PC stability issues

[Bones4]

My PC locks up and shuts down at random and recurring times.

Games where I crash:

Portal 2: Random times
Shattered horizon: Menu and after 10-30 minutes of gameplay
Crysis: Never
Bad Company 2: It used to be every game. Now it's rare.
Battlefield 3 (beta): Deploy screen. Randomly (Anywhere from 5 minutes in to 3 hours)
Fallout 3: Instantly after loading a game or a few hours after I'm in.
Metro 2033: Never. Yet.
Grand Theft Auto IV: Randomly. Sometimes Menu.
Arkham Asylum: Once after 5 minutes of playing. Never since.

When these games crash, it seems like it always runs a 50/50 chance of shutting down or just freezing. Also, I can usually hear something clicking in the computer before it happens, but as dumb as this sounds, I can never find out exactly what or where it is.

Specs:
i5 2500K @ 3.3GHz (stock) with Cooler Master Hyper 212+ heatsink (One fan).
MSI GTX 560 TI Twin Frozr II 2GB OC (At stock "overclocked" speeds.
MSI H61m-P23 Motherboard
4GB (One stick) Corsair XMS3 1333MHz RAM
Seagate 5900 RPM 1TB HDD.
Eagle Voltas 550W PSU

I'm running the latest Nvidia 285.38 (BF3) drivers.

Also, my GPU temp never goes above 60 and my CPU temp never goes about 52. Ever.

[Ad Bot]

[Inv3rted]

Clicking sound = hard drive. Run chkdsk.exe.

You need a new one anyway. 5900 RPM is slow. Get a Samsung HD103SJ.

[Ethan]

Also the fact that it crashes at the menu a lot indicates that it could be crashing while loading things.

[oleg662]

What is your OS?

[Bones4]

The Hard Drive is checking out fine. I'm on Windows 7 Professional.

Holy stuff. The clicking was actually the DVD drive. This happens before it shuts down. PSU problem?

I didn't expect that.

[Ethan]

Are your GPU drivers all up to date?
Don't think it would be that though.

[Bones4]

You didn't read the entire original post. :|

Yes.

And what else could explain my DVD drive restarting right before I crash or reboot?

[Ethan]

You didn't read the entire original post. :|

Yes.

And what else could explain my DVD drive restarted right before I crash or reboot?

Sorry.

[Bones4]

Sorry.

It's cool. Thanks anyway.

[Nickelob Ultra]

I would run a memtest.

[Bones4]

I'm running CHKDSK at the moment. It's taking forever. At least.

[HerpaDerp]

I'm running CHKDSK at the moment. It's taking forever. At least.

Its worth it, CHKDSK saved me from a BSOD. My hard drive got a bit screwed up but it fixed it up.

[Bones4]

So. PSU recommendations? I'm on a tight budget.

[HerpaDerp]

So. PSU recommendations? I'm on a tight budget.

exactly how much budget for the psu?

[Bones4]

I'd like to pay $50. :/