Question Oscillating hum possibly coming from CORSAIR iCUE H115i RGB ELITE 280mm

[patrick2099]

My new PC is making a strange oscillating hum while playing some games. I haven't been able to narrow down which component it is coming from yet. This is what it sounds like:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sfjhl22_WHM

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1vCUM4Ld9V0


The support person wanted me to try to manually stop the fans, by pushing in the center of them. My response was:

Are you talking about the case fans on the front and back of the case? If so, touching the middle of that fan doesn't do anything. The back case fan does not even appear to be working at all. That is concerning.

If I use the Fan Control application, it shows the following: CPU Fan 1 which is not adjustable, one Case fan, which is adjustable, and two NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 fans, which are adjustable. This also seems to match what the CPUID HWMonitor application shows. Adjusting the case fan and the two GPU fans from minimum speed up to 100% does not seem to cause any type of noise.

If I use Fan XPert, in Armoury Crate, I can change the curve of the CPU fan, but it doesn't seem to do anything. It consistently stays at 2490 RPM. Changing Chassis Fan 5 (the front fan) from Silent to Full Speed has no effect on the oscillating noise, other than masking it better at full speed. AIO Pump does not allow you to change anything.Are you talking about manually stopping the two fans on the top of the case that appear to be attached to the liquid cooler? Those seem to run at a constant RPM, from what I can tell. They don't seem to be adjustable, using software. Looking at how they look, I'm not sure those are safe to touch in the middle without ripping my finger off.

This sound only seems to happen when I'm playing a 3D game or running a benchmark tool such as MSI Kombustor.

Also, I found the controls for the AIO in iCue. I will need to mess with it more tomorrow, but it seems like having fan 1 and fan 2 both set to balanced is causing the oscillating sound. Changing pump doesn't really seem to affect it. Having either fan 1 or 2 set to quiet or extreme still has a whining noise, but it's not as noticeable without the oscillation. I will have to do more testing.

Today, the IBuyPower support person is saying it's the liquid cooler fan and wants to either RMA it and have me install it or ship the whole PC back for repairs. I'd really like to be sure this is the issue prior to doing either. Does the sound in those clips sound like it could reasonably be the liquid cooler fans?



TL;DR version: Could the liquid cooler fans be making the noises in:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sfjhl22_WHM

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1vCUM4Ld9V0

 

[Lutfij]

The noise I hear is that of the air hitting the blades of the fans and causing turbulence. you can do one quick test, remove the front mesh/grating that's in front of the airflow path and see if the noise dies down, if so, then it's turbulence. I'm assuming the panel/grating/holes are that of an NZXT case, if not, what is the make and model of your case? How is the AIO mounted and oriented in your build? Fan orientation?

 

[patrick2099]

The noise I hear is that of the air hitting the blades of the fans and causing turbulence. you can do one quick test, remove the front mesh/grating that's in front of the airflow path and see if the noise dies down, if so, then it's turbulence. I'm assuming the panel/grating/holes are that of an NZXT case, if not, what is the make and model of your case? How is the AIO mounted and oriented in your build? Fan orientation?

Thanks. The case is a Case NZXT H7 Flow Mesh Front Panel Gaming Case. The AIO is connected to two fans that are mounted into the top of the case.


Full list of components is:

Case NZXT H7 Flow Mesh Front Panel Gaming Case - Black-

Case Fans Default Case Fan-

Case Lighting CORSAIR RGB Lighting Node Pro-

iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction None-

iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion iBUYPOWER Internal USB Expansion System - 2 internal connectors, 1 external connector-

Processor Intel® Core™ i7-13700KF Processor (8X 3.40GHz + 8X 2.50GHz/30MB L3 Cache)-

Processor Cooling CORSAIR iCUE H115i RGB ELITE 280mm Liquid Cooling System-

Memory 32 GB [16 GB X2] DDR5-6000MHz Memory Module-Certified Major Brand Gaming Memory [Free Upgrade to 32GB DDR5-6000 TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta RGB]

Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 - 10GB GDDR6X (VR-Ready)-

Game Bundle [Game Bundle] - Warhammer 40K: Darktide Imperial Edition RTX Bundle-w/ Purchase of select NVIDIA Geforce RTX 30 series Cards (3060 and above)

Champion Apparel None-

Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi - WiFi, ARGB Header (3), USB 3.2 Ports (2 Type-C, 10 Type-A), M.2 Slot (5)-

Power Supply 1200 Watt - Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB - 80 PLUS Platinum, Fully Modular-

Primary Storage 2TB WD Black SN770 M.2 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD -- Gen 4 Read: 5150MB/s; Write: 4900MB/s, Gen 3 Read: 3500MB/s; Write: 3500MB/s-

Secondary Storage 2TB Samsung 870 QVO SSD -- Read: 560MB/s, Write: 530MB/s-

Media Card Reader / Writer None-

Sound Card 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard-

Network Card Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)-

USB Expansion Card None-

Operating System Windows 11 Pro w/ Windows Recovery USB-(64-bit)

Monitor None-

Keyboard iBUYPOWER RGB Keyboard and Mouse Combo-

Mouse CORSAIR HARPOON RGB PRO FPS/MOBA Gaming Mouse (AP)-

Video Capture Device None-

Services Generic Thermal Paste - Pre-applied-

Services iBUYPOWER Specialized Advanced Packaging System-Protect your investment during transportation!

Services Professional Wiring - For All Standard Default Cables Inside the System-

 

[patrick2099]

I'm probably not going to have a chance to get inside the case until this weekend. Here is the testing I did this morning:

I started MSI Kombustor cpu burn and let it run for a bit.
94c
1100 RPM
GPU 0% utilization
Processor 100% utilization
sound starts

Temp lowers to 87c
Fans at 1200 RPM
After about 10 minutes, I changed one of the AIO fans to Extreme in iCue.
Fans at 1650 RPM.
CPU 84c
Normal fan noise is louder, but the oscillating hum is gone.

Switch to Quiet profile. When fans drop to about 1200 RPM, the oscillating hum starts.

Set it back to Balanced.
Fans at 1400
CPU 84c

Hum is there

If I set a fan from Balanced to Extreme, I can hear the oscillation rapidly get faster. It disappears around 1600RPM.

I turned off Kombuster Cpu burn and let the CPU cool down. I set the fans to extreme in iCue.

When the fans started rising, the oscillating hum was there. If I set fan #1 to zero RPM and Fan 2 to extreme, there is no hum.

I'd still like to find out why the rear case fan isn't working, but I think it's safe to say the noise is coming from the AIO fans. The rear case fan should be working, right?

 

[patrick2099]

Rear fan is now working. No idea why. I did jiggle some wires trying to find where everything was connected, prior to it starting to work. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

I have set up a custom fan profile in iCue, to try to keep the fans out of the range when the noise is most annoying. Trying to decide whether to send it back or just deal with it. The way a massive amount of wires are tucked under the top fans, I'm not sure if I could get everything back into place properly without making a rat's nest of the wires, if I did it myself.