Tiny ITX Build Problem

[Shurakai]

Hey guys, I'm currently being plagued by a few annoying problems with my new mini itx build. My build should be viewable in my system specs. During games like TF2/Starcraft2 etc, I have these intermittent stutters, the sound stays normal, but the game "jumps" a real bugger for any sort of game. It seems i can sort of replicate some of the "pause" by waving over the "Show desktop" button in the task bar, comp lags pretty hard when I do, never had that happen before with others I've built.

At first I thought it was the Momentus XT due to alot of forum talk over at Seagate, but after putting windows on my 1TB Samsung it was still present

I hope this is in the correct category, no idea what the cause could be right now so I didn't think it really fit into a specific category. Oh and the other problem, it appears 128mb of ram is reserved for my built in cpu gpu... which isn't enabled? I hear this is a common problem with the H55 chipset?

Hope that covers everything, thanks in advance!

 

[brandonwh64]

Hmm well i have a small mATX setup simular to that and i have heat issues sometimes with the video card. have you tried playing intense games with the top of the case off and maybe a house fan on it to see if that stops all shuttering problems?

 

[Shurakai]

Heats not really and issue sadly, GPU barely gets to 70° and the CPU doesn't hit 60° with the AXP-140. With the case off its 60-64° and 50-55° respectively.

 

[ron732]

Are your system specs correct? The PSU you are running is 300w and AMD recommends 450W for 5770.

ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 System Requirements

 

[Shurakai]

Those recommendations are really a fail safe for someone using the worst PSU known to man, but i shall try a Corsair 650w I have laying around later on and see if that effects anything. It'd be nice if that is the problem, but under max load with a quad core @4ghz and the 5770 the dudes over at Hardware Canucks only used 251 watts. Thanks for the idea though, see how it goes

 

[newtekie1]

IIRC the power supply that comes with the SG05 is an FSP300-60GHS, which only has 22A on the 12v rail.

Your build might be pushing it a little bit, but probably isn't going over the capability of the PSU.

 

[Shurakai]

Good news, the 650w solved the problem, i chucked on a voltage/watt meter before i switched over though and the system was pulling about 230-240 watts while playing SCII, guess the Silverstone PSU just isn't as good as the reviewers say it is, or I got a dud. Either way, never had that problem before because I normally use nice Corsairs, at least i know what it looks like when the psu is underperforming now.

Only downside is I now have a huge PSU hanging on the back until I get my SG07

Thanks for all the help fellas!

 

[Shurakai]

Actually scratch that, it certainly stopped them happening as frequently, but the stutters are still present

Now I'm just totally confused, mini itx just isn't working out for me.

 

[Arrakis9]

have you tried unplugging all non essential components to the system to try and isolate if it *might* be a hardware failure?

 

[Shurakai]

Did it just then, and with a different keyboard and mouse, still the same I can cross RAM/CPU/GPU and the PSU off the list of problems aswell because they're from a perfectly good computer I salvaged. Guess its drivers or motherboard, I'm going to go reformat with the new PSU and see how it goes. I've done it so many times its second nature now

 

[de.das.dude]

might be a HDD issue.

 

[motasim]

Did it just then, and with a different keyboard and mouse, still the same I can cross RAM/CPU/GPU and the PSU off the list of problems aswell because they're from a perfectly good computer I salvaged. Guess its drivers or motherboard, I'm going to go reformat with the new PSU and see how it goes. I've done it so many times its second nature now

Wish you luck in that; but by the way you can consider going with the Silverstone SFX 450W PSU which is a unique small form factor PSU which might just fit in your case, also check the review by Jonny Guru.

Concerning the stuttering; can you borrow and test any other GPU? This will help you in isolating the source of the problem. Did you try any other GPU intensive games?

 

[Shurakai]

Reformatted, same deal

might be a HDD issue.

Sadly before I tried a trusty 1TB Samsung, still the same

Wish you luck in that

Thanks, but I'm getting an SG07 (also the Silverstone 450 is actually 20+ days away here in aussie land), hope this problem gets resolved before then, but its really starting to look like a motherboard problem
I shall try out a little Nvidia 8400 i have, although this 5770 has been working perfectly in my old comp, its actually supposed to be a 5870, but that'll only fit in the SG07 without modding

 

[Shurakai]

Nope, even with a 8400GS, stutters galore, guess i'll bite the bullet and try out a DFI MI P55-T36 (Mine ofcourse has terrible overclocking, can't even push my 661 past 150blck because its locked... even though no one elses is, god i love my luck, also nah, i'm not currently overclocking, stock to figure out my problem)

Edit: Oh it (DFI board when i was previously using it) also tells me my tiny 140blck overclock has failed everytime I start up the computer AND the Lan has to be disabled and re-enabled, Huzzah again for my luck with boards!

 

[Thrackan]

Mini stutters screams ATI drivers to me. You using the latest? If so, try uninstalling them (Driver Sweeper!) and reverting to different versions like 10.3 (I've heard people having better results with that particular version).

 

[de.das.dude]

^ thats a thank u for rating my mod.

 

[Shurakai]

No go with the 8400GS, still stutters, i'm up for trying anything though so i'll grab some older drivers and chuck in the 5770 again.

Edit: Any good places to actually get different versions? Tried Guru3d, but I get speeds of about 10-20kb/s there out of my 600-800kb/s connection, I'll keep it downloading from there unless i get a quick reply

 

[Arrakis9]

theres actually a driver archive here on TPU

http://techpowerup.com/downloads/1858/ATI_Catalyst_10.8_Software_Suite_Vista7_64-bit.html

off to the right were it says previous versions of this file


Also this may be a bit of a long shot but try putting a fan over the chipset and the power regulation circuitry for the cpu and see if that helps

 

[Shurakai]

Gave 10.3 a try, no luck, still a stuttering mess, Arrakis +9, I actually have the case open with a big 140mm on my AXP-140, so i reckon its pretty cool, thanks for the suggestion though (I will try it out with a spare 60mm I have). Guess its a dud board, can't wait to explain this to pccasegear, i'm sure they have improved but ages back when i had a PSU literally blow up it took them 3 weeks to confirm it then 2 to send a new one

Edit: Without a fan blowing directly on it the chipset gets to about 48-52 going by Gigabytes utilities

 

[Arrakis9]

have you tried doing a bios update on the board yet ?

 

[WhiteLotus]

What's your cooling like? Might be getting too hot in there, though i'm not sure if this would cause the problems you are experience, just another idea to add to the pot

 

[Shurakai]

have you tried doing a bios update on the board yet ?

Sadly I've already updated to the latest bios as soon as I had internet access, and i did it via bootable usb of course, don't really like the idea of a windows based bios update

What's your cooling like? Might be getting too hot in there, though i'm not sure if this would cause the problems you are experience, just another idea to add to the pot

I'll re-do all my temperature monitoring once i get that chipset fan in place, but for now its getting a little too late, gonna have to hit the sack, but by all means if you have any ideas, throw em at me, gotta keep busy on fixing this

 

[Shurakai]

Update (Big one): So, I changed the motherboard back to the DFI, same issue, which didn't happen before, instantly telling me something is wrong with the CPU or RAM. I've ran Intelburntest and Memtest till my eyes bleed, but not even a slight hiccup/failure, but as soon as I start up a game, BAM, stutters galore. Guess i'm forced to buy a crummy little replacement CPU and RAM because i'm the only person who actually owns a 1156 socket

Starting to think it wasn't without dangers, so i'll mention I did do some overclocking with gigabytes utilities, and at one point when I hit apply the comp just immediately shut down. I just wish the stressing utilities came up with something, shelling out extra just to see what thing is borked is kinda sad.

PS: Forgot to mention temperatures, these where done at near midnight so it was rather cool at the time. With Intelburntest set on maximum the cpu hit around 45-48 and northbridge was cool to the touch (doubt heat there would be a problem, because the DFI now has the same symptoms but that ran perfectly fine back in 50c aussie days in the tiny SG05). During games the CPU was only hitting 40-41 and the 5770 about 52-55.

 

[Kantastic]

I don't really know the answer to your problem, but I can say I'm scared since I'm building a system very similar to yours. It's in my sig now, parts should be coming in throughout this week & the next. I'll let you know if I have your problem.

 

[Shurakai]

I'm pretty sure now I'm the one who has caused this, by mucking around a lot with Easytune, my recommendation is to just not touch it and overclock the classic way a few blck at a time, slow and steady. Still love the board, great overclocker without the utility and I just love the layout and looks, I do hate how only the CPU header is controlled, the second fan connector is just set to run at 100% speed.