PC shutting down while playing games (The Witcher 2, FF14)

[victorferrucy]

Hi, everyone.

After some time I finished my pc build, I am experiencing some shutdowns when playing certain games.
When I started to play FF14, everything was ok. But suddenly it's started to shutdown after some hours of playing, sometimes 30~40 minutes of playing.
But the one I think it's the most unnusual is while playing The Witcher 2. I can count ,more or less, how much time before my pc shuts down. 9~10 minutes. And I put everything on Low in The Witcher 2, deactivate everything, but it still shuts down after 9~10 minutes.
I played games, like Skyrim, for long hours with High specs and never got a shutdown.

My pc build is:
MotherBoard: ASUS M5A97 EVO R2.0
CPU: AMD FX-6300
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U12S
GPU: XFX R9 270x
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB (not certain, it's the oldest hardware in my pc :/)
RAM: Kingston KHX1600C10D3B1/8G
PSU: EVGA 600B

Here is a image of HWMONITOR:
http://http://imgur.com/DRXvcHl

 

[turkey3_scratch]

When you say "shutdown" do you mean a Windows shutdown or instant power loss?

 

[victorferrucy]

Instant power loss. And it doesn't restart. It simply turns off.

I read that when something like this happens, the main suspect is the PSU. But I bought mine in the middle of last year. Could it have gone bad in just 6 months? Or maybe it was already faulty and I didn't played any games that really needed to use full use of the PSU?
Like I said, I already played other games, like arkham city with High specs and never got a shutdown. It lagged sometimes, depending of the environment in the game, but never got a instant power loss. So I don't think it was already faulty or something like that.

[Update] Oh, and my GPU temps go around 90º~95º Celsius when playing FF14. Didn't saw when playing the witcher 2, but it goes around those temps while playing some games.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Yes, it is the PSU. Frankly to be honest, the EVGA 600B is not a very good quality power supply. It's pretty poor. It's not just too much power than can shut down a PSU - a bad voltage can. Under-voltage protection and over-voltage protection shut down the PSU if it delivers an unstable voltage.

 

[victorferrucy]

There is nothing I can do with my PSU to stop these shutdowns?
I just bought the CPU cooler, cause I tought it as a overheating issue. :/
If I need to buy a new PSU , than I'll have to wait a lil bit. D:

Ah! And you think a 600W is enough for my build? Or should I buy a better one with more W?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

There is nothing I can do with my PSU to stop these shutdowns?
I just bought the CPU cooler, cause I tought it as a overheating issue. :/
If I need to buy a new PSU , than I'll have to wait a lil bit. D:

Nope, there is nothing to do but replace it.

 

[victorferrucy]

Ah! And you think a 600W is enough for my build? Or should I buy a better one with more W?

Do you have any suggestions?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Ah! And you think a 600W is enough for my build? Or should I buy a better one with more W?

Do you have any suggestions?

Gaah, that's the thought you need to expel - rated wattage is not important. A power supply has three main rails: 12V, 5V, and 3.3V. As you can guess, these "rails" or wires deliver an electrical current with that particular voltage. Each rail has its own importance, and the 12V rail is the most important rail that supplies almost all power to the CPU, GPU, and even other components. What you want on a power supply is a good amount of amperage on the 12V rail. Amps x Volts = Watts. So 10 amps on the 12V rail is a rated 120W for the 12V rail. The 5V and 3.3V rails have lost their significance and power less vital components or small parts of vital components. 5V does a lot with hard drives, but so does the 12V.

Therefore, when looking for a power supply, always look at how many amps are on the 12V rail. Companies always lie about the combined wattage for a power supply, and crappy units can't often even meet half of the rated wasttage. Another important thing is that as temperatures increase, maximum wattage decreases. Also, as load is put on one rail, the other rails have less potential and can't deliver a current with as many amps. Point be told, quality is what makes a PSU good, not watts.

You may not be fond of EVGA, but they don't make any power supplies. If you buy something like the EVGA GS 550W, it's high quality, 100% Japanese capacitors, and is made by Seasonic. Your current power supply is made by HEC Compucase. Other options are the XFX Core Edition 550W, or the Seasonic S12ii 520W. Your computer could easily run on a quality 400W unit, but I recommend 500W (actual 500W units) and above.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Good options are:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $55.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-28 20:14 EST-0500

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $55.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-28 20:14 EST-0500

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $79.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-28 20:15 EST-0500

The last one is obviously the best (fully modular, superior quality) but all three are high quality units that don't pose the risks of your current PSU.

 

[victorferrucy]

Thank you, Turkey3 for you time and your suggestions.

I could only find the SeaSonic S12II 520W - here in Brazil it's difficult to find some electronic stuff - and the price difference between the S12II 520W and 620W is not that high. Maybe I'll get the 620W, just in case...

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Nothing wrong with getting the 620W. If it's only a tad more, why not!

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Also, I think I found the culprit of the problem, under-voltage protection. If you look at your HWMonitor image, the 3.3V rail should not be lower ever than 3.14V. It is 3.13V. And while software readings can be very inaccurate, it's probably an indication that under-voltage protection was shutting the PSU down.

 

[victorferrucy]

turkey3_scratch

Also, I think I found the culprit of the problem, under-voltage protection. If you look at your HWMonitor image, the 3.3V rail should not be lower ever than 3.14V. It is 3.13V. And while software readings can be very inaccurate, it's probably an indication that under-voltage protection was shutting the PSU down.

I was going to comment with you something that happened yesterday and I though it was really strange.
I have Asus suite software, that tracks some stuff, running background and suddenly a warning message appeared. Can't exactly say what was in the warning - not at home right now- but it was something like "Abnormal +12V reached 0,312". I think I still have it in a log the software.

Also, I don't have a really good UPS. I'm using a really cheap UPS together with a power strip? or Surge protector? I don't know how you call it in english but it looks like this:
Power strip/Surge protector

After looking a little bit in articles and forums, I realized the combination of both are not recommendable. And that a cheap UPS can make a difference on how a pc works.
I don't even know my UPS brand. It is really old and cheap. I'm even thinking on buying a new one and after buy a new PSU, if it keeps shutting down.

I posted a new thread to choose a new UPS:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2954764/choosing-irght-ups.html

Don't know if a new UPS would help.