PC constantly freezes or crashes (unsure of cause)

[Yecob]

Hi guys,

A while ago my PC started crashing while I was playing games. Sometimes after only 10 minutes in a game, sometimes letting me play for an hour or more. Then it slowly got worse so I did a fresh install on my PC of Windows. This helped slightly but my PC quickly began to degrade to an even worse point. I am now at a point where it seems to freeze (mouse and keyboard will not move and it does not recover from these freezes) or crash from practically anything. Some of the smallest, least demanding games and even things such as YouTube, Netflix or VLC Player now seem to freeze/crash my computer. I know I need to build a new PC (been saving for a while) but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make the wait less painful, whether that be something software related or to replace just part of my hardware. I appreciate any help available.

Here are my specs:
OS - Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Motherboard - ASRock 990FX Extreme9
Processor - AMD FX-9370 8 Core Black Edition
RAM - 16GB DDR3
Graphics card - Sapphire Radeon HD7970 3GB OC Vapor-X Edition
PSU - Aerocool Strike-X 800W

And the specs of the system I intend to build:
Motherboard - ASUS ROG Strix B350
Processor - AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Processor with Wraith Spire
RAM - 8GB DDR4
Graphics card - XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX Edition 4GB
PSU - Corsair SF600 600W SFX 80 Plus Gold

 

[SchizTech]

An issue like this is consistent with a failing hard drive. You can run Seagate Seatools to test it:

https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

 

[Yecob]

An issue like this is consistent with a failing hard drive. You can run Seagate Seatools to test it:

https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

Thanks for the advice! What kinds of tests should I be running and what problems should I be looking for?

EDIT: I just did a SMART scan and a short generic scan and both of my hard drives passed. The system drive is an SSD as well, don't know if that helps at all.

 

[SchizTech]

Start with the shorter tests (SMART if it's offered, or short DST), and move to the long test if no errors in the shorter ones. Seatools will tell you if there are problems (the test will end with a pass or a failure).

If the HDD tests ok, try memory tests (Windows has a built-in Memory Diagnostic you can search for in the start menu, or download and boot Memtest)

 

[SchizTech]

Well SSD can fail too, though sometimes in different ways than a HDD. If you choose to run the full long test that can take a few hours, so it can be something you run overnight. Memtest would also be an overnight test since it loops around and keeps running until stopped via a reboot.