PSU Issue??

D

danks

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 3, 2005
Messages
241
So I built a pretty nice machine about 2 months ago...have an x2 4800+ with dual 7800gtx cards, 3 hd's, and a dvd-rw...I decided to go with the OCZ Powerstream 600w but from the beginning I had odd things happening. I never really had random crashes in windows but during games I would have crashes sometimes or when I try to exit back to the desktop the system would freeze. I've read of people having issues with sli setup's and this psu and I'm wondering if this could be related.

I just ordered a Seasonic S12 600w to see if this will fix the problems and because the OCZ was just too damn loud!

Anyone else have problems with the OCZ who have power hungry sli setups?
 
I've only seen such problems with the 600w... sorry, that's probably not much help :p

Honestly, I don't think I've ever recommended the 600w for the simple reason something about it just doesn't sit well with really power hungry systems. Not sure if it's a design flaw in the dual 12v topology or something else, but I have seen multiple reports of them not powering Prescott overclocks to the point the 520w can. This is in addition to the latest Tom's test which, despite a flawed testing methodology, should not have resulted in two OCZ 600w units failing in a row if said units had properly working protection circuitry.

I will be very interested to see if the Seasonic 600w can power the load any better, though I would have recommended trying a big single 12v design instead like the OCZ 520w.
 
I've read a lot of good reviews on the Seasonic with people using sli setups...It also seemed to be the most quiet around the 600w PSU's out there. I guess we'll see ;)
 
Oklahoma Wolf said:
I've only seen such problems with the 600w... sorry, that's probably not much help :p

Honestly, I don't think I've ever recommended the 600w for the simple reason something about it just doesn't sit well with really power hungry systems. Not sure if it's a design flaw in the dual 12v topology or something else, but I have seen multiple reports of them not powering Prescott overclocks to the point the 520w can. This is in addition to the latest Tom's test which, despite a flawed testing methodology, should not have resulted in two OCZ 600w units failing in a row if said units had properly working protection circuitry.

I will be very interested to see if the Seasonic 600w can power the load any better, though I would have recommended trying a big single 12v design instead like the OCZ 520w.
Click to expand...
AFAIK, OCZ PS 600W's work fine on all A64 mobos (DFI N4 is fine),
assuming a min of 4 HDD's & 2 opticals (for +5V cross loading) when running highend SLI. ;)
 
well I just installed the seasonic and i'm getting machine_check_exception errors when trying to boot to windows. I was able to get into xp once but it crashed after a while. I don't understand what the problem with the psu could be. arggg!!!
 
danks said:
well I just installed the seasonic and i'm getting machine_check_exception errors when trying to boot to windows. I was able to get into xp once but it crashed after a while. I don't understand what the problem with the psu could be. arggg!!!
Click to expand...
What are your complete system specs?
 
everything running at stock speeds

Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Athlon x2 4800
2GB Crucial RAM (2x1gb sticks)
2x 74GB Raptors
1x Hitatchi Deskstar 400GB
2x BFG 7800GTX
1x Plextor sata dvd-rw
Creative audigy 4
exos2 water cooled system

would think the 600w could have handled this
 
danks said:
everything running at stock speeds

Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Athlon x2 4800
2GB Crucial RAM (2x1gb sticks)
2x 74GB Raptors
1x Hitatchi Deskstar 400GB
2x BFG 7800GTX
1x Plextor sata dvd-rw
Creative audigy 4
exos2 water cooled system

would think the 600w could have handled this
Click to expand...
Have you tried putting the OCZ back in?
 
davidhammock200 said:
Have you tried putting the OCZ back in?
Click to expand...

yeah I just put it back in and things seem fine. this makes me wonder if I should get something more powerfull then 600w...
 
danks said:
yeah I just put it back in and things seem fine. this makes me wonder if I should get something more powerfull then 600w...
Click to expand...
Do you really find the OCZ to be that loud?
 
davidhammock200 said:
Do you really find the OCZ to be that loud?
Click to expand...

its not that bad but i wanted to try a different psu to see if it was the cause of the crashes. the noise level of the seasonic was just a nice bonus for a powerfull psu.

strange though... i thought i may have forgotten a connection somewhere like the asus z-plug but everything was in order. maybe i just got a bad unit :(
 
well I dont know how much of a difference this would make but I noticed the seasonic has 18A on each 12v rail compared to my ocz's 20A/18A. I'm wondering if I put too many devices on a single rail with the seasonic and this caused the problems? I wired it the same way I did with my ocz.
 
Give the OCZ 520w a try instead - it is possible you are overloading one of the 12v rails. This is one reason I don't tend to recommend dual 12v units for SLI.
 
danks said:
well I dont know how much of a difference this would make but I noticed the seasonic has 18A on each 12v rail compared to my ocz's 20A/18A. I'm wondering if I put too many devices on a single rail with the seasonic and this caused the problems? I wired it the same way I did with my ocz.
Click to expand...
everything running at stock speeds

Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Athlon x2 4800
2GB Crucial RAM (2x1gb sticks)
2x 74GB Raptors
1x Hitatchi Deskstar 400GB
2x BFG 7800GTX
1x Plextor sata dvd-rw
Creative audigy 4
exos2 water cooled system

would think the 600w could have handled this
Click to expand...
The Seasonic S-12 600W should be able to handle this.
 
im going to try and change my wiring around...what is the max number of devices you would recommend on a single 18a 12v rail?
 
You don't have any options.
One rail is exclusive to the CPU vis the p4 connector,
everything elso goes on the other rail.

But, do spread the load over all of the wiring.
 
this is really weird and i'm thinking something else in the system may be going on...i put the seasonic back in and changed the wiring around...still no luck and cant get into windows...take it out and put the ocz back in...now im having the same problem...

i noticed while watching the post screen it would take a very long time to detect all the sata drives...looking closer at the devices found I noticed it didnt detect my 400gb deskstar...thinking back when I had the seasonic in this was the same thing that was happening. so I reset the computer a few times and maybe after the fifth try it detected it and booted fine. though after a few mins the PC froze...

at this point i thought i may have had the jumpers on the hd's wrong from the beginning and it couldnt have been causing conflicts with the HD's so i took off the jumpers on pins 1&2 on the 2 wd raptors. booted fine! according to wd these 2 pins are more for power management and shouldnt matter if they are there or not...it actually shipped with the jumpers in that config.... i even reset the pc a few times times and things seem ok now. i dont know if this was a fluke and the same problem will happen again some time or if these jumpers may have been giving me all this grief?! really not sure what's going on here!

::update:: seems the jumpers had nothing to do with it as the problem still exists...thinking this drive may be flakey or something and the ocz tolerates it better then the seasonic

::update #2:: think i solved the problem. the last thing that came to mind after thinking about the hd's was the sata cables...took them all off and the plastic around them was bent and not making a good contact. put the seasonic back and and things seem to be ok. going to get some better cables because i'm using the ones that came with my motherboard...quite flimsy
 
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