PC turning off when loading/playing demanding games

[daorbed9]

Are you crazy? With that much sucking power I'd have 850W MINIMUM. My rig has a 1200W, only because it was free and I plan on running 4-Way SLI 980s. It's better to have more than you need, than have more than you have.

PSUs are super cheap annyways, $100 can get you an off brand 1000W, $200 can get you a 1200W name brand.

Not really.  PSU are designed to run 60-80% load.  Running less than 50% will cause it to decrease in efficiency and decrease the expected life since its technically working harder than at 60+%.

[T3X4S]

Are you crazy? With that much sucking power I'd have 850W MINIMUM. My rig has a 1200W, only because it was free and I plan on running 4-Way SLI 980s. It's better to have more than you need, than have more than you have.

PSUs are super cheap annyways, $100 can get you an off brand 1000W, $200 can get you a 1200W name brand.

PSUs are not super cheap.  Yes you can get a garbage PSU for cheap -
Yes, you can get some crappy off brand 1200W for around $220 - but why on earth would you make that suggestion to someone ?
Using a crap PSU in an otherwise decent build is the telltale sign of a noob. 
Nobody who knows anything about parts, troubleshooting pcs, system building, stability would ever think about using anything other than a respectable name brand PSU.  By name brand I mean a respected name brand.  Not just a company one might recognize like Thermaltake or Coolmax - those are garbage.
With so many respectable manufacturers out there in PSUs, there is no reason not to get something from either Seasonic, Corsair, antec, Enermax, Silverstone, etc those are just some of the respected brand names off the top of my head.
The price range you mention - I dont think you were referring to any of those.  Thats just bad advice.
 

[T3X4S]

 

Not really.  PSU are designed to run 60-80% load.  Running less than 50% will cause it to decrease in efficiency and decrease the expected life since its technically working harder than at 60+%.

Thats silly - decrease it by how much ?  How long ?  Where is the evidence on that ?

You're saying that when components dont have to work as hard - they are damaged faster than when pushed ?

Can you provide some definitive evidence on this higher MTBF ?

[Open Minded]

Here's a quick update-

Some things came up so I'm not able to get the new PSU just yet.  But, I have been playing around with this and found that no matter how much load is on the PSU, the fan does not spin.  This is the OG X650 Gold with no switch on the back to control the fan.  I couldn't see this before as the power supply is bottom-mounted in the Antec 1200.  The fan does spin for a second at boot, but no more after and this is causing the unit to get hot.  I turned it on it's side to vent until I can get the X850 Gold.  With what I learned, I went into DayZ, turned down the settings to low with a resolution 1920x1080.  It looks like crap compared to when I had it at 4k, but I can play as long as I keep the GPU usage down.  With the settings like that, I'm only using 30-50% of my GPU according to MSI Afterburner.  I can play for hours with no problems, other than the graphics looking like bird ######. If it is the GPU that's bad, I can return it to EVGA as it's still under warranty.

 

Edit:  I'll update again if anything changes and/or I get the new PSU.  Thank you everyone for all your help with this and sorry it's taken me a while to update this situation.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Open Minded

[Sorto]

You do need a new PSU (if the fan isn't spinning, it's definitly the case), but you do not need more wattage at all. You may also want to look into corsair offerings as they use some rebranded seasonics and are cheaper. Your setup doesn't even use 500 Watt, no where close even so no point in getting a 850W PSU, unless you are certian you will have SLI in which case that's a safer bet though you need enthusiast cards in a dual SLI configuration for a 850W PSU to make sense.

[Open Minded]

I am thinking about SLI with another GTX 760 and I might as well just spend a little more money now, than possibly having to buy a higher wattage unit in the future if I need more power.  I'm Sticking with Seasonic USA branded PSUs.  This one has lasted around 7 years running 24/7.  That's not too shabby.

[SnailSlug]

If you are still keen on testing out the power draw, I suggest you ignore all these weird people who go to websites and buy a Kill A Watt electricity meter. It's also useful in other situations.

By the way, the entire reason PSUs are in the kilowatt ranges now is because people kept getting PSUs that were rated higher than actual performance, and ATI and NVidia had to up the recommended PSU wattage to make sure their video cards actually performed.

It's true that a cheap no-name PSU is usually crap. It's not true that a name brand PSU isn't. There was a slight conspiracy a while ago caused by an engineer who stole part of a formula for capacitor electrolyte. The incomplete formula was used in a wide range of motherboards and PSUs from a wide variety of manufacturers, causing exploding capacitors, and also causing the "solid state capacitor" marketing you see nowadays (since they don't have liquid electrolyte).

[Open Minded]

Update:  Got my new Seasonic X850 Gold today via Newegg.  So far, everything works in 4k with no issues at all.  Seems that fixed the problem.

[BinaryData]

Update:  Got my new Seasonic X850 Gold today via Newegg.  So far, everything works in 4k with no issues at all.  Seems that fixed the problem.

Congrats. If you were in the states, I would've mailed you my 650w PSU. I have 2 1200PSUs that I'm using. Haha. It even supports SLI!

PSUs are not super cheap.  Yes you can get a garbage PSU for cheap -
Yes, you can get some crappy off brand 1200W for around $220 - but why on earth would you make that suggestion to someone ?
Using a crap PSU in an otherwise decent build is the telltale sign of a noob. 
Nobody who knows anything about parts, troubleshooting pcs, system building, stability would ever think about using anything other than a respectable name brand PSU.  By name brand I mean a respected name brand.  Not just a company one might recognize like Thermaltake or Coolmax - those are garbage.
With so many respectable manufacturers out there in PSUs, there is no reason not to get something from either Seasonic, Corsair, antec, Enermax, Silverstone, etc those are just some of the respected brand names off the top of my head.
The price range you mention - I dont think you were referring to any of those.  Thats just bad advice.
 

Crappy brand for $220? My name brand OCZ 650W PSU was $75 when I bought it brand new 6 years ago. My current 1200w I won from an event, is priced at $200. But I guess Cooler Master, OCZ, etc.

Proven wrong.. Name brand - 1000W+ - Less than $200.

[T3X4S]

Congrats. If you were in the states, I would've mailed you my 650w PSU. I have 2 1200PSUs that I'm using. Haha. It even supports SLI!

Crappy brand for $220? My name brand OCZ 650W PSU was $75 when I bought it brand new 6 years ago. My current 1200w I won from an event, is priced at $200. But I guess Cooler Master, OCZ, etc.

Proven wrong.. Name brand - 1000W+ - Less than $200.

OCZ does not make one of the better PSUs - the fact you have one for 6 years means next to nothing. - Cooler Master, OCZ - both are not some of the better brands.

Congrats ! You found 1 less than $200 - whoopy

If you look up at your post - Here is what you typed, "PSUs are super cheap annyways, $100 can get you an off brand 1000W, $200 can get you a 1200W name brand." - bad advice

Anyway you look at it, that is bad advice to suggest someone get a crap, cheap PSU - so NO I was not "proven wrong"  

But considering you bought a $300 4K monitor -if that kind of bottom of the barrel stuff works for you - OK.

 

[xendrome]

Update:  Got my new Seasonic X850 Gold today via Newegg.  So far, everything works in 4k with no issues at all.  Seems that fixed the problem.

Feel free to mark my 2nd response to the post as the solution - https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1275356-pc-turning-off-when-loadingplaying-demanding-games/?do=findComment&comment=597088078

[Open Minded]

 

Feel free to mark my 2nd response to the post as the solution - https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1275356-pc-turning-off-when-loadingplaying-demanding-games/?do=findComment&comment=597088078

 

I will, but I feel I need to add that this didn't always happen with my old X650 Gold.  It did once, then I took everything apart and cleaned it, no more problems for over a year.  So you're right in the fact that I wasn't getting enough power, but I was in the before time.  650 watts should be enough for my rig (assuming a quality PSU), but not if my PSU is dying and not giving the full 650 watts.

The old version of the X series doesn't have the switch for the fan control, it's only auto and I think that's what failed on my old unit.  The fan would only spin for a second when you powered on the computer, then it would stop and not start again regardless of load.   The new X series has the switch for either auto or always-on.  I'm just glad everything is working proper and there's no more sudden shutdowns.

 

Edit:  For some reason I can't mark it as solved.  I've looked for the option in my OG post and on your post.  Maybe because it's 6:30am here and I'm still waking up.

[DevTech]

 

I will, but I feel I need to add that this didn't always happen with my old X650 Gold.  It did once, then I took everything apart and cleaned it, no more problems for over a year.  So you're right in the fact that I wasn't getting enough power, but I was in the before time.  650 watts should be enough for my rig (assuming a quality PSU), but not if my PSU is dying and not giving the full 650 watts.

The old version of the X series doesn't have the switch for the fan control, it's only auto and I think that's what failed on my old unit.  The fan would only spin for a second when you powered on the computer, then it would stop and not start again regardless of load.   The new X series has the switch for either auto or always-on.  I'm just glad everything is working proper and there's no more sudden shutdowns.

 

Edit:  For some reason I can't mark it as solved.  I've looked for the option in my OG post and on your post.  Maybe because it's 6:30am here and I'm still waking up.

Given your description it is highly unlikely that "undersized power supply" is the actual "solution" to your issue.

Most likely you had a "glitching power supply" due to internal component fatigue in the P/S and a new identical model P/S would be just fine. You had a great P/S.

Many posters mentioned a failing power suppy, myself amoung them:

And given the intermittant nature of the problem, there is a chance it is too early to mark as solved anyway...