When trying to play basically any game (Guild Wars, Unreal Tournament 2004, Republic Commando) eventually my computer will always go blank and freeze. I'm not sure what exactly is the problem, but I get the feeling its my Radeon 9700 Pro video card. As soon as I got my Shuttle cube pc, I transferred the Radeon 9700 Pro from my old computer to the cube pc. Is the small case of the cube pc causing it to overheat and freeze? And why is it only during games that the computer usually freezes? Why not any other time? UGH! so frustrating. This is an SOS. HELP!

As a test to see if it is an overheating problem, try running with the case open and have a house fan (if you have one) blowing directly on it to cool it. With a shuttle case, it could very well be a heating problem.

And the reason this is ONLY happening in games is because games are VERY demanding on your system (and also when the most heat is produced....)

Couple of other things to consider if it is NOT a heating problem.

1. Do you have the latest drivers installed? Not just the video card, but also the chipset drivers for your motherboard?
2. How many watts is your power supply rated at?
3. Try running www.memtest86.com on it to test your ram
4. Try running a hard drive diagnostic to test your hard drive. I believe that the maxtor software "powermax" works on all makes of hard drives. (confirm before trying, or if you are unsure, give us the details of your hard drive first, i.e., make/model) You can download it HERE

Perfect!!

I took off the casing and put a household fan right on top and now its working BEAUUUTIFULLY. i played for hours w/o a single problem. now the question is which type of new cooling system should I buy for my cube pc?

Not really a surprise. Those cube PCs are too small to get a good airflow in there most of the time.

OK. Give us the goods on your case. How many fan mounts does it have, and what size are the mounts? You'll want to get some good fans in there and soon. Not a good idea to run with the case off and a fan blowing on it, as dust builds up fast. Buy yourself a can of pressurized air at your local computer store and blow the dust off your motherboard/cards every few days in the meantime.

Processor cooling system
Shuttle I.C.E. (Integrated Cooling Engine)
advanced Heatpipe technology
smart fan control, 80mm cooling fan
Voila! I'm guessing only one mount? And I think my power supply is 250 Watts - is that sub-par?

Something like THIS will give you an improvement, but I don't know if it will be enough. Those 9700 cards run so hot, you may want to consider getting a VGA cooling fan.

Unfortunately, I do not know enough about them to make a suggestion on which model to get for your card. Let's wait and see if someone else has any suggestions.

Will a case fan even be enough? maybe I should try to fit a video card cooler in as well? I found a promising looking case fan at this site: http://www.coolerguys.com/840556017042.html

but will it be enough?? i have no idea.

Wow, that thing is a beast. Since your case seems to have only one fan mount, you may as well give it a shot, but let me tell you, that fan is gonna be LOUD. :darth:

If it doesn't work, you can then try a video card cooler. I am just worried if you'll have the room to put one on....