Question PC makes silent whistling sound every few seconds

[olat_dragneel]

Hi everyone!

I've had my PC for a few years now and I did not have any major issues with it.
Today I noticed a quiet whistling sound that lasts around a second and repeats every 6 or so seconds.

The sound is really quiet, but since I made a quiet build, it's annoying when the PC is under low load or idle.
I recorded the sound and added a visual aid to pinpoint it (on-screen text saying "Now"). Note that the sound is amplified several times over, so everything sounds quite noisy.

I'm trying to figure out what the culprit could be. My main guess is the PSU, though I got it 3 months ago and never had this issue with it.
I'm quite sure it's not the GPU since I can hear the sound coming from elsewhere when I put my ear in the case near the GPU.
I don't notice any performance or stability drop since this started happening.

This is my build:
Mobo: MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU: XFX RX 6600
RAM: 16GB DDR4 RAM
Cooler: beQuiet! Dark Power 4 Pro
PSU: Corsair RMx Series RM850x 850W V2
3 Case Fans (not sure what brand, but disconnected all of them and the noise is still there).
4 SSDs (1xSamsung Evo, 2xKingston, 1xAMD). There are no HDDs in this PC.

Here's the link to the video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ODvKH7OF4g


NOTE: The sound in the video has been amplified several times! Lower your volume first if it's high so you don't scare the hell out of everyone (yourself included)
Also, the ticking sound you can hear is my clock, which is on the opposite end of the room but can still be heard.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Lutfij]

You might want to roll a sheet of A4 paper into a cylinder, then hold one end to your ear while you probe the source of the noise. The sound you've mentioned/included is very much akin to a low RPM fan kicking up and dying down.

BISO version for your motherboard at this moment of time?

 

[olat_dragneel]

You might want to roll a sheet of A4 paper into a cylinder, then hold one end to your ear while you probe the source of the noise. The sound you've mentioned/included is very much akin to a low RPM fan kicking up and dying down.

BISO version for your motherboard at this moment of time?

Thanks for replying!
The A4 paper thing is really smart, I'll try that to probe the source.
As for my BIOS version, I'm using the latest version available: 7C02v3H (2023-07-10).

PS: I have 3 case fans, 2 cpu fans, 2 gpu fans and the fan on the PSU. The last one is the only one I can't see since I have a transparent case, but the PSU fan is on the bottom. The rest of them don't seem to struggle and are quiet. I'll try getting a good view at that one too.

 

[olat_dragneel]

I just checked the PSU fan as well. It appears to be working fine. It runs once the PC is turned on and then stops running. The fan on my PSU is supposed to work only when the load is higher than 40%, so it's usually idle.

 

[stonecarver]

Whatever it is it's in perfect time when it hits

:06
:18
:24
:30

 

[olat_dragneel]

Yeah, it appears to be periodic, every 6 seconds or so.

 

[olat_dragneel]

Tried the cylinder paper method, but could not figure out where the sound is coming from...

 

[Bob.B]

Tried the cylinder paper method, but could not figure out where the sound is coming from...

Make the suspect list smaller.
Remove the gpu and connect to the igp.
If no help unplug all disk except for the OS disk.

 

[olat_dragneel]

My CPU does not have integrated graphics. Also, I only use SSDs, can they make sounds like this?

 

[Bob.B]

My CPU does not have integrated graphics. Also, I only use SSDs, can they make sounds like this?

Can you borrow a gpu just for test purpose.

Ssd and sound I would not think so but never say never.

This is just an exercise in finding out what it's not.

 

[stonecarver]

Thinking about it Pc's power supplies are switching supplies as in on off on off on off but so fast we don't see it on our side.

So with the if it's not broken don't fix it mind set and getting hit with Murphy's Law But if it keep driving you nuts

A perfect test to eliminate power supply is fully disconnect it and use the paper clip jumper trick and than listen to it. You don't have to remove it from case to test.

 

[olat_dragneel]

Thinking about it Pc's power supplies are switching supplies as in on off on off on off but so fast we don't see it on our side.

So with the if it's not broken don't fix it mind set and getting hit with Murphy's Law But if it keep driving you nuts

A perfect test to eliminate power supply is fully disconnect it and use the paper clip jumper trick and than listen to it. You don't have to remove it from case to test.

Thanks for the suggestion! It's such a quiet sound, but really driving me crazy at night. I will test it out over the weekend.

 

[olat_dragneel]

I didn't have time to test the suggestions above sooner, but I did today.
I disconnected the PSU and turned it on using a paper clip jumper. It did not make any weird sounds.
After that, I disconnected all components from my PC case, gave them a good old clean and used the opportunity to replace the thermal paste on my CPU and GPU. In addition to that, finally found time to do some cable management in the case and also cleaned out any dust I found. The result is a very clean looking system, but the sound is still there.

I also found an old GTX 1030 and plugged it instead of my RX 6600 and the results are still the same.

I did notice something weird though - if I disconnect all RGB devices from my PC (keyboard, mouse and two case fans) the sound gets a lot more quiet (even though it's really quiet to begin with), and for a moment I thought that it stopped completely. Turns out it did not, just got more quiet.

When I reconnect the components, the sound gets back to it's old self.

It's driving me insane, especially at night. I invested a lot of effort to get a quiet system, which it is, but I'm sure I would not hear this sound in a "normal" case.

Really not sure where the sound can be coming from.

 

[olat_dragneel]

UPDATE: I believe the sound disappears when the PC is under load (for example playing a game like Cyberpunk 2077). I'm not sure if it disappears for real, or if the sounds of the fans cover it up, but, considering the nature of the sound, I feel like it would still be heard through the sound of the fans.

 

[olat_dragneel]

Another update: I spoke too early.
I opened up my PC again and this time took the PSU out, but connected all the components to it and turned the PC on. The sound is definitely coming out of the PSU.
It's even more quiet outside of the case, so I guess the sound resonates through the case so it's louder, but it's still annoying.
Of course, this does not mean much since I want to keep the PSU in the case (naturally).

I'm open to any suggestions. :$

 

[olat_dragneel]

Here's how the PSU sounds outside of the case:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp_ULNBFXZY