Yes! Join the cool kids club! :]

Are you suggesting I ain't cool already?! :(

YES.. YES WE ARE >:V

WHO LET YOU INTO THE COOL KIDS CLUB AND MADE YOU PRESIDENT?!

ALL THOSE FURFAGS DID >:V

Goddamn they chase anything with a vagina don't they! D:

Those damn dirty orifice chasers :(

I'm trying to free your mind, Dalehan. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it. 8)

So many different parts and pieces that so many things can go wrong with.
Good luck with the Mac-quest!

I likely won't be getting a Mac for real :p I put €1250 in this machine and should last me for a good while! Plus the programs I'm using, I'd have to get Bootcamp and Windows installed on a Mac just to keep using them.. :/

That's a problem with SSDs, they wear-out much faster than HDs. AFAIK there are no provisions for this in any operating system; the file system should monitor its state and let you know when it needs to be replaced. (HDs have something called SMART that does this, but apparently SSDs don't.)

At least Speedfan picked up the SMART messages on the 2TB HDD and showed it was in perfect shape.
The thing is, when I first contacted the guy about the random crashes, he suspected it would be because of the PSU not being brand new (modular unit I bought 3 years ago), and all his previous installations of the same type on other PC's never had any issues.
But from my work experience, I know even a brand new unit can be faulty, so that's likely what happened to me.

You have a point there about faulty-from-the-factory. So hopefully it's under warranty?

It was only 2-3 months old, so yeah, it'll be shipped back as RMA. I'm leaving that to the guy who assembled the pc, since he's doing this officially as a second job.

actually it depends on a single thing.. how many times YOU WRITE on it..
the WRITE is the part that wears down the hdd, if you have the cache and all other writing stuff in a secondary hard disk like most experts recommend, the wear should be way lower.

So I take it's good to turn off hibernation and/or virtual memory allocation to the SSD? (Hibernation failed during the one and only time I used it on the SSD, my SSD wouldn't wake up from it.)

you could use the tool MKLINK to change these files to another hard disk, while the OS still thinks these files ARE in the SSD.

http://windows7themes.net/mklink-wi.....ows-7-gui.html

and move the virtual memory file to your hdd as well by going to control panel -> system -> advanced _> performance -> advanced -> virtual memory

Good point; SSDs are best for files which you need to read rapidly and don't need to be changed often, (ie. system software.)

Actually that's not true, I believe it was either Tomshardware or another similar site that had an article up on the lifetime durability of SSD drives which are apparently comparable to that of normal HDDs :)

*offers hug? Or..baseball bat?* :C

A foamy baseball bat so I won't damage the rest of the pc, while still retaining huggability!

xD

What, it's genious and you know it! I can beat the living love out of something with it!

xD

computers... we need them so much today....

gawd, I'm glad most of us are going for the backup side... 2 computers or nothing XD

Well, I had to buy this laptop back in college, it's not so much a backup unit to me as it is a way to read in bed XD

my other isn't a backup unit either, but it sure keeps me in touch in case of an accident (had one like 2 months ago)

the Vertex 3 series has a very well known problem with a firmware where they died.. due of bugs in the controller chip.

not sure if yours were affected too..
also that the system powers down at random is not usual from the SSD, the main thing that makes a system shutdown like that.. is the POWER SUPPLY.. (so perhaps your PSU is giving the last kicks, and got the SSD with it )

Huh, Vertex 3 as well? Damn, and he went ahead and ordered one of those as the replacement for my Vertex 2 D:

Now, about the PSU, that would sort of make sense if the PC would be powering down at random because of it.
But the thing is, the SSD contains my OS. Yesterday I was playing LoL which is installed on my second HDD. While the SSD was in process of crashing again (the sound bugged out and started to loop), I was still perfectly capable of playing the the game until the PC eventually shut itself down/rebooted. I assume a dying PSU would shut everything down, not just the link to a single unit. The PC effectively lost connection with the SSD drive while it was being used, while all my other drives remained accessable.
Initial voltage readings inside the BIOS also shows everything as normal. I don't know how dependable that is, however, but this is still goddamn stupid.

I'll ask the guy to do some diagnostics on that PSU while my PC is still with him, if it's something he can do.

if you're lucky, yours will have the latest firmware and wont have many problems, but yes..
and as a matter of fact, the Vertex 3 were PLAGUED with the bug, they were dying with blue screen of dead, then irrecognizable.. it was a firmware bug plus a diferent design of the controller.
just google about it and you will see.
I'm on a Corsair M4 (sucessor of the C300 series) of 128Gb.

btw, the power supply doesnt exactly powres down at random, but when IT GETS HOT because IT CANNOT GIVE the required power.. its efficiency starts to fall the hotter it gets.. then it simply reaches its maximum threeshold and shuts down.. this usually happens on heavy cpu and gpu usage. (gaming for example..) and also the soundloop issue only has happened to me when playing games and due of videocard bugs.
and I understand the lost link, because that indeed is not usual if the power supply fails..

you could also try other SATA port..
if you were the badluck owner of the B2 and B1 revisions of the INTEL SATA 3 controllers.. they were found to die way too fast.. and was fixed in the B3 series.

We did try using another SATA port, made no difference since the BIOS detected the regular HDD just fine when switched, plus we tested to see if another PC could detect the SSD, which wasn't the case.

In case of heat, I haven't had issues with that as far as I can tell. Speedfan always gave me good temp readings after installing it (this was after the first set of shutdowns) within the PC.
There's also the thing that it could really happen at random. I could be playing for 3 hours straight before it went down, it also could happen 5 or 10 minutes after booting the PC for the first time. On Sathurday I had the most frequent crashes (first one during gaming), 3 more at random, sometimes after 5 minutes after giving the PC time to cool down just in case). After that I still managed to work on 2 drawings in SAI for about two hours before I went to bed, which WOULD'VE required more power from the CPU compared to being idle.
And then the final crash where the disk went completely unusable on Sunday morning. No games were active, only me running a quick backup of my drawings to my external HDD. 20ish minutes into that after starting it up for the first time that day, it finally kicked the bucket and the usual reboots wouldn't pick up the SSD anymore.
The permanently burning red LED said enough to me at that point >_<

I mean temps of the power supply, not the mobo, cpu or anything else in particular.
this usually happens a lot in low tier type power supplies ( Ie, cheap 550 watt or lower from brands such as rosewill and similar)
then thend to put all the wattage on the older and now unused 5 volts and 3 volts rail, leaving the 12 volt rail with a insuficient capacity..
thus when forced to the max, the PSU will overheat, reduce its efficiency and then just either shutdown or burns.


Also did you change the SATA cable? sata cables are kinda delicate and some brands can break from inside easily.

btw, after bootins is hardly idle if you 're using windows 7, as it caches and preloads most of the software you usually run.
but I understand what do you mean, the way you mention.. is exactly what others have reported of the faulty VERTEX ( and other SSD's from the same manufacturer) SDD's.


http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1048191&mpage=1

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?87061-*****-OCZ-Vertex-3-Problems-Help-Needed-ASAP-***** <-- bunch of people having issues with the vertex 3

http://www.overclock.net/ssd/822093.....roblems-2.html <-- Vertex 2 users complaining.

http://www.overclock.net/ssd/988085.....x-3-issue.html <-- vertex 3 issues.. fixed with new firmware AND SECUREERASE the entire drive.

and the most troublesome post...

http://www.overclock.net/ssd/988085.....l#post13643952

mentions 12 out of 16 drives.. of both vertex2 and vertex3.. in short, the culprit of these issues is the SANFORCE controller

The PSU I've bought 3 years ago and I'm currently using is an Aerocool Horsepower 750W, which has 4x 12V rails.
(link with full hardware description of the thing: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/arti.....-Review/1008/6 )
We did try using a different SATA cable, but no issues there either.
Anyway, at this point the unit is being RMA'd anyway, so we'll see how everything goes when my PC is back in shape sometime this week.

definitively a RMA if it completely died like others Vertex mentioned in the links above..
and sounds like a nice PSU, I'm on a classic Pc Power & Cooling 750Watts MK1 (the good one lol )
and its been working like a champ for.. I think.. 5 years so far..

FYI, Mac's use the exact same hardware and components as normal PC's do the only difference is they heavily restrict the hardware to certain makes/models thus allowing them to make an OS that has a much smaller variety of hardware to support.

Basically your paying a premium for the OS and the brandname everything else is exactly the same.

Yeah, I'm aware of that. Though I've also been under the impression that Mac were also more dependable because of those self-imposed restrictions.
And yeah, the pricetag is ridiculous compared to the hardware you're getting with it. Brandname and design, in the end that ain't worth it to me. Not hating the system, I'd swear by it if it wasn't for the price :p

Nah :)
Apple have their horror stories the best you can say about them tho is that they do seem to have a tendency to go the extra mile particularly if you have a local Apple store you can drop into :)

Physically however the hardware is the same, heck I recall their being a place in the US that was basically cloning the Apple laptops and selling em for way less then the typical price :)

Don't worry technology hates everyone. Also getting a mac =/= immunity from tech problems.

And this is why a lot of artists save to external hard/flash drives.

Waaay ahead of you :p
At least it's the OS disk that failed, not the disk which keeps all my data and files.

Man, so many computer problems folks have. The worst I've ever experienced with my own was a cd drive dying on me.

It's just stupid that these things happen at random. I still have a DELL in this house that I've given to my parents, which never had any problems besides the one time my sis was stupid enough to click on a virus link on MSN.

I suppose that's one of the reasons I like my computers ready to go right out the box, then to go the some assembly required route.

The DELL one was semi-assembled online, my current one is made out of loose parts which were ordered and assembled by someone who does this as a sidejob. The PC I owned prior to that was one "right out the box" and was a piece of garbage :p
Weak parts and a complete lack of cooling whatsoever, no wonder the HDD's broke down twice in one year in that one. <_<