Total Shutdown/Power off - Over heat!??

[Salazar]

Hi Guys,

I've just built a my first pc last month. It's initial purpose was HTPC, along the way I had to buy a graphics card for it for dual DVI, nothing special just an ATI Radeon 3650.

So I've started playing Half-Life 2... wow! What a game!

Heres my spec -

Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H AMD 780G (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+ 2.80GHz
THERMALTAKE CL-P0257-01 775/K8/AM2 BLUE ORB II CPU Cooler
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK)
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive
500W PSU - Jeantech - JNP-500AP (from previous system).
ThermalTake M9 VI1000BWS midtower case (from previous system).
Scythe Kaze-Master 5.25" Fan Controller - Black
ThermalTake A2018 120mm PerfectLight Blue-Eye LED Fan x3
ACER P243Wd 24" wide format TFT Screen (2 ms)
Samsung 40'' LCD TV

Anyway, to get to the point, whilst playing it tonight for 1 hr or so suddenly the pc just lost power! It did this twice whilst playing, so I'm thinking it is the power supply over heating, it is very warm to the touch. Its the only component I didn't upgrade in the new build, but as its 500w I assumed it could handle HTPC use and a bit of gaming. PSU's only a couple of years old, if that. I have read somewhere about PSUs not actually being the power wattage they state to be or something, so maybe it's not actually 500w!?

Case cooling is good with 2 ThermalTake A2018 120mm fans on HDD cages at the front and 1 at the rear all controlled quietly with the Scythe Kaze-Master.

Any thoughts? Im thinking maybe its best just to buy a new PSU as I cant think what else would cause this total power failure? What wattage would anyone recommend for my system? I'm looking to upgrade to a Radeon 4870 at Xmas.

Any advice much appreciated!

[ZIrdem]

Its likely its the PSU, the capacitor has probably weakened through usage (they lose about 20% output after a year of usage). Also is your PSU 500w peak or constant because thats a big factor. Peak is what it can deliver for only a few seconds, constant is what it can always deliver.
I'd recommend getting a new 500w or so PSU, you can pick up one for around £35-40 that will do the job + have some extra to compensate for the capacitor weakening. A 500w 80% (can constantly deliver 80% of 500 watts) should cover your system fine

[kag]

You can always remove your DVD ROM, Floppy.
Check your motherboard BIOS, usually it should have a System Summary or a option which displays all the voltages.
If the voltages goes lower than more than 0.2V the PSU might not be powerful enough.
Also check if all fans are running and not caught on any wires.