Should have added if my assumptions are in any way wrong please don't hesitate to put me right

My experience with this sort of thing is limited at best as i've never seen a psu or ram go beofre.Have usually replaced the whole insides of the pc with in 18 months of new until this present comp and am just reliant on what i have experienced to date.

Had 2 PSU's go on me - one most catastrophically with a loud *bang* and a lot of white powder (contents of the capacitor) spread across the PC - took out my wonderful Pioneer Slot-Loading DVD drive. I love slot-loaders, you just can't get 'em nowadays.

Hi all

Well lowerig the settings on my memory did not help.

Have installed cpu-z and monitored voltages and as far as i can tell everything looks ok but i only have a limited idea on what im looking for really.

Cpu is an amd athlon64 x2 5200+ with a voltage of 1.008 on idle.Ram seems stable at 1.80v and the gpu voltage does not show in cpu-z.

Had a couple of crashes today even with the side off the case and a big fan blowing air inside.

Have not tried checking voltages under load but i have had some freezes even when the comp was idle today.Wish in some respects the crashes would be more often to try and help diagnose the dam thing.seems to range from one every few days to 2 in under an hour back to a few days apart again.

Toying with the idea of replacing ram or psu now to try and rule them out as the cause and get a stable system again.However don't want to waste money if i can help it as i don't earn a fortune so any input would be appreciated.

Any idea's or input on what i should be looking for with the info in cpu-z would be welcomed as i have limited knowledge with this sort of thing

Had a crash while installing wow from the disc last night and had to power off and on again to recover it.After the reboot wow installed and fully updated without issue.Then managed to play for around 3 hours again with out issue before posting here.

Would i be right in thinking when bearing in mind what i have said above then the ram would be the more likely cause?

Nvidia monitor shows slight differences in voltages to cpu-z it shows ram is at 1.9v and cpu is at 1.15 and does not change.

Im guessing that nvmonitor picks up how they are set in the bios and cpu-z monitors them in real time,and the cpu voltage would raise under load so these figures are not far enough apart to cause any issues are they?

Well got to the bottom of it eventually.

It was the motherboard. Fitted a new one and all peachy again.

Thanks for the input all.