PC shutting off without warning randomly

hey guys i'm new here and would really appreciate some help my computer without warning will shut down without as much as a blue screen of death. after it shuts down it will reboot. the shut downs are so random its hard to even give a description.

My computer is about two months old and I built it myself. As of now I feel like it is a power supply issue but i would really like everyones opinion.

here are my specs:

7200/16mb/sata
intel h55hc atx lga1156 motherboard
intel core i3 540
ultra ls500 500w atx power supply
Sapphire Radeon hd 5770 1gb pcie ddr5 dvi/hdmi
24x sata w/lightscribe5
ocz 4gb ddr3 pc3 2x2gb ram

also running dual monitors, and have 4 120mm fans 3 of which are LED lit

500w power supply if you didn't catch that

running windows 7

any help would be great thank you

Edited by DerBear89, 19 October 2010 - 12:47 AM.

As far as I can tell, it seems like it is a power supply issue.

Do you have a temperature program? Try installing one and keep an eye on the temperature, just so we can rule out overheating.

it is not over heating i do have speedfan

idle it runs about 23 degrees

and during extreme gaming i have never seen it hotter than 52 degrees

looking at these specs can anyone say if 500 watts is enough?

450 Watt or greater power supply with 1x 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector

That's minimum power for your video card and a good power supply, with your's being an ultra brand and the extra stuff you have I would have to agree.

It's the power supply

I appreciate the help I just would like to be certain can anyone give me a rough estimate on how much power each hardware uses?

I'd say about 250W under load. Maybe 120W at idle.

Radeon suggests a minimum of a 500W PSU for that graphics card.

I looked around to see what PSUs were being used with this card, and Tiger Direct has a bare bones build with a Ultr 750W offered. It would appear that they believe it warrants a larger PSU than a 500W.

Ok I did get a bare bones kit graphics card not included but the 500w psu was included so the general consensus here is that i need a lager watt psu yes?

I also have a buddy with a similar build who is running a 750w and has not had problems as far as i know ... just another clue

- he has an identical graphics card but is running an amd

Edited by DerBear89, 20 October 2010 - 02:19 AM.

The cpu's might use slightly different wattage, some quads use 140 watts, most dual cores use a lot less.

Ultra Power Supplies exagerate their wattage rating, most cheap ones do this.

They also have a higher probability of premature failure, which can take the mobo and other components with it.

Edited by DaChew, 20 October 2010 - 09:59 AM.

That PSU has an efficiency rating of 77%, the accepted average is 80%.

The intel utility might give some insight to voltages

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/idu/index.htm

what does the efficiency rating mean?

okay i got the intel desktop utilities and it is telling me the voltage im not exactly sure how to read this or what it means but ill give you the numbers:

+12 v 12.094v
+5 v 5.082v
+3.3 v 3.335v
1.5 v 1.521v
processor Vcc .887 - jumps to 1.02 v

temperature is still well and good low 30's

how can this be applied to wattage? I know wattage is energy transfered while voltage is energy stored or so i think

You need to do something that will crank up the cpu and the vidcard and monitor the voltage and temperature.

So far we are just applying educated guess's or acquired intuition.

http://www.download25.com/install/video-card-stability-test.html

The benchmark feature only takes a few minutes so you need to be quick with the readings.