Computer freezing

Hi all, I'm new to this forum and would be glad if you guys would provide me with a little help on a problem I've been having with my computer lately.

The problem:
The general issue I'm having is that my computer freezes on me randomly but it generally happens when I'm playing games such as bf3 and fsx. I was hoping if there is a specific piece of hardware that might be contributing to this issue so I could replace it and hopefully fix the problem. I'm thinking it's probably the GPU that might be the issue but I don't think it would cause the whole computer to freeze(as in hearing no sounds from skype etc). Anyway if you guys have any ideas please let me know

My Specs for reference:
Intel i7 [email protected]
GTX470 EVGA Superclocked
Corsair 6GB 1600 MHz RAM
Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black

Thanks again!
Dexter

Run Prime95 in blend mode to stress the CPU and RAM, Furmark to stress the GPU. If Prime95 crashes, then run it in SmallFFT to stress only the CPU and run Memtest86+ to only test the RAM again. If Furmark crashes, then it's probably your GPU.

Skype itself, a program running could be the issue. Does it freeze when not using skype?

Conumdrum said:

Skype itself, a program running could be the issue. Does it freeze when not using skype?

Click to expand...

Hi, now that you mention it, it usually does happen when I join a skype call most of the time. I'll look into the issue and maybe test the games with no skype running and see the results.