[SOLVED] Gigabyte Z370 HD3P Unstable with NVMe drive

[rgireyev]

Here are my system specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 HD3P v1
CPU: i5-8600K @3.6GHz
RAM: Corsair DDR4 3200MHz, 16G 2 sticks of 8G
PSU: CX430
GPU: None
HDD: Samsung SSD 830 256G
OS: Windows 11 Pro 64Bit

I've been running this rig for years and it has been stable.
Recently I got tempted to try the NVMe drive to speed things up.
So I purchased a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB
Installed it in the NVMe slot and did a clean install of Windows 11.
However, the system becomes extremely unstable.
And after a few minutes of sitting idle, the System crashes and reboots.

I was able to get a hold of another NVMe SSD drive Patriot VPN110 2TB and did a clean install on it.
With exactly the same result.
I even tried installing Ubuntu Linux on the 970 but the end result is the same.
The system becomes very unstable and crashed after several minutes of running.

I tried both drives in both slots.

Does anyone have any ideas how to make the NVMe work.
TIA

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, my first guess would be that since you have a pretty terrible power supply, and the CX430 is well known for having not only been incredibly problematic but it also hasn't been manufactured for a lot of years meaning yours has to have been around the block a bunch of times or sat unsold on somebody's shelf for a number of years, that you might have some problems with the 12v PCIe circuit in your PSU. It wouldn't affect your 2.5" SATA SSD since that uses the 5v rail. You likely wouldn't have known there were issues on the 12v PCIe circuit either since you aren't running a discreet PCIe graphics card. It's just a guess, but knowing the problems with that specific model of PSU (AND the CX600 units) it would definitely be my first guess.

The other thing I would question is whether you disconnected ALL other drives except the NVME drive and your flash drive (Or optical drive if installing from disc) when you did the clean install. Leaving drives that have had Windows installed on them connected when installing to a new drive can often have undesirable results related to the EFI boot partitions.

Another thing you definitely want to look at is whether you have the most recent stable motherboard BIOS version installed. If not, I'd do that before anything else.

 

[Inthrutheoutdoor]

^^THIS^^

 

[rgireyev]

Thank you for the fabulous and thorough reply.
I bought the CX430 for my original build of a system with the 3rd Gen i5. So I've had it for a while.
My BIOS is on the latest version which is 14 for this MOBO.
And boyscout's honor I had all other drives disconnected during install.
I once deleted partitions on my work drive during install,
so I learned my lesson the hard way. :O

So my follow up questions are.

1. Is there anything that I can do/try with this PSU to make it work?
2. If not what PSU would take care of my needs without sending me to the bank for the loan?

A short background of my needs.

Since I do no game I will not be purchasing a GPU.
In fact my system is pretty bare, there is nothing in any of the PCI slots.
I just need something that will be able to handle up to 2 NVMe drives, even though I am most likely going to install one of them in my laptop.

TIA
Rudy

 

[Darkbreeze]

What country are you in?

 

[rgireyev]

I'm in Israel. So someone who ships to Israel would be great. Like Amazon or Aliexpress and the like. I see Thermaltake on sale at Amazon with free shipping to boot. But I see from your reviews in the PSU forum that you are not big on the brand. So I'll wait for your reply here. Thank you so much. I'm a software developer so this is my work machine.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yep. Israel makes it hard. You have few regional options that are good. Practically none in fact. Amazon likely your best bet I guess. But IDK for sure.

Your best bet might be to simply find something in the 450-650w range, and yes, in some cases you might find a quality 650w unit for less than a lower wattage unit and that's fine. It's not a problem. You can't have "too much" power really. It will only eat what it wants to eat and nothing more.

Use the information at the following two links to find a quality model that is available to you and that you can afford.

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

Article - [psucultists] PSU tier list rev. 14.8 (Final Update Jul '21)

PSU Tier List 4.0 rev. 14.8 (outdated) Last Update: 12-07-2021 Legend : Gray - EoL/obsolete and/or otherwise not recommended for purchase. Green - small form-factor (gold and blue colors are disregarded due to scarcity of SFX PSUs) Gold - best units in the tier (includes requirements for blue...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[rgireyev]

OK I went through both and still have some questions. You seem to recommend Super Flow very highly whereas he has it listed in the low priority units, which may be mine or may not.
Here is a quick list that I found on Amazon. Does anything stand out to you at first glance?

Super Flower Leadex III Bronze PRO 550W $60+25Shipping
https://www.amazon.com/Fanless-Modular-Dynamic-Bearing-SF-550R14HE/dp/B08H1BWR87/ref=sr_1_6

Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 650W $70+25Shipping
https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-...PS-TPD-0650FNFAGU-1/dp/B07N7V8JM5/ref=sr_1_26

evga g5 650w $60+$25shipping
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Supernova-Modular-Warranty-220-G5-0650-X1/dp/B07WDLTKNM/ref=sr_1_1

Thermaltake Toughpower GX1 RGB 600W $60 Shipped
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NPCQCLH

EVGA 700W GD $65+22Shipping

EVGA BQ 750W $65+25Shipping
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Bronze-Modular-Warranty-110-BQ-0750-V1/dp/B01FYDUDJ0/ref=sr_1_19

EVGA GA 550W $60+$24Shipping
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Supernova-Modular-Warranty-220-GA-0550-X1/dp/B07WNXY6T5/ref=sr_1_16

evga BQ 650W $65 Shipped
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Bronze-Modular-Warranty-110-BQ-0650-V1/dp/B01FYDU8X6/ref=sr_1_8

 

[Darkbreeze]

Much as I hate to say it, because I'm not a big fan of most Thermaltake products, the Channel Well built Toughpower GF1 (Second one on your list) is probably the best option of those you have listed. The review of the 850w member of that series is pretty good and most of their "Toughpower" series products are generally at least decent with some being extremely good. At this point in time I'd recommend avoiding Bronze units of any flavor unless it's the best of a bunch of not so great options.

The EVGA GA probably isn't terrible either with it's 10 year warranty but that brings up two points. One, there are zero reviews of that series and two, if you have to use the warranty it's probably not a good choice because it's going to cost you a fair price to ship it back to EVGA warranty center.

I guess that goes for any of them, but the extra 100w and the probable at least somewhat better internal component selection that results in it being efficient enough to pass gold efficiency testing means it's maybe the better gamble.

None of them, really , are what I'd necessarily "recommend" but I understand you have some limitations as well. Right now there seems to be some pretty decent deals on EVGA G6 and G7 units, which unlike the G5 units are very good. Units I'd really look at are EVGA G6 and G7, Seasonic Focus plus or Prime models, Super flower leadex II or leadex III Gold (Or higher, like platinum, titanium), Antec high current gamer gold or earthwatts gold pro, Corsair TX, RM, RMx, HX, HXi or AX, or Thermaltake toughpower grand units.

But, that Toughpower GF1 should be pretty damn decent. And if you can't get it or another recommended one, then of the rest you have listed I'd look at the Leadex III bronze or the EVGA GA from what's on your list.

 

[rgireyev]

You are a treasure. Thank you so much. I'll poke around the interwebs and see if I can find any deals on the units you recommended. If not I'll go with the GF1 as it is just barely under $100, which is where I wanted to stay.

Much as I hate to say it, because I'm not a big fan of most Thermaltake products, the Channel Well built Toughpower GF1 (Second one on your list) is probably the best option of those you have listed. The review of the 850w member of that series is pretty good and most of their "Toughpower" series products are generally at least decent with some being extremely good.

Thank you. Great insights.

At this point in time I'd recommend avoiding Bronze units of any flavor unless it's the best of a bunch of not so great options.

Excellent. I'll avoid the Bronze then. What is above Bronze besides Gold.

The EVGA GA probably isn't terrible either with it's 10 year warranty but that brings up two points. One, there are zero reviews of that series and two, if you have to use the warranty it's probably not a good choice because it's going to cost you a fair price to ship it back to EVGA warranty center.

My understanding of the long warranty is that the manufacturers know their units. And if they are willing to offer a long warranty that means they know the unit will not break for at least that long.

None of them, really , are what I'd necessarily "recommend" but I understand you have some limitations as well. Right now there seems to be some pretty decent deals on EVGA G6 and G7 units, which unlike the G5 units are very good. Units I'd really look at are EVGA G5 and G6, Seasonic Focus plus or Prime models, Super flower leadex II or leadex III Gold (Or higher, like platinum, titanium), Antec high current gamer gold or earthwatts gold pro, Corsair TX, RX, RXm, HX, HXI or AX, or Thermaltake toughpower grand units.

Thank you. This is just what I needed. I'll go to work on this and see what I can find.

Have a great day and the rest of the week.
Rudy

 

[rgireyev]

WOW. Heartbreak city evga.com has a 650W G6 for $60 shipped. But will not ship to Israel. Only US, Canada and Puerto Rico. It is $90 on Amazon. :O
Everything else was either out of stock or much much more. So it looks like GF1 it is.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You could do a lot worse than that and for the record, I changed my last post to reflect that I had made a mistake which you will see if you look at the quote in your post where it says "Units I'd really look at are EVGA G5 and G6" to what it was supposed to say which was "Unit's I'd really look at are EVGA G6 and G7" since the G5 units as I said prior to that part are really not very good.

Not relevant anyhow now, but for future reference of anybody who reads this thread, just for clarity.

It might actually be worth calling around to shops located regionally in Israel. Even though I know it's not a great industry there, you might get lucky trying to find one of the units I said were good or acceptable, at a somewhat reasonable price, without having to pay for shipping. Not sure on that but even in other places like upper Europe and South America where they have to deal with similar lack of decent hardware locally I've had users who've done this, calling local or smaller retailers and repair shops to see what they might have on hand. Just a thought.

And also keep in mind, we don't know for sure this IS the problem so don't get super sad if you get this and it doesn't solve your issue because that is certainly a possibility. But, given what you have now, it's track record of similar problems and the fact that without a known good unit we are just making a lot of guesses, it is still the first step I would recommend.

 

[rgireyev]

You could do a lot worse than that and for the record, I changed my last post to reflect that I had made a mistake which you will see if you look at the quote in your post where it says "Units I'd really look at are EVGA G5 and G6" to what it was supposed to say which was "Unit's I'd really look at are EVGA G6 and G7" since the G5 units as I said prior to that part are really not very good.

I noticed that but understood clearly that it was a typo for the very reasons you stated.
Since you want to keep this clean, I might as well ask you this. One of the lines you recommended was Corsair RX. I was not able to find that one, I did see Corsair Rm though. Is that the one you meant?
If so then Rxm might be Rmx.

Thank you again.
I admit I'm definitely hopeful this is it.
However, at 650W and the fact that I'm not a gamer I will hopefully have a somewhat future proof PSU. I found the record of my purchase of the CX430 and it was in 2012. 10 years. I spent a whopping $20 on it.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sorry, that was another typo. I should learn to double check my typing after I've had an evening cocktail or two. LOL. Actually, should double check all the time.

But yes, it should have been RM and RMx. The RM is decent. The RMx is moderately better for not much more. You are EXTREMELY lucky that your twenty dollar CX430 not only lasted this long but didn't cause you any serious hardware issues, because I've seen those units protections fail and take out motherboards much like I've also seen with the CX600. They were built using pretty poor platforms and internal build quality.

 

[rgireyev]

So I ended up with a 850W GF1. LOLOL
650W was going to be $95 delivered. No VAT since the amount is under the threshold.
850W was $89 with free shipping, so with 17% VAT which is $15, the total will be $104.
So $10 more but seemed like it was worth it.
Way more than the $20 I spent on the CX430 LOLOLOLOL but hopefully worth it.
Will post here the results once it arrives. I'm told it should be here by 28th.

Also I could have had a 750W Antec earthwatts gold pro or the EVGA G7 for yet $10 more. But I stopped at this one. As this is already slightly more than I thought I would spend.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, should probably have just gone with the 650w model since that itself is already about 200w more than you'd ever need with your current hardware. If you plan on adding a high end gaming graphics card at some point you'll be glad you with with the 850w model but if you never have any plans for adding one then it was probably an unnecessary expenditure of ten extra dollars. But, a lack of capacity is something you're never going to have to worry about unless you go with whatever is one of the top two flagship graphics products from each camp in all probability.

Either way, at least now we'll know the PSU isn't the problem if there IS still a problem.