time for the ARIA to go...

[d94]

yesterday, for the first time i gamed on my aria, and within 15 minutes or so the computer restarted :confused:
i figured maybe it overheated, but no
i checked the bios.. the cpu was only @ 30C, so load couldnt be much higher
i also had a silencer on my 6800, so it couldnt be that.
come today, i boot it up again, this time i take the sidepanal off where the video card is just to be safe. well, within the first 5 minutes the damn thing restarts :bang head
i can only conclude that the psu is not powerful enough to handle the job, and to think that i was going to stick an intel 550 in there along w/a pci-e mobo and a x800xl! how fun would that of been...

now it looks like i'll be selling the aria, and keeping the tower...

[xanderjobizzle]

oh man, that suxxxxxxx. im sorry, i love my aria to death, its sooo small and its not loud @ alll!!!! dang d00d, im sorrry!!!!


xander

[Quailane]

You can't change the PSU?

[seamadan000]

no, the PSU is a propriatary design to minimize size and fit among the components. It is 300w and does indeed have trouble with some of the more powerful components, particularly videocards that require extra power connectors.

[{PMS}fishy]

Sounds like someone has not tried hard enough to make it fit.

If you want it to fit, it will fit. Its just a matter of how much work you are willing to put into it.

[d94]

Sounds like someone has not tried hard enough to make it fit.

If you want it to fit, it will fit. Its just a matter of how much work you are willing to put into it.

what can i do unless i want to stick another PSU ontop,
if i did that it defeat the purpose of having a small machine

[{PMS}fishy]

The PSU specs don't look too bad. I have run a 6800U and a P4 off a similair PSU.

You can force an ATX PSU in there if you want, it looks like there is more than enough room. That or consider a 1U or 2U PSU.

What are the voltages that you are reading off the PSU with a volt meter. I would not rule it the PSU just yet. If its just low voltages a simple mod can fix that up pretty easy.

[d94]

The PSU specs don't look too bad. I have run a 6800U and a P4 off a similair PSU.

You can force an ATX PSU in there if you want, it looks like there is more than enough room. That or consider a 1U or 2U PSU.

What are the voltages that you are reading off the PSU with a volt meter. I would not rule it the PSU just yet. If its just low voltages a simple mod can fix that up pretty easy.

actually, in this bios all the rails are solid
i think the droopage happens when i start gaming because thats when the card does the most power drain

[{PMS}fishy]

actually, in this bios all the rails are solid
i think the droopage happens when i start gaming because thats when the card does the most power drain

So measure the rails with a volt meter under load, such as 3dmark.

[d94]

i have no volt meter :-/

[{PMS}fishy]

i have no volt meter :-/

I would really not conclude that it is the power supply then. Untill you have tested it under load, there are other things that could be causing the issues.

Try a less powerfull video card and see if that helps. Or load up just the CPU with say Prime, and see if that causes a crash.

[seamadan000]

it would be very difficult to fit another PSU in there, at least one that is any better than the stock one. I have fit a watercooling system in there, so I do have a bit of experience shoehorning in that case. The problem is that the PSU is almost square in the back, and it is nigh impossible to find another that is not a rectangle in which there is at least one side that is too long. That, and there is less than an inch between the (quite thin) aria psu and the back of the optical drive. In fact, in the stock configuration it is already no fun to attach the IDE and power cables to a optical drive because of the tight fit. Look at it this way, Antec makes a very wide range of PSUs, and they designed this PSU specifically for this case. They would not do so unless they had to from a buisness standpoint, and while that dose not mean that it cannot be done, it is something to consider.

As for the PSU rails, when I run Sim City 4 in a window, the 12v line drops over two tenths of a point and the 3.3v line also fluctuates. This is with a 2.8 and a 9700p. It also crashes occasionally. This, to me, indicates that the PSU could be an issue with hungry components, especially when you consider that there are no temperature problems. There are no problems with an 7500aiw, but there are very occasional problems with a 4600, and there is some indicated voltage fluctuation with the latter.