Computer shuts off while gaming

[rig3rous]

Just now when I was playing Max Payne 3 my computer completely shut off. It is as if someone had pulled the power cord and everything completely shut off. Now here are my specs:

380W PSU (Antec EarthWatts 380D )
5770
AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz (4th core unlocked)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3

Now, I hate to think it is the power supply. I've always heard that antec psu are quality. I'm thinking perhaps the cpu is overheating? Maybe the unlocked core is churning out some extra heat?

I find this strange because last Summer I was playing Crysis maxed out and it was baking in my room-- computer never shut down then. Why now?

I think I have adequate cooling... Rosewill challenger case that has 2 120mm fans (front and back), also a 140mm at the top.

Ideas?

 

[DarkOutlaw]

You are overheating. Can you give us more detailed specs? What kind of heatsink/fan are you using on the CPU?

Room temp rarely matters. I am running Prim95 right now for example, average temp of...56C(129F). Unless your room is hotter than 129F it wont affect your CPU that much since still, in theory, air going in is cooler than air going out.

 

[rig3rous]

Thanks for replying. I am using stock heat sinks for everything (CPU and GPU). The GPU is specifically an Asus CuCore Radeon HD 5770. GPU hasn't been overclocked, runs at stock speeds. Cpu is also stock apart from unlocking 4th core. Any other details you want?

 

[DarkOutlaw]

Stock heat sinks/fans suck. Go to newegg and get a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ for 19.99 should solve the problem. Your graphics card heatsink/fan should be fine, since they arent really made to be replaced they are made with a bit more quality than this crap we get from intel and amd. The hyper 212 seems really big, and it is, but it fit just fine in my challenger case (have about 1/4 inch of room left lol)

Edit: To verify, hook up two monitors and get Core Temp and CPUID or some other heat monitoring program and try and recreate. Just keep a close eye on them temps and you will know if it gets to hot. 60C is a good number when stressing your CPU. My system is still new and not yet "stable" in my eyes so when I play Diablo iii I like to keep an eye on all my monitoring programs.

 

[rig3rous]

I have an extra fan from an old computer I can remove and stick onto the side of my case... I will look at the heat sinks you recommended

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[DarkOutlaw]

check temps. if you dont have 2 screens can you set up the monitors then play for like...30 mins or what not and alt+tab out to check temps? CPUID and Core Temp both show actual, min, and max temps that have hit the cores.

 

[rig3rous]

Best answer selected by rig3rous.