I actually just completely cleaned/re pasted my laptop and I am a pretty big noob as well. I found a video on youtube that went through everything I needed to know and gave step by step instructions. It was pretty easy to do, though it takes awhile to get everything apart, and to keep the screws organized. The actual pasting is super easy as all you need is isoprobyl alcohol to remove the existing paste, and the new paste itself.

I'm not sure if repasting was necessary but I was taking it apart anyway so I figured why not. It was definitely worth it as the hard part was the disassembling, not the actual pasting.

Overall I reduced my temps by a good 10 degrees total, so I'm quite please with the results.

 

Treating this as a general PC questions thread, if that's okay.

I noticed that while the PSU stays at more or less room temperature, the data drives heat up. Given that the PSU works fine, could the drives overheating be a reason for random shutdowns?

 

Anything for Macs?

 

Get a program like HWinfo and take a look at the temperatures of your components. Also, are the shutdowns happening while the PC is under load (games, rendering etc.) or when idle?

 

Sacro, idle is fine. Internet, streaming shows, working on docs. It's happens when I fire up games.

 

That leaves 3 things as the most likely culprit: either it's a temperature problem, the PSU is not able to offer enough power or it could be defect RAM. You should check temperatures first (start HWinfo and then open up a game in window mode or something similar). If everything's fine there, check RAM next with Memtest86+ (choose the auto installer for USB key if possible) and if everything's fine there too, see if you can borrow a PSU from somewhere to test if it works with a different one (get one with enough wattage though, depending on your hardware - though generally 500W should be enough for all systems without multiple GPUs).

 

Sacro, thanks for the advice. I'll give that a shot.

 

I find that hard to believe (not saying you're wrong, just more of a figure of speech). I had a 850W that couldn't spin my 120mm fan after attaching a second DVD/R (even tried it on a different connection). Although I had two GPUs, only one was powerful enough to need a direct line. The other was just for pushing my third and fourth monitor. I was, however, running 2 10000 RPM Velocitiraptors and two SSDs, both in RAID 0's, along with the I7940 (OC'd) plus a few other goodies.

My it was my configuration, but the PSU fried a year or so later, taking my board out with it.

 

If you get a PSU of good enough quality, 500W is enough. Take a look here. They've got power consumption in a normal scenario (crysis 3) as well as in a "torture test" (furmark) which provides an unrealisticially high load to components.

In the end, if a 850W PSU crapped out on you, it either wasn't of high enough quality or it was defect.

 

It depends entirely on how many GPUs you have, how high end they are and the quality of the power supply. That said, a typical gaming computer with one GPU is going to be using ~300W, so Sacro is right in saying a good quality 500W power supply is enough as you don't want to always be near 100% load. The linked graphs to AnandTech are a good indicator, but they are from the wall so aren't as accurate as tests that are done from between the power supply and the power drawing components. They're good for seeing how much power you'll be billed for with a similar setup. A few websites like TechPowerUp measure specifically the graphics card only by getting between the power supply and the graphics card (Example here, from their latest graphics card review).

 

I guess it might help to say it was a first generation I7 940 chip that I'd OC'd to 3.7 (21 percent increase), along with a few other things. For the heck of it, I just went through and did the math, and as it turned out, at that OC, with the GPU I had and the HDs, I needed about 820-830 on full load. So yeah, I was pretty much maxing out the PSU.

But now-a-days, you're both right, unless you're running a 2011 socket and/or bridged GPUs, there's no need for it. (I'm running a 280 GTX and a 9400 GT for a four monitor setup, using the GTX for a little gaming when I first built the system in the late 00s.