[HELP] High Pitch Noise on my Water Cooling pump

[joinasmashgamer]

Water Cooler: Deep Cool Maelstrom 120k

Lately, ive been hearing high pitch sound and since i have 2 120mm fans that are quietly running and speeds have it controlled by my motherboard, i can break it down to my pump and nothing else. Any suggestions on what to do will be a great help to me. Thank you so much!

Here's a photo of my cooling if this helps.

 

[nukemaster]

Normally pumps have more of a deep sound or sometimes grinding/clicking sound.

With your system fans very quiet you may be able to hear the power system.

Checkout some videos on coil whine to see if that is what you are hearing. One big thing with coil whine is it will change frequency with system(cpu in this case) load. Video cards and power supplies may have some coil noise as well. It is a vibration caused by the higher speed switching in modern power supplies and regulation circuits(coils and caps work to clean up the power).

If you have the sound at idle, try to disconnect the pump for just a very short time(do not disconnect at load as things will get hot rather fast) to see if it goes away. If it does, ensure your cpu header is NOT set to vary speeds in case it is using voltage control on the pump(most cpu headers should use the pwm pin, but just in case.).

 

[tiny voices]

Lot's of coolers don;t have enough fluid to be mounted upside-down like yours. I would flip the radiator around so the hoses are on the bottom. Your pump might be sucking air and making noise/ wearing out.

 

[joinasmashgamer]

Normally pumps have more of a deep sound or sometimes grinding/clicking sound.

With your system fans very quiet you may be able to hear the power system.

Checkout some videos on coil whine to see if that is what you are hearing. One big thing with coil whine is it will change frequency with system(cpu in this case) load. Video cards and power supplies may have some coil noise as well. It is a vibration caused by the higher speed switching in modern power supplies and regulation circuits(coils and caps work to clean up the power).

If you have the sound at idle, try to disconnect the pump for just a very short time(do not disconnect at load as things will get hot rather fast) to see if it goes away. If it does, ensure your cpu header is NOT set to vary speeds in case it is using voltage control on the pump(most cpu headers should use the pwm pin, but just in case.).

check this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBV5a0NmlOQ

go to 0:24. Its more of that pitch but just a bit lower on mine but almost the same. Coil whine is different

 

[joinasmashgamer]

Lot's of coolers don;t have enough fluid to be mounted upside-down like yours. I would flip the radiator around so the hoses are on the bottom. Your pump might be sucking air and making noise/ wearing out.

Well, i might say this watercooling system of mine is one of the cheapest in the market. That could be a thing. Well, i have to get this inverted as soon as possible. Im afraid to wear this out. OMG

 

[nukemaster]

My LQ310 is the cheapest on the market . [strike]Most of these are Asetek models[/strike]. EDIT. looking closer, your does not seem to be the normal Asetek units

It sounds like a hard drive seeking. In my case I had to flip the pump and slot it down(I do NOT recommend slowing a pump down to other users.).

 

[joinasmashgamer]

tried what tiny voices recommended but got no luck. Still hearing the high pitch noise from the pump. ALso, i found an article on the internet and it alarmed me. Can someone explain it further because im also using an i3 cpu on my rig. Though im not using the same watercooling but it may just be related. What makes him say it would be louder on an i3? Im interested on knowing about this.



My RIG:
cpu: i3 4160
mobo: msi h97 gaming 3
ram: 2x4gb corsair vengeance
gpu: msi gaming gtx 750ti
hdd: wd 500gb
psu: antec vp550p
cooling: deepcool maelstrom 120k

 

[nukemaster]

The article is saying that an i3 is so cool running that the cost and noise of an all in one not optimal for such a cpu.

This does not mean it is louder on a i3. It just means you can cool such a low powered cpu with a heatsink and slower fan while this cooler is designed to cool hotter cpus that would need an even bigger heatsink and faster(louder) fan(or a very fast fan on a smaller heatsink.).

So did unplugging the pump for a short time(while the system is idle) stop the noise for you?

 

[tiny voices]

I agree with the article. Closed loop coolers are louder than air coolers. That is just how it works. Plus lower end closed loop coolers aren't even better than air coolers when cooling performance is concerned.

For example the $30 Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO cools the same or better than the H60, but is quieter and much cheaper.

The article isn't saying it will be louder on an i3, it is saying it will be louder no matter what and for that reason using it on a lower end CPU is pretty pointless.

 

[joinasmashgamer]

Oh, thank you for the clarification guys. Now, this AIO is really bound to make some noise and seems not worth it really. Hmmm, i decided to buy this coz i plan on upgrading to i5 but seems a muddy plan. Unsure if it would really happen since im mostly using this RIG for work and business and slight gaming like dota 2 if i have some time.

The article is saying that an i3 is so cool running that the cost and noise of an all in one not optimal for such a cpu.

This does not mean it is louder on a i3. It just means you can cool such a low powered cpu with a heatsink and slower fan while this cooler is designed to cool hotter cpus that would need an even bigger heatsink and faster(louder) fan(or a very fast fan on a smaller heatsink.).

So did unplugging the pump for a short time(while the system is idle) stop the noise for you?

Oh, do you mean i will unplug the pump while system is on and idle? Is that safe to do? And for how many minutes? Im afraid to do that. It might hurt my system

The article is saying that an i3 is so cool running that the cost and noise of an all in one not optimal for such a cpu.

This does not mean it is louder on a i3. It just means you can cool such a low powered cpu with a heatsink and slower fan while this cooler is designed to cool hotter cpus that would need an even bigger heatsink and faster(louder) fan(or a very fast fan on a smaller heatsink.).

So did unplugging the pump for a short time(while the system is idle) stop the noise for you?

I agree with the article. Closed loop coolers are louder than air coolers. That is just how it works. Plus lower end closed loop coolers aren't even better than air coolers when cooling performance is concerned.

For example the $30 Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO cools the same or better than the H60, but is quieter and much cheaper.

The article isn't saying it will be louder on an i3, it is saying it will be louder no matter what and for that reason using it on a lower end CPU is pretty pointless.

yeah, right. Im even looking forward on getting an air cooler if silence is really what i need. Im almost having nightmares about this high pitch noise on my pump. ROFL

 

[tiny voices]

Nothing will hurt your system. Just unplug the pump at idle. It will be fine. See if the noise stops, then plug it back in.

 

[nukemaster]

I can confirm that even a cheap air cooler is more than upto the task for all current Intel cpus because the heat output is lower with the newer generation stuff.

Another plus side is power management on all current hardware greatly reduces heat when a system is doing easy tasks like surfing the internet and whatnot. This means even a slow fan will have no problems with heat.

Now onto the unplug it part. Disconnecting the pump when the system is not working hard(so not playing games or running another heavy task) will not hurt the system(you only need to disconnect it for long enough to hear if the sound goes away.). I recommend this just to be 100% sure the pump is the noise source. Some users have had luck slowing pumps(I do this my self for the all in one on my video card.), but I do not recommend it unless you are keeping an eye on it to make sure it does not stop turning.

As for quiet vs loud, something like the NH D14 could keep an i3 system running well within specs even with a single 600rmp fan. This is because the heatsink is so large. I actually have an H80i on my cpu because my case is very small. The H80i pump makes no noise that can be heard unless you have your ear to the pump it self(and even then it is hard to hear it). The LQ310 on my video card on the other hand is louder than the stock cooler for that video card(this is the reason I slowed it down, it is not silent, but very quiet now.).

When you have the room air coolers are almost always better than these all in ones when you take into consideration the price. The air cooler(aftermarket ones with lots of surface area) can also have a fan fail and still run for a very long time under medium loads without overheating.

I am not knocking the all in one idea, as I do use them when space is a concern.

 

[joinasmashgamer]

Ok, so unplugging the pump cable when system is idle is just safe. Got that. But whats the point of doing this? Is it to just identify the noise source or to even fix it?

 

[nukemaster]

Just to identify the noise.

When you swapped the setup as recommended above, did you have the rad hoses on the bottom as well.

 

[joinasmashgamer]

Just to identify the noise.

When you swapped the setup as recommended above, did you have the rad hoses on the bottom as well.

Yes, i followed the advice of Tiny Voices and had the reservoir and hoses below. Anyway, i had it removed already and is subjected for replacement soon. Also, deepcool support adviced me to have it replaced by a new one for high pitch noise everytime including on system idle could indicate dying/defective pump. I had no chance to unplug the pump at system idle to clearly identify if its the pump but clearly now that i removed my watercooling system and brought back my stock cpu heatsink, noise is absolutely gone so a clear conclusion that it was really the pump noise. Anyways, thanks for all your help guys, really appreciate people like you. Keep it up.