[SOLVED] GPU died in blaze of glory, unsure of cause, possibly my PSU

[miraculousmisconceptions]

Over the weekend my EVGA GeForce GTX 960 (about 3.5 years old) died and I am unsure of the cause. While I was using chrome a loud pop came from my case and the PC shut down. It rebooted instantly but then the displays would not come up. Long story short I suspected the GPU just died. In this picture you can see at the top right the two "burn marks." I'm not sure if a capacitor burst or what not but it isn't being recognized by my motherboard anymore so I suspect that it is dead. Unfortunately the GPU is not under warranty anymore but I was due for an upgrade regardless. What I am more concerned about is my power supply unit. I foolishly bought a custom made PC from Cyberpower instead of building it myself; it was before my PC and parts knowledge. So because of this I got a run-of-the-mill PSU, most likely to cut costs. It's called a Rocksoul 600 watt 80+ PSU, here's a picture of the details. Most likely it is not putting out the wattage that it says, but I have never encountered any power problems nonetheless. I am only suspicious of this PSU because of another thread that I read and it being probably the one place that I skimped in my build.

If you can offer any ideas as to what may have caused the marks like that on my GPU or/and anything about how unsafe my power supply is please do.

If you have any other questions or need anything to help diagnose the problem please ask, I will try to update as quickly as possible.

Link to my GPU
Link to an ebay page of my PSU

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Most likely all caused by the very very poor quality PSU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: SeaSonic - EVO Edition 620 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($45.89 @ Newegg)
Total: $45.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-25 12:05 EST-0500

 

[miraculousmisconceptions]

Most likely all caused by the very very poor quality PSU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: SeaSonic - EVO Edition 620 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($45.89 @ Newegg)
Total: $45.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-25 12:05 EST-0500

Yeah, very very VERY poor PCU. At least it hasn't fried my whole PC...yet. I appreciate the response and the recommendation. I'll be upgrading to a Nvidia GTX 1060 within the next week so I am looking around for a new PSU, somewhere between 500w to 600w. So that SeaSonic 620 is looking really good right now.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Get a better PSU. As far as the 1060, skip The 1060 also. Lowest card I'd recommend is probably the 1660ti for not much more than the 1060. It's more in the neighborhood of the gtx 1070 to give you an idea.

 

[Calvin7]

CyberPowerPC offered those relatively unknown power supplies with a short 1-year warranty. You won't see any warranties that short on good quality power supplies.

SeaSonic 620 has

• Limited Warranty period (parts): 5 years
• Limited Warranty period (labor): 5 years

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Unfortunately some of those system builders will put cheapo power supplies in their systems to cut down on costs. Many times by the time they go out the systems are out of warranty. But like in your case, now you're on the hook for a new PSU, new GPU, and basically hoping that PSU didn't kill your motherboard as well. A quality PSU likely wouldn't do that, and should have safe guards built in to protect components in case of failure.

 

[miraculousmisconceptions]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I'll be getting the new SeaSonic 620 PSU that was recommended in a few days. Looks as if the terrible Rockwell PSU was the culprit so that's getting trashed.

Get a better PSU. As far as the 1060, skip The 1060 also. Lowest card I'd recommend is probably the 1660ti for not much more than the 1060. It's more in the neighborhood of the gtx 1070 to give you an idea.

I checked out the 1660ti and while it is better and around the same price, I'm still going with the 1060 only because my buddy is giving it to me for dirt cheap. Otherwise I would have considered the 1660ti or something else. Regardless, thanks for the recommendation.

Unfortunately some of those system builders will put cheapo power supplies in their systems to cut down on costs. Many times by the time they go out the systems are out of warranty. But like in your case, now you're on the hook for a new PSU, new GPU, and basically hoping that PSU didn't kill your motherboard as well. A quality PSU likely wouldn't do that, and should have safe guards built in to protect components in case of failure.

Yeah that is exactly what I read in other forums. I wish I knew better at the time that I bought it.

CyberPowerPC offered those relatively unknown power supplies with a short 1-year warranty. You won't see any warranties that short on good quality power supplies.

SeaSonic 620 has

• Limited Warranty period (parts): 5 years
• Limited Warranty period (labor): 5 years

That's a really great point. Sort of like it is "too good to be true." I went with the SeaSonic 620