Bad Hardware?

[BryanAU]

The specs of my computer are below. I recently installed SpeedFans and ATITools and discovered the following:

MAX CORE
"Crash because of too high overclock? Last working frequency was: Core 428.63MHz - Memory 492.75MHz

MAX MEMORY
"Crash because of too high overclocking? Last working frequency was: Core 398.25MHz - Memory 523.13MHz.

It froze twice in the past hour. Once i was just sitting here(before programs were downlaoded) and it just froze(no game open). And it just froze when i rebooted right away. I don't get it. Its starting to lock up on me more and more. Do i need to purchase a new gfx card or a new power supply?"

 

[elpibebz]

what gfx card were u using??
what power supply were u using???

from experience, when u start installing fans and other accesories to ur pc, u are gonna need a bigger power supply eventually. a relatively new gfx card needs at least 350W , so imagine that plus all ur other components...

 

[BryanAU]

It's in my signature what im using. It's a 500WATT PS and a ATI radeon sapphire x800xl gfx card

 

[elpibebz]

yeah i noticed after psoting .

i did some research and read some articles on the ati radeon x800xl, and i stumbled upon this

"ATI added additional power circuitry to the board, which in turn bumps the XL board’s power requirements over the 75 watts the x16 PCI-E slot provides. Because of this, the RADEON X800 XL 512MB requires the same six-pin PCI-E power connector as the X850 XT series of cards."

I think (im not an expert) , that with a 500W psu u should be fine. but it'll be better if the techspot experts comment on it.

nonetheless, what the article basically said was that the card needs more power than a usual pci - e slot can provide.

 

[BryanAU]

I just took out a fan i install inside under the GFX card. It was plugged into the power supply and now its gone so maybe that will help. it was freezing long before that though. This computer is actually 2 years old and it's only recently i've been having problems with it which is why i feel one of the two are failing