CPU making a strange sound (not the fan)

[Ripedox]

I went on an adventure to make my computer silent. Do note the build is fairly new, ~6 months old. I got an FX-6300 with a stock cooler. I checked everything else - the HDD, the SSD, the GPU, the PSU, the DVD and also swapped USB ports just to be sure.
I am sure it's not coming from the fan as when I stopped the fan the sound was uninterrupted. It sounds like a fax. Or like those old cashiers making bills (the process of printing them). It's fairly annoying.

 

[Marklamarkle]

Sounds like a failing HDD.

 

[i7Baby]

You need to keep trying to pinpoint the sound source. CPUs themselves do not make any noise.

Stock coolers are noisy - the fans are. The cooler itself does not make noise either.

Could be VRM "coil" whine or vrm fan noise.

 

[nukemaster]

I have never heard of that sound. If you heard higher pitched oscillating sounds, I would guess coil whine.

Coils in the voltage regulation system vibrate because of the rapid switching used for regulation. Some hardware combinations cause it more than others.

 

[Ripedox]

Hm coil whine sounds maybe right. I would say they are high pitched. Are there any units that could have coil whine around the CPU?

Okay, I recorded it and I will upload it soon. Sorry I didn't answer about the VRM, I amn't very experienced but I guess your comments are kind of about the same thing (those things that supply +5 +12 to CPU and are also located near it)

Edit2: So here it is https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B94bqs_1-coDMHNzeW1RM1ppUHc/view?usp=sharing
you can hear it clearly. While I am recording I am going from left to right on my CPU and it's fan.

Edit3: Uploaded in vacaroo too, you can directly listen to it http://vocaroo.com/i/s1dT1auEkZ4r . Turn up the sound.

 

[nukemaster]

If it is the higher pitched portion, I have heard similar from my X58 system.

Turning some of the power savings off removed it without preventing idle power states.

The VRM's(a controller, switching transistors, coils and caps) around the cpu socket(normally on 2 sides(top/back)) change 12volts to the 1.x required by the cpu. Modern cpus vary voltage many times a second to save power(along with changing clock frequencies just as often).

I turned off C1E and left other settings on. AMD systems may be a bit different.

Video cards(my X1900XT/HD 4870/GTX 8800 all had it rather bad) and power supplies(solder older FSP units) also make this noise under certain conditions. My gigabyte board make a very quiet bit of coil noise too.

 

[Ripedox]

Hm. Well that sheds some light on the problem, thank you, I will continue to experiment with power saving options then. No luck for now tho. I currently have the Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+, and it's been giving me some troubles like not having a front USB 3.0 plug, once I had to re-seat the RAM as for some reason it went to "Hardware reserved", a few weeks ago it would refuse to spin the CPU's fan which I solved by making the lowest CPU fan speed from 600 too 100 rpm (somehow it got unrecognized by the bios if it didn't spin on time or something).

I wonder if I can replace it because of the coil whine, as it's still in warranty.

 

[Ripedox]

If it is the higher pitched portion, I....
...supplies(solder older FSP units) also make this noise under certain conditions. My gigabyte board make a very quiet bit of coil noise too.

hey, thanks a lot! I fixed it by going to the BIOS and selecting mode "ASUS OPTIMAL" instead of "Normal" (like it was) or "Power Saving". I have no idea what that changed but I guess it removed most power saving options or something.
The only whine I can hear right now is coming from the fan and I think I can fix it by oiling it up.

 

[nukemaster]

I have heard some users have had video cards replaced for it. The problem is it is a luck of the draw type of thing. You may get a better one or worse one. Your coil whine is more aggressive than some.

You can see this post
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/292915-30-high-pitched-noise-coming-area#4294909

Take care when trying this, but without power savings the cpu takes more power and can run a bit hotter(not ideal for one wanting a more quiet system). I tested and confirmed this with my X58 system.

 

[Ripedox]

Actually it's running cooler than before. It was like 42-43 Celsius when I started this topic, it's currently at 38. From what I saw, Asus Optimal should actually improve power saving and everything. I didn't use it since it had a flames on it and I thought it would squeeze the life out of my computer but I guess I was wrong. Literally NO such sound right now. When I put my ear near the CPU, the loudest thing is the PSU fan which is an EVGA gold and I have no idea why it's so loud, I guess it's because it's a powerful PSU. I will definitely rebuild the whole system when I can, and I am thinking of getting an Intel CPU this time, as from what I've heard they keep cooler than AMDs.

Edit: Still cooler, even going down to 36 degrees.

 

[nukemaster]

It is kind of a yes and no thing.

AMD cpus when cooled properly do not get any hotter than Intel cpus. In fact I have seen some rather high temperatures on some Intel setups(stock cooler and all).

In the higher end AMD cpus tend to take more power(produce more heat) and thus need somewhat better cooling. Do not think Intel systems are immune to coil whine. X58 is an intel platform after all.

Intels stock cooler is also smaller on some cpus, but has the advantage of generally being more quiet(less heat to remove in most cases). The 955E stock cooler is quite loud at over 5000rpm fan speeds under load. The FX 6300 has a different cooler(I think it may be less loud, but did not use it to be 100% sure).

Some cases also have dampening to quiet down a system at a cost of some cooling performance.

EDIT.

I see your temps are lowering, It almost sounds like your system had NO power management on before. Under load some noise may still happen.

 

[Ripedox]

Did try it under load too, I don't thing there is the same noise but I really can't tell from the CPU fan. It gets incredibly loud when I play lets say Shadow of Mordor, I get perfect FPS tho so I don't complain much. Yeah it's true about the power-hungry AMDs, but I also found out that most of the better motherboards support only intel. I am going for Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 for my next build and it has no AMD version. My current mobo won't let me turn OFF my CPU fan, it wont go under 20% no matter the load, and I am hoping I'd get something better with a new mobo. If you think I am wrong about better mobos being only for intel, I'd be glad to see an example of an AMD one with the same or better pricing for all the bonuses the Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 provides.
I am very attracted by that 5.1 integrated sound card on an mini-itx board, and since I decided to go small, powerful and silent it seems perfect for my needs.

 

[Ripedox]

Okay, noise is back today again and I also tried disabling A1E, which did change the sound to a more steady one rather than a skipping one, but it was still there. Thing is that this problem persists only after Windows loads and never in BIOS.

 

[nukemaster]

Did you see that link to a registry edit in an earlier post. It may be worth a try(it forces all idle clock downs off). At least for testing it may be something to try.

On many systems, no power management is active in the bios(so it all runs at a fixed voltage/clock speed).

EDIT.
Powerful and silent do not always go together(small space means less heatsink room) I do have a fairly quiet mITX system, but its i5 750 + gtx 650ti is not exactly powerful(the cpu was pretty good when the system was built 5 years back , but its 5770 was loud when under load).

 

[Ripedox]

That's... extremely strange. The whine disappears instantly after disabling this feature and appears again after turning it on again. Thing is that CPU remains at 100% after I disable it and I am not very keen on that, as it would waste more power and would likely cause more wear on the CPU as time goes on. So I guess I am stuck with these whining coils... I could replace them but damn that would suck up all my time, probably would be better to get a new mobo.

Anyhow, about that silent but powerful build, I am making a small custom-made case that would be one giant heatsink. I will connect the CPU and GPU's heatsinks to the case but possibly keep a layer of air between the outer layer and the inner layer to keep the whole case cold while venting the hot air from the top of it. I've seen it work and I trust that it would be fine for a powerful build. I currently have a NZXT Phantom 530 and while I find it truly epic for all it's options I now would like a much much smaller case, possibly custom made by me and definitely no water cooling as I am not a fan of having water near my electronics, no matter how much more efficient it is.

Thanks for all the help. I will do some heavy research about coil whine on the next mobo I get 😀 I wonder why this happens when the mobo is quite new, is this a sign of bad coils or...?

 

[nukemaster]

It is not a bad coil as such.

The coils used with capacitors form a filter that smooths the voltage from the switching regulators. This switching happens very fast (100+ thousand times a second). The fast on off on off switching can cause the coils to vibrate and that is what you hear. Some coils are sealed in en epoxy or similar or even cement to reduce this.

Maybe play with your bios power settings some more or even see if your board has vrm adjustments(some have standard/turbo/extreme/ect). You may find something that offers better noise levels for you.