For the last several months, my rig has had a delay of several seconds when I power up in the morning. (There's usually no delay if the computer has only been off for a few hours.) Yesterday, that delay was LONG; maybe a minute, maybe more. Same thing this morning. I got the case open and didn't see any lights inside, if that tells you anything. Then, suddenly, the lights go on, the fans start to whir, and everything boots up like normal.
I'm not going to panic; I have a good external backup, and I don't have sudden shut-downs (yet anyway). But things do seem to be getting worse, and I want to fix this situation before it gets ugly. Here is my current hardware, most of which I assembled in January 2007. (I upgraded the CPU, GPU, and hard drives later.)
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 rev. 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
EVGA 512-P3-N802-A1 GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4 GHz LGA 775 with G0 stepping
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-116DBK - OEM
Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Antec NeoPower NeoHE 550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply - Retail
Dual +12V: Yes, Efficiency: Up to 85% 115V - Full load 76%; Typical load 82%, Light load 77.9% 230V - Full load 80%; Typical load 85%, Light load 79.45%
Fans: 1, Hold-up Time: 20ms at full load, Main Connector: 20 + 4Pin
Over Voltage Protection: +5V trip point < +6.5V +3.3V trip point < +4.1V +12V trip point < +14.3V
PCI-E Connectors: 2 x 6Pin, PFC: Active, Power Good Signal: 100-500ms, SLI Support: NVIDIA SLI Certified
Two WD Black 650Gb hard drives
--The three main suspects here are:
1. Case
2. Motherboard
3. Power supply
PSU is the most obvious suspect, and also the easiest to replace.
A. Does that sound right? Are there some easy tests to eliminate the other two variables, case and mobo?
B. Assuming that I need a new PSU, what do you recommend? Three things are important to me:
a. Quiet: I know this doesn't matter to everyone, but I use this rig for work as well as gaming. Some people listen to music while they work, which drowns out any noise, but I can't do that; my mind ends up following the music instead of whatever I'm reading or writing. This was actually one of the reasons I built the PC myself, so that I could select the components myself, with quiet as a factor..
b. Reliability
c. Beefy enough to run a new video card, when I get one or just build a new system. (Currently I have Nvidia 8800GT, which is running fine with my 550W supply from Antec.)
Thanks for any advice -- and if that advice is, "It's not your PSU," of course I want to hear that as well.
I'm not going to panic; I have a good external backup, and I don't have sudden shut-downs (yet anyway). But things do seem to be getting worse, and I want to fix this situation before it gets ugly. Here is my current hardware, most of which I assembled in January 2007. (I upgraded the CPU, GPU, and hard drives later.)
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 rev. 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
EVGA 512-P3-N802-A1 GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4 GHz LGA 775 with G0 stepping
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-116DBK - OEM
Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Antec NeoPower NeoHE 550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply - Retail
Dual +12V: Yes, Efficiency: Up to 85% 115V - Full load 76%; Typical load 82%, Light load 77.9% 230V - Full load 80%; Typical load 85%, Light load 79.45%
Fans: 1, Hold-up Time: 20ms at full load, Main Connector: 20 + 4Pin
Over Voltage Protection: +5V trip point < +6.5V +3.3V trip point < +4.1V +12V trip point < +14.3V
PCI-E Connectors: 2 x 6Pin, PFC: Active, Power Good Signal: 100-500ms, SLI Support: NVIDIA SLI Certified
Two WD Black 650Gb hard drives
--The three main suspects here are:
1. Case
2. Motherboard
3. Power supply
PSU is the most obvious suspect, and also the easiest to replace.
A. Does that sound right? Are there some easy tests to eliminate the other two variables, case and mobo?
B. Assuming that I need a new PSU, what do you recommend? Three things are important to me:
a. Quiet: I know this doesn't matter to everyone, but I use this rig for work as well as gaming. Some people listen to music while they work, which drowns out any noise, but I can't do that; my mind ends up following the music instead of whatever I'm reading or writing. This was actually one of the reasons I built the PC myself, so that I could select the components myself, with quiet as a factor..
b. Reliability
c. Beefy enough to run a new video card, when I get one or just build a new system. (Currently I have Nvidia 8800GT, which is running fine with my 550W supply from Antec.)
Thanks for any advice -- and if that advice is, "It's not your PSU," of course I want to hear that as well.