Please give advice on replacement motherboard

Serpentz · 24 Jan 2011

So hey, I just got a Thermaltake Toughpower XT 675 Watt and am running my computer and it's stable and not shutting down. I bought an ASRock M3A770DE that supports AM2, AM2+, and AM3 but it uses different memory than the K9 Platinum (DDR3) so I'm gonna keep it and build another machine.

I still want to know how a computer is using MORE power in normal mode, enough to shut it down with a bad PSU.

Sorry if I am beating a dead horse with a 2X4.....But this really intrigues me especially when I'm damn handy with a volt meter and a soldering iron :)

Want to shout out a HUGE thanks to everyone that helped me out on this. It's nice that the PSU was the culprit....I like that Thermaltake PSU and wont ever buy junk again...even if backed against the wall (Mother Russia)

Cheers!

society misfit · 24 Jan 2011

Good to hear that you got everything up and running. Now that you have a new motherboard you can perform an easy test with your old PSU to see if that was the root of your unexpected shutdowns. Just hook up the old PSU and see if you are still experiencing the same problem as before.

To answer your question, with no drivers being loaded in safe mode your computer will use less power. Just take your video card for example. In safe mode it runs at a very low SVGA 800x600 with the bare minimum of 256 colours. Once you boot into Windows, it’s bumped up to HD 1920x1080 (assuming that you have a HD monitor) with 16 million colours. Even though the GPU isn’t taxed like in a game, it is working a lot harder to process that resolution and colour depth, therefore using more power. Hope that helps.

Serpentz · 25 Jan 2011

Yeah that Thermaltake PSU is freaking nice. 80 Bronze, nice modular, plenty of extra cables, nice wire ties and a bag to keep extra stuff in. Won't be buying junk ever again.