Hi, I have the following system (newish and has had this problem from new): - Biostar GF7050V-M7-SE GeForce 7050 Socket 775 mATX Motherboard w/LAN * Biostar GF7050V-M7-SE GeForce 7050 Socket 775 mATX Motherboard General Features: * NVIDIA GeForce 7050 chipset 800/1066/1333 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) Socket 775 mATX form factor * Supports up to 4 GB DDR2 667/800 MHz SDRAM Realtek ALC662 6-channel HD audio CODEC * Realtek RTL8201CL 10/100 Ethernet controller One (1) UDMA/133 IDE controller * Four (4) Serial ATA controllers *** Graphics and sound incorporated on motherboard, i.e., no additional cards. - Pentium E2180 CPU - 2 x Samsung DDR2 2GB 800Mhz 256MB RAM cards (tested in mem386+ and by physically removing and testing each in turn) - 1 x Lighstribe CD-ROM drive, unsure of model. - Maxtor 500GB DiamondMax22 9GT154-325 - 2 x unbranded DC12v fans. Now, the PSU is Alphapower ATX-450W. The problem I have both in Vista and Ubuntu (dual boot) is random reboots or sometimes the screen will crash with a frozen and blurred screen and the sound will stutter. I never get BSOD. There's not much of a pattern although it is slightly more common watrching vids or playing games. A driving game called TORCS in Linux will crash it for sure but otherwise hard to find a pattern. I've had a look online for the PSU specs and I find spec for a Kingwin ATX-450W (not good, efficiency >65%, max 450W) and I'm not sure if this is the same as the Alphapower or not. Looking at the label it appears to have 1 x 12v rail rated at 15A. The system is not from a major manufacturer but I didn't build myself. My questions are? Could the crashing and rebooting be down to the PSU? Does this PSU seem underspec? What would you guys have used for this motherboard/hardware combo? I'm considering an upgrade to a Coolermaster 520W Amazon.co.uk: Cooler Master - Real Power Pro M520 PC Power Supply: Electronics & Photo
Yes... The power supply unit in todays modern computer assumes a role probably more critical than any other single component in your system. A poor PSU can also cause other components to fail in your computer. The right Brand names = Quality Some approved Brand names follow... Seasonic - any model Corsair - any model Thermaltake - "Toughpower" series only Coolermaster - "Real Power Pro" series only PC Power & Cooling - any model Silverstone - any model
Thanks. I did a bit of digging and found that Kingwin/Alphapower is the same PSU and it is CHEAP!! I found it for £12 UK price, so I think worth upgrading (before it blows something up) even if the fault turns out to be something else.
