My X99 workstation has random shutdowns during full load - Please Help =)

[SVTruong]

Hey All,

Thanks for viewing my inquiry and thanks in advance if you have any thoughts on helping me sort out my PC problem. I'm new to the community, but I've been skimming the forums and blog for quite some time. I've built many workstations and game PCs but I am not by any means a pro at OC'ing. I use my PC for some mild gaming, but mostly photo/video editing and 3D rendering (I'm an Industrial Designer). Here's my build and below are some issues I'm experiencing.

• - Asus X99WS-M Mobo
  - Intel 5820K
  - RAIJINTEK STYX Micro ATX case with stock 120mm case fan and H.E.C. Cougar 120mm fan installed at base sucking air from below and pushing upward to outside radiator. Maybe I should flip this?
  - G-Skill Trident Z DDR4 3200 Ram (x99 compatible)
  - Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
  - EVGA 120-G1-0750-XR 80 PLUS GOLD 750w Modular PSU
  - EVGA GeForce GTX 970
  - Corsair H100i GTX
  - Acer B276HK (4k IPS/60hz) and NEC (1080 IPS/60hz)
  - Windows 7 Pro
  - Adobe Suite, Solidworks, Sketchbook Pro, Keyshot

My Problems:

OC'ing -
It doesn't appear like I have any stability issues that I know of. I've overclocked it to 4.2 and 4.0ghz (never tried anything higher since I don't care to go much higher...) with max temps under load hovering at 59 degrees Celsius. Graphics cards and everything else looks good with nothing going in RED. However, I cannot get my ram XMP profile to work for the life of me. Every time it is enabled, it fails to post or boot. So I leave it at 2133 with everything set to auto. Does this mean anything? I've also only been able to get my CPU to overclock with a BCLK set only at 100. At 125x33 it will fail to boot. However, at 100x42, it boots up fine. I have been running my CPU voltage at 1.25 and 1.275 max. I actually just left it auto on my last config and just changed the multiplier to 42 since it seems to work best in that config.

Anywho... What am I doing wrong? Why can I not apply my XMP Profile?

Rendering -
I've only had this issue as of yesterday. I actually built this PC not too long ago and due to travels I have only started using it for hardcore 3D rendering recently. Anywho, I ran a animation rendering recently at both all stock no OC settings and OC'd to 4.0ghz. Everything would work fine and hours later I would come back and the PC would be off. Simple turn back on and start rendering again. Then it shuts off while I'm on the computer during the render and I have to flip my PSU switch to turn it back on. Any thoughts on what the issue could be? Maybe my PSU is defective? At 700w, there should be plenty of headroom. During benchmarking, it only sucks up around 300-350 watts.

My Setup:

 

[rainer]

Try installing Asus AI Suite 3 and letting it discover a safe OC for your chip.
My setup gave me 4.6ghz through this process and seems stable,.

 

[SVTruong]

Try installing Asus AI Suite 3 and letting it discover a safe OC for your chip.
My setup gave me 4.6ghz through this process and seems stable,.

Thanks Rainer! I appreciate you helping me out here. I'll have a shot as soon as I make it home. I've been doing work on it and during a render an hour in I notice CPU temps fluctuate between 65-69 at an OC of 42x100. I plan to do a Memtest tonight to see if one of my sticks are defective which may be the root of why I can't enable my XMP profile without the comp crashing/booting.

 

[rainer]

Are you using 4 sticks DDR4? If so try two sticks at a time. RAM speed is inconsequential in this context, XMP isn't going to produce any noticeable advantage (less than 1%). But 4 sticks are great for quad channel.

 

[sancho_mic]

hey SVTruong, I have a similar setup except the RAM, GPU and PSU. I'm using Corsair LPX 2400 (32 GB, 4 x 8GB) and RM850i PSU.
My GPU is older, 550ti, but i doubt that your GPU is the culprit for your situation.

I didn't encounter any similar situation like you are having, unfortunately for you. Tried win7 and currently on win10, no issues.

I totally agree that your power consumption is way less (maybe half, at full load) than your PSU capacity, so I doubt that this is the reason, however I incline to believe that your issue is PSU - most probably it's defective.

Defective RAM or not stable means random reboots, blue screen, etc.

Power off is something that is caused by PSU. Or input current to it - did you notice any mains fluctuations?

I believe in x99-m ws uefi you have some setting that controls the behaviour in case of power is cut - restart, keep it off, etc... I have not tested it, but you can check and make sure it's not restarting. But even so, I would also play a bit with that setting to see if the behaviour changes - maybe you get more clues.

Your CPU temps are good, i'm getting 68-70C on air cooler OC'd at 4.0GHz - noctua d15s for CPU cooler (single fan).

Stress test at stock:
Keep the ram with XMP disabled, so it will default.
Stop OC, default to 3.3 GHz
Disable any power saving profile in windows/uefi.

And then see if it still shuts down - leave it for 12-24 hours.


BTW, do you have s/w that monitors the sensors and takes actions when certain threshold will pass? (corsair link offers something like this, but never tried if it works).

-s

PS:

Regarding Fans - In my Styx I used:
- 2 top fans for intake (with low noise adapter) - in your case you have the RAD which is also good.
- back fan for intake to CPU (added air filter) which I plugged in CPU_OPT (so will be in tandem with CPU FAN)
- the bottom fan for exhaust
In addition, there is also the PSU, which also takes from CPU area and exhausts at bottom.
So air is moved around by a total of 4 fans + PSU fan.

 

[sancho_mic]

and btw, your ram is part of the QVL of x99-m ws?