9 ms·

I had weird issues a few times, and it was always the power supply. Before I would never think of it as the responsible for issue, but now I always do. Each tim

by kuon 7y ago

I had weird issues a few times, and it was always the power supply. Before I would never think of it as the responsible for issue, but now I always do. Each time a friend has a weird unexplainable problem with a gaming PC, I suggest to try another power supply and it always fixed the issue.

seabrookmx 7y ago
For me it's the same, but with one additional step. Test the RAM in a known stable machine. If it passes an overnight memtest, then replace the flaky machine's PSU.
- jrockway 7y ago
  RAM has always been my "go to" "I bet this is it" problem, but I've debugged my own machines and other people's machines and I haven't seen bad RAM in ages. I avoid XMP, however, and typically manually specify the voltage that is listed in the RAM's spec sheet and run at the speed that the CPU manufacturer recommends. (So the RAM might be sold as 3200 but Intel says 2400 is the max, so I run it at 2400.)
  - paol 7y ago
    I get your desire to be conservative here, but this is not good practice with modern CPUs. For example AMD desktop CPUs are designed with DDR4 speeds well north of 3000MHz in mind[1]. Problem is that JDEC profiles simply don't go that hight for some reason, so you you have to run with XMP profiles if you want the chip to perform as the manufacturer intended. [1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/14525/amd-zen-2-microarchitecture-analysis-ryzen-3000-and-epyc-rome/11 https://www.anandtech.com/show/14525/amd-zen-2-microarchitec...
    - jrockway 7y ago
      I look at Intel ARK and use what they say the CPU is rated for. I am a couple generations behind, so not at the bleeding edge. (Haven't used an AMD CPU, but I would find their equivalent if I did.)
      - Filligree 7y ago
        Keep this in mind for when you do: The first boot will be in a "failsafe" 2133MT configuration, but the fabric clock is intended to ramp all the way up to 1800MHz. You need 3600MT to match that while keeping 1:1 sync, which means XMP unfortunately.

by kuon 7y ago

seabrookmx 7y ago

For me it's the same, but with one additional step. Test the RAM in a known stable machine. If it passes an overnight memtest, then replace the flaky machine's PSU.

jrockway 7y ago
RAM has always been my "go to" "I bet this is it" problem, but I've debugged my own machines and other people's machines and I haven't seen bad RAM in ages. I avoid XMP, however, and typically manually specify the voltage that is listed in the RAM's spec sheet and run at the speed that the CPU manufacturer recommends. (So the RAM might be sold as 3200 but Intel says 2400 is the max, so I run it at 2400.)
- paol 7y ago
  I get your desire to be conservative here, but this is not good practice with modern CPUs. For example AMD desktop CPUs are designed with DDR4 speeds well north of 3000MHz in mind[1]. Problem is that JDEC profiles simply don't go that hight for some reason, so you you have to run with XMP profiles if you want the chip to perform as the manufacturer intended. [1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/14525/amd-zen-2-microarchitecture-analysis-ryzen-3000-and-epyc-rome/11 https://www.anandtech.com/show/14525/amd-zen-2-microarchitec...
  - jrockway 7y ago
    I look at Intel ARK and use what they say the CPU is rated for. I am a couple generations behind, so not at the bleeding edge. (Haven't used an AMD CPU, but I would find their equivalent if I did.)
    - Filligree 7y ago
      Keep this in mind for when you do: The first boot will be in a "failsafe" 2133MT configuration, but the fabric clock is intended to ramp all the way up to 1800MHz. You need 3600MT to match that while keeping 1:1 sync, which means XMP unfortunately.