Computer crashes under load new PC case, same components

[untakenname]

Hi, have been trying to get to the bottom of this over a week now.

Have taken the internals out of my old PC case and put them into Mac Pro case.
Every time I use it for heavy work (video editing suite or play a game) the PC will reboot within a minute, I've tried a different PSU, checked all the grounds on the motherboard and even put everything back into the old case where it works again.

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas to the cause?

Cheers.

[Piersman2]

Airflow / cooling over the graphics chips / CPU ?

[Jinx]

Piersman2 said:

Airflow / cooling over the graphics chips / CPU ?

I would definitely suspect temps being an issue - three main areas to check would be GPU, CPU and VRMs - I would try the system without the side covers on is possible (assuming it's a G5 and not the dustbin) - see if that helps.

[budgie smuggler]

For it to shut down that quickly, my first thought is that a heatsink has become dislodged/unclipped. Run up a temperature monitor and kick off Prime95 with a lot of threads. See if the CPU temp goes nuts. If not, try the graphics card, etc.

I don't know why it would work again in the old case, unless the mobo orientation is different and therefore gravity holds the heatsink against the chip (but not in the mac pro case).

Edited by budgie smuggler on Thursday 9th April 10:02

Edited by budgie smuggler on Thursday 9th April 10:03

[untakenname]

Thanks, for the advice, just did a couple of quick benchmarks whilst using the AMD Metrics overlay and both the CPU and GPU temp are below 60 degrees by the time the PC restarts.

Whilst running the overlay noticed that both times it restarted once the power consumption of the GPU reached over 140w which points a power issue, it's the same PSU I've transferred from the old case to the new and it's got a lot of headroom (700W OCZ) so unsure why it works in one and not the other, using 2x 6 pin pcie cables going to the GPU which should be good for 300w.

[thecremeegg]

Tbh it does sound a bit like a power/ground issue. Any components touching the chassis that shouldn't?

[Pachydermus]

thecremeegg said:

Tbh it does sound a bit like a power/ground issue. Any components touching the chassis that shouldn't?

agreed. does the new case have the right number of stand-offs for the motherboard?