Serious freezing/crashing problems with new build

TheOneFifteen

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Jan 29, 2014
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10,510
Hi all.
I recently put together my first PC build, and ever since I first booted up I've been having serious problems with crashing and freezing. This began even before I'd finished installing Windows, and I had a friend who knows what he's doing install all necessary drivers and stuff, so he and I are pretty convinced it's not a software issue. The PC goes any time between 30 seconds and 2-3 hours, before the screen either completely freezes or occasionally the system just reboots itself. Sometimes it seems as if the freezing only happens after the PC's left idle for a minute or so, but then sometimes it seems everything's fine until I load up a game.

PC specs are as follows:

Intel i5 4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core CPU
Corsair Vengeance 2x 4GB DDR3-1600 RAM
Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" SSD
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM HDD
Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 2GB GPU
Corsair CX 430w Modular PSU

Temperatures and stuff seem to be okay; I've tried running both RAM sticks on their own, so unless they're both bad that's not the problem, but I've only been able to run Memtest for 15 minutes or so without a crash so I can't be certain. If it's not RAM, my next guess would be motherboard, but again, I don't have any decent way to test that. Would appreciate advice on how to diagnose something like this, short of spending hundreds on new parts on the off-chance it'll magically fix it..
Thanks in advance.

Edit: I realise 430w is pushing it for a 760, but a number of sites I entered my specs into gave me a minimum wattage of like 360, so..
 

unplanned bacon

Distinguished
Jan 11, 2014
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Your PSU is underpowered. The 760 card you have (the same as the one I used in my build) needs minimum 500W

EDIT: Maybe if you posted a picture of your build's internals someone on here would be better able to help you. I put together my first build yesterday and had emergency shutdown, turned out my CPU cooler wasn't doing anything is wasn't spinning. Check that too, could be overheating

That's in my limited knowledge though

EDIT: Just seen you said temps seem okay, so it's not that
 

Adroid

Distinguished
Sounds like a rogue memory chip at first glance. That PSU is right on edge, but if it still does it without the GPU in that it's something else. If it happened in BIOS before windows install it's something other than the hard drive.

If you don't have parts/wires loose, I'm guessing its a 1) bad memory stick (check by trying one stick by itself then the other), possibly a grounding issue (like you have a screw in the wrong place touching the motherboard circuitry from undernearth), or bad mobo (if the other ideas fail, RMA it).
 

OllieOxenFree

Honorable
Jan 24, 2014
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10,860
Have you tried disabling EIST and Cx states to see if it still does it when the pc always operates at max freq (no coming off of an idle.)

EDIT-You could also try loosening the timings on your RAM or reducing it to 1333mhz. I have had 1600mhz ram that would not run at the advertized specs