Replacement video and psu.

[BenHoliday]

Over last weekend I had my system give a little pop and shut down mid game. I checked all the connections and it was only the system that went down. I was still just hoping a fuse had blown at that time. I was unable to start it back up unplugging the power and plugging it back in I could see the power button flash for a second but nothing was kicking over. I unplugged all non-essential drives and tried starting it again. I could immediately smell burning and looking at the video card which I had left plugged it gave out a nice cloud of smoke.

I shut it down unplugged the card and tried to power it up again. The system came up and loaded the os I still had the speakers on so could get that much. I tossed an old 7600 on later and was able to boot up no problem. The card was of the silent variety and did not need power so I have been unable to test the 6pin cables for the gpu.

I have an Antec CP-850 in there and had been getting random black screens that recover with the well know display driver has stopped responding errors since the 280 series of Nvidia drivers came out. A few people said it was the card not getting enough power but the fact that it was running fine until 280 and the now 290 drivers led me to think otherwise. Everything is powering up right now but I don't want to chance a replacement video card getting toasted. Not to mention I really don't want to take the chance that my ssd's might get fried. I am thinking a replacement psu is in order. I have an Antec P193 case which is huge so I am looking for a good size modular psu that can make the stretch as it will be coming from the bottom of the system.

I am also looking for a replacement gpu. I loved my 570 it took every game I through at it at high settings. I was thinking of maybe going with a GTX 550 for now while waiting on the release of the next gen cards to come out here shortly. I just need something that can push BF:BC2, BF3, Skyrim and SW:TOR at medium to high settings while waiting for the release of the new cards.

 

[Frizz]

get a 560ti or 6870 for now, they're good enough for 1080p and are quite good value. I wouldn't cheapen out on the PSU though, at least get a decent 650w or more if you're planning to upgrade and OC, then you should look at 750w gold rated and up.

 

[Inceptor]

A 650W PSU will be fine; with your cpu and gpu at load your system will approach the efficiency sweet spot for a 650W. It would even allow for overclocks, at the same efficiency. If you're planing SLI, go for a 750W.

 

[BenHoliday]

Any recommendations for a psu with long cables and modular? Since the last was an 850w I think the lowest to go with would be a 750w. I will have to look this gold rating models up. Looking those models up makes me think why not just spend the extra $100 and get another 570 for a year. The 560 is in the $200+ range

MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III
MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 570 (...

ATI drivers burned me on my other pc with all the fall releases. So I am a bit hesitant but I might be willing to give them another chance. Could the 7770's push the games or is it a low entry card?

XFX Double D 7770
XFX Double D FX-777A-ZDF4 Radeon HD 7770 GHz Editi...

 

[cocobrais]

I have an Antec CP-850 in there and had been getting random black screens that recover with the well know display driver has stopped responding errors since the 280 series of Nvidia drivers came out. A few people said it was the card not getting enough power but the fact that it was running fine until 280 and the now 290 drivers

Change the setting from auto to your card... In some cases helps

 

[BenHoliday]

The card is dead as far as I have been able to test in another system. I was looking at this psu as maybe a replacement based on the advice above.

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX750
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX750 (CMPSU-750A...

 

[BenHoliday]

Okay I went with that psu and ordered an MSI 560 ti Hawk. Never tried MSI before so I am crossing my fingers.

MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB...

 

[mrthanhnguyen]

be careful with that hawk, a lot of people have heat issue with the hawk version included me.

 

[BenHoliday]

Ack that's what I get for choosing in a rush to get it before this weekend. I read a post that one user said to slightly under clock it. If it seems to hot I might try that. The 570 was pretty loud once the fans hit 70-80% I will have to see if this makes more noise. I also read where a couple people said to replace the thermal paste.

- I highly recommend lowering the stock voltage the card comes with (1.062). This is what leads most people that review this card to say it either runs hot or too loud. If you get a more finicky card you may have to leave the voltage somewhat close to what MSI sets it at stock, but in my case I dropped it down to 1.025 and saw a decrease in temps of about 8-10 degress C. This allowed me to set a fan profile that never goes much higher than 60% (and yes, this is running at the speeds I mentioned in Pros), allowing the card to remain cool and quiet. I can't push the card much further than the speeds I mentioned above at this voltage, but that is a small price to pay for a card that is running cool and silent over 21% faster than a stock 560ti.

 

[BenHoliday]

The psu and video card were waiting for me when I got home. After testing out SW:TOR it was at 99% gpu usage and the card was in the 90's with the fan revving up quickly. It was so loud so I redid the settings in TOR then dropped the voltage a little and setup a custom fan profile. It was still pushing it a little too hard so I turned on vsynch and that seemed to help. It is running about 33-37 at idle and 60-75 at load. Slightly worried on that as I have the case open at the moment it should be running a lot cooler.

-Edit-

Not too bad running a couple short tests with Skyrim. I turned the shadows to medium with the rest of the settings at ultra. Temps haven't gone above 65 and gpu usage stayed in the mid 70's. I need to get the sides of my case back on and get some readings after an hour or so of gaming.

-Edit2-

Changed it like another person mentioned 1025 voltage, 1000 clock, 2000 shader clock and 2300 memory clock. It is running nice and cool now after hours of gaming. All games are playing on high so far.