Build Advice Re-build my extreme gaming-capable PC ?

iTRiP

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Feb 4, 2019
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I'm planning to re-build my gaming pc, got some sort of idea of how to go about it, but with everything I know and all the diagnosis I have done after this current gaming pc of mine started malfunctioning, It seems I do or would love to get some assistance of the Toms hardware Experts to get my rig up and gaming again.
 
Happy New Year!

You're advised to stylize your thread with info asked of in this thread;

You're also advised to include your current system's specs int he thread's body as sig space specs can and will change over time and when that does happen, it'll render this thread and it's accompanying suggestions moot to the end user in the same boat as you're in now.

When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs. Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

Your thread's title indicates you want to upgrade the system while it might also seem like you want to build from the ground up recycling some parts but your thread's body makes it seem like you want to troubleshoot/diagnose an issue. You'll need to decide on which one you want to do, to avoid spaghetti brains.
 
Happy New Year!

You're advised to stylize your thread with info asked of in this thread;

You're also advised to include your current system's specs int he thread's body as sig space specs can and will change over time and when that does happen, it'll render this thread and it's accompanying suggestions moot to the end user in the same boat as you're in now.

When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs. Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

Your thread's title indicates you want to upgrade the system while it might also seem like you want to build from the ground up recycling some parts but your thread's body makes it seem like you want to troubleshoot/diagnose an issue. You'll need to decide on which one you want to do, to avoid spaghetti brains.
Happy new year to you too, and to all Tom's hardware forums members as well.

Sorry about that, a bit spaghetti brained already, from all the trouble shooting swapping and testing my hardware with other pc's interchangeable parts, still haven't found the underlying issue that causes this pc to black screen on any game or stress test, It's quite hot here, so some part/s might have gotten damaged, so planning to rebuild and keep the parts in the build that are still functioning 100%, I really wanted to upgrade the Graphics card solely, but it's seems this heat has throne me a curve ball.

Here are the specs of the current hardware, It was running perfect for I'd Guese a life span of around five years up until now:
Coolermaster Gamer Case.
Intel i5 10600K 4.8GHz Hex Core Processor with Hyper-Treading (CPU) (2020)
Intel Stock LGA1200 Cooler.
Gigabyte B460M D3H Motherboard. (2020) (bios version F7)
24GB 2133 MHz Dual-Channel (8GB+4GB Corsair DDR4 & 8GB+4GB Corsair DDR4) (RAM)
Asus ROG STRIX AMD RX VEGA 64 OC Graphics Card 8GB. (GPU) (2019)
Antec HCG EXTREME 1000 Watt Gold Power Supply. (PSU) (2019)
Samsung 500GB EVO 860 Solid State Drive, Installed Games. (SSD)
Samsung 980 PRO 1TB Solid State Drive, Operating System, Installed Games. (NVMe)
Samsung 980 PRO 2TB Solid State Drive, Installed Games. (NVMe)
Western Digital Blue 2TB SN550 Solid State Drive, Installed Games. (NVMe)
Seagate 2TB ST2000DM008. 7200rpm Hard Drive, Games backup. (HDD)
Seagate 2TB ST2000DM008. 7200rpm Hard Drive, Games backup. (HDD)
Seagate 10TB ST10000VE0008. 7200rpm Hard Drive, Movies. (HDD)
LG DVD Rewritable Drive.
Microsoft VHD Blue Ray Image Drive.
Intel 1000Mbps Ethernet.
D-Link 300Mbps Usb WiFi.
Genius GX Scorpion K220 Wired Usb RGB Gaming Keyboard.
XGR Wired Usb LED Gaming Mouse.
Logitech Stereo Speakers.
LG 24inch 1080p 144Hz Monitor. (Capable of 2160p [4K] @ 120Hz)
Microsoft Windows 10 & 11 Home 64bit Usb Install media and activation.
( Current Windows 11 64bit Home 23H2, 22631.4602)

Love to get to the next step, thanks for the assistance.
 
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Three M2 SSDs on a motherboard with two M2 slots. How?

Antec HCG Gold Extreme is Seasonic Focus Plus Gold inside. That PSU has issues with Vega 64.
Got some expansion slot that supports one more additional NVme, I think it's in a pci -e X4 slot ( this had been running like this for more than a year with this upgrade )

The power supply, well I't did not matter to me what it really was or is, one of the units that where or had a review on here and was available to purchase for me back in the day, I't has been running my setup flawlessly for over five years now, even on 4K gaming and bench testing since I had it.

I actually think it's done a great powering job of powering my build over years past and maybe I'f it not that that's causing my crashes, Then I'd hope to keep using it for however long.

Anyway, though I'd mention all the things I've done so far to find the malfunctioning hardware or software include with some results:

#Tested and stress tested my GPU in another pc, no crashes there!
#Checked and rechecked all OS, Bois setting multiple times, nothing out of order noticed.
#Cleaned the entire pc's and re-applied heat paste to all hardware that required so, quite the job.
#Took all four sticks of ram and installed it on the other pc, ran mem test there, It crashed with all four sticks installed, same crash happens here on mem test on the pc in question, besides that the mem test passes without errors with each of the four sticks of ram tested individually, never had to do the test before because the pc never crashed, so this might just be because the ram is of different GB and not really compatible as per recommendations.
#Ran CPU-z, GPU'z and HWINFO64 to find if I spot anything abnormal, all checks out clear besides what is recommended, and witch up n' till now wasn't required for gaming 24/7 on this pc.
# Found some event viewer logs at time of crash that point to event 6008, and event 167, and event 125 and event 41, but I don't know what malfunctioning hardware it's supposed to point me at that requires replacement.
# The pc does however pass a 4k run of time spy when it is cool at night again, and seems to be able to play games for some time too but crashes are repeatedly occurring.
 
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#Took all four sticks of ram and installed it on the other pc, ran mem test there, It crashed with all four sticks installed, same crash happens here on mem test on the pc in question, besides that the mem test passes without errors with each of the four sticks of ram tested individually, never had to do the test before because the pc never crashed, so this might just be because the ram is of different GB and not really compatible as per recommendations.
DDR4 is inexpensive now, you could replace your RAM with a 32GB kit.
 
DDR4 is inexpensive now, you could replace your RAM with a 32GB kit.
Yes thank you, thought has crossed my mind, and I think I can still get 2133Mhz at a local online retailer here, but I still can't 100% that there is actually something wrong with the ram, I can't say so myself, it's quite clear that if each stick passes the mem test individually then none of the sticks are faulty.
 
Yes thank you, thought has crossed my mind, and I think I can still get 2133Mhz at a local online retailer here, but I still can't 100% that there is actually something wrong with the ram, I can't say so myself, it's quite clear that if each stick passes the mem test individually then none of the sticks are faulty.
Have you tried just using a matched pair of sticks? They sell them like that for a reason.
 
Have you tried just using a matched pair of sticks? They sell them like that for a reason.
No have not done that, seems logical to try, You got any input why mem test fails/crashes pc with all four sticks on both pc's ? ( like I said I don't know if this had always been an issue or that it is only an issue now) {never ran the mem test before because I had no issues} so now I can't compare.

#tested my cpu with the intel diagnostics test, results all clear pass.
 
Got a budget, still needs to clear thou... allocated $1500.

Pc's performance was better than expected over the years since built, was, am still leaning towards GPU upgrade to enhance everything I purchased to play now and purchase more of what is to come.

(summer heat), NFS: unbound, latest game play for about 80 hours during hot days or nights.

2588 hours of gaming last year alone.. did I mention the GPU and PSU are 5 years to date.

# ran sfc /scannow command and found some files that where corrupted and repaired.
# last crash event 41 caused by running stress test diagnostics using AIDA64 extreme.
 
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Do you have a budget?

When running ok, was your performance satisfactory, or, are you looking to upgrade.?

What might have changed since the pc started malfunctioning?
see above post.

And if at all possible I'd like to keep this GPU to install on my other pc, where it would make that pc game capable as well replacing a very old PowerColour AMD HD7950/R9 200 Series Graphics Card 3GB.
 
They are mismatched sticks, and there are no guarantees that this will work without issues. If you need more memory capacity, replacing the RAM with a matched kit is best to avoid problems.
Yes, they are mismatched, Anyway I have the 24GB installed again as it always was, I had been running smooth with these 8+4+8+4 for years without issue. (don't think the crashes are ram related anymore) Tested!

#Last night I did all the work to swap out PSU's, been able to play some games and still testing the pc's stability now again.

Could it be true that my trusty Antec HCG EXTREME was the faulty part causing the pc to crash under load?

Edit: I'm running my other PSU unit of my other pc in this pc now, that renders my other pc inoperable for the time being, The unit is a Coolermaster V 1000 PSU, that had hardly ever been used other than for the other pc's office tasks, Anyway still testing stability now, even have the GPU settings turned up to turbo, fingers crossed. Playing games for testing now!

If these results are looking good, I might be able to move to the next steps with my Rebuild-Upgrade!
 
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If you have swapped out this PSU and your system isn't crashing anymore then yes. It could be what SID mentioned in an earlier post that the PSU has issues with your Vega graphics card.
That was my initial thought, with the other PSU installed everything ran fine for about the whole day since last night, I even tested the Graphics card settings on all power levels via AMD control panel, gaming was smooth, then I set the power saver scheme for the Vega RX 64, just for interest sake, I had not been playing ten minutes and then there was another kernel-power 41 crash (black screen, and the rest of the system stays on, with cpu fans spinning full rpm's) but as soon as I press the power button the pc boots up normally again.

In fact, I didn't even play all that much as compared to what this pc ought too or should be capable of considering the quality of the components.

I could really use some help getting to the origin of the issue here, please if anybody knows please post here. (what is wrong with this pc?)
 
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Well if it isn't the PSU the next likely suspect is the graphics card.
I originally thought that too... It might have gotten a bit hot, but mostly seems like that wasn't the issue, besides I tested the GPU in anther RIG and that whole day the GPU did not crash there in that pc.. but crashed continued when I reinstalled the GPU back into this pc, I even re installed the only driver I have for it, latest legacy driver from AMD, and crashes continued, then this morning without changing anything. When I booted up a random game for testing or to lure out the crash issue to further investigate the GPU had reported 0% Fan speed, I quickly quit the game and started looking better at the GPU driver, when I uninstalled the driver and re installed the driver the PC had some sort of fit all the fans went up to a 100%, I restarted the pc and the driver installation had been interrupted, Installed AMD driver and control panel again, Did a restart, turned off some additional extras and now the pc looks like it runs normal again.

In the meantime I had completed A run of performance test on 4K no crashes, a run of prime 95 with no crashes and a run of all the tests of Cinebench 24 also with no crashes.

I recon if the pc stays stable, I'm going to test the other PSU again... but 1st let's see if the crashes don't reappear, since the changes are applied now.
 
Got a better result, after having reinstalled the GPU drivers again.

View: https://imgur.com/a/faFy47L


I think I'm on to something that leads me to believe what could be causing these crashes.. I'll post more later.

Interesting build ( by testing and re-building ) so far looks like all of my pc' components are still good, and that I might not need or want any other parts besides a GPU upgrade.
 
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