Is my underpowered PSU to blame?

[yojo2]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151119 - excellent value for money.
Or, if you really want something more powerful: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817207022 - it's on par with TX650M and it's a bit cheaper.
Another viable option is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817121094 - 550W Platinum PSu, which (according to Kingwin/Superflower) can deliver 650W.

[solidbarton]

I should be able to post images of the EA650 within the hour. And would 500w be ok? I understand that amps on the 12v rail(s) is very important too. Using the extreme psu calculator, it recommended ~500w and newegg's did about 600w, so would it be safer to get something higher, even if its just a little bit, to be on the safe side?

[Original Sin]

Originally Posted by solidbarton

I should be able to post images of the EA650 within the hour. And would 500w be ok? I understand that amps on the 12v rail(s) is very important too. Using the extreme psu calculator, it recommended ~500w and newegg's did about 600w, so would it be safer to get something higher, even if its just a little bit, to be on the safe side?

500W is already considerably more than you need, what you have there is ~400W system at full load.

[solidbarton]

Ok, understood. Still working on the pics. I have my Phenom II X4 OC'ed to 4.0, and my vcore is 1.40v, how would/will that effect things?

[Original Sin]

Deneb I suspect... in which case you should see ~180W in Prime95/Linpack (synthetics or similar) and no more than ~140W in everything else.

[solidbarton]

Yeah, its Deneb. I was worried about the wattage because someone earlier in the post said that an OC'ed PII @ 4.0 could break 200w.

Here is my imgur album of the PSU. I didn't notice any blown caps at first, but you know what to look for. And sorry about the hair, I tried to blow out most of it but obviously some remained lol.

http://imgur.com/a/r3Db2#0

[Original Sin]

Those caps look fine, which makes it rather weird...


On the issue of the CPU power draw, over estimation is the norm... nothing to worry about really.
Can you tell me what cooler are you using for that overclock, and what temps you usually get?

[solidbarton]

Yeah, that's what I thought about regarding the caps. But the PSU did noticeably whine during BF3, and after switching out the PSU, I didn't get any crashes.

As for the cooler, it is this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185125

And for temps, in BF3 the CPU maxes around 58ºC, GPU around 57º.

[Original Sin]

That's probably why I should have read the OP by now.... I get it you're only crashing in BF3?.. if so please put the EA 650 together again, install it in the system and run Furmark/Kombustor + Prime95 for a bit. The BF3 issue is quite common (with NV cards) and it's driver related...
So, if your system runs the above synthetics for half an hour without crashing, wipe the drivers and do a fresh install.

[Original Sin]

Originally Posted by solidbarton

As for the cooler, it is this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185125

And for temps, in BF3 the CPU maxes around 58ºC, GPU around 57º.

There's no way in Hell that cooler can dissipate 150W+ to keep your CPU from throttling in CPU intensive synthetics, chances are your actual CPU power draw is much less than my own "overestimation" of ~180W.