Help point me in the right direction - Computer Crashing

[KingMRano]

I bought a system last April and built it myself (not the first system I've done but still was probably something I did wrong, I'm a programmer not a hardware specialist after all) and when running anything resource intensive it will freeze the system and most the time force a reboot. I have a warranty on all the parts still and will replace the GPU in a few weeks once the RMA is approved, but Id like some advice on what you think might be the issue.

System Specs are:
Motherboard - ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD with UEFI BIOS
Power Supply - Cooler Master Silent Pro M - 850W
Video Card - EVGA 02G-P4-3660-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5
Desktop Processor - AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz (4.3GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Quad-Core
SDRAM - CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Hard Drive (Temp) - Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache
Computer Case - Cooler Master HAF 922 - High Air Flow Mid Tower

If need be I have all the dump files saved but mainly it tells me it encounters the dreaded Blue Screen. The way I test it is by running Skyrim on Ultra start a new game and after about 2 miniutes it will crash (sometimes a full system reboot and sometimes crash to desktop and it says Nvidia Driver error), any other game does not push my system therefore does not crash, yet when running FTB I only get 20 FPS.

I have replaced the motherboard already, and I am very certain it is a GPU issue but I'd appreciate any extra advice or things to try to narrow it down.

 

[Yusunoha]

I bought a system last April and built it myself (not the first system I've done but still was probably something I did wrong, I'm a programmer not a hardware specialist after all) and when running anything resource intensive it will freeze the system and most the time force a reboot. I have a warranty on all the parts still and will replace the GPU in a few weeks once the RMA is approved, but Id like some advice on what you think might be the issue.

System Specs are:
Motherboard - ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD with UEFI BIOS
Power Supply - Cooler Master Silent Pro M - 850W
Video Card - EVGA 02G-P4-3660-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5
Desktop Processor - AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz (4.3GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Quad-Core
SDRAM - CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Hard Drive (Temp) -Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache
Computer Case - Cooler Master HAF 922 - High Air Flow Mid Tower

If need be I have all the dump files saved but mainly it tells me it encounters the dreaded Blue Screen. The way I test it is by running Skyrim on Ultra start a new game and after about 2 miniutes it will crash (sometimes a full system reboot and sometimes crash to desktop and it says Nvidia Driver error), any other game does not push my system therefore does not crash, yet when running FTB I only get 20 FPS.

I have replaced the motherboard already, and I am very certain it is a GPU issue but I'd appreciate any extra advice or things to try to narrow it down.

wish I could help, but I was in the same sort of boat as you and ended up buying a new computer.
my computer started to blue screen when playing games, at one point I couldn't even boot it up properly anymore. went to a computerstore with it, ended up buying a new graphics card and a new hard drive, sadly that didn't solved it. afterwards the nvidia driver kept crashing and from time to time the system would reboot while playing games. doing some stress testing and temperature measuring it seemed the processor was getting very hot, between the 90-100 degrees during stress tests, but at the computerstore they could never get that to happen. for weeks I kept going to the computerstore and back home with the computer to a point that I was just sick of it and bought a new computer

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

If it gets to Blue Screen, then it probably isn't your board, CPU, or Video Card. If it was a problem with any of them, you wouldn't have even gotten a BSoD.

Personally, I've had a lot of BAD luck with Cooler Master as tower and power supply. There's no way they are causing the BSoD, just kind of seeing that and cringing.

My suspect is the HDD, personally. WD has a very unlovely reputation, and Bad Sectors can easily cause a BSoD. I'd try a different HDD and see if that fixes things.

Also, watch out for a 'really good deal' on 1TB Seagate HDD's. The first-gen terabyte Seagate drives had some real problems with them. The second-gen 1TB drives are great, I have one myself, but that first batch were lousy, and you'll occasionally see them on sale for like $20-$50. So as a general rule, if the deal is too good to be true, it probably is.

 

[KingMRano]

Thanks for the info, I'll try testing with a different HD when I get time.