU fan.

Worth a shot?

What will happen if there's not enough power? just crap out or could it damage something?

 

I wouldn't on 1 12V rail, it's not gonna be very stable with a Intel Quad in there too.

Basically there are two things that could happen if it doesn't work:

1, Intermitant powe failure (mainly during gameplay)

2, Syetem damage, no part is really safe it it blows.

I personally wouldn't risk it, not with all that new stuff in there

:major2-Bit-Geek:major