PSU Coil Squeal?

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RustedBot

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I bought a brand new computer about a month ago. The problem started not long after I set it up.

The problem is that whenever I operate under heavier than normal loads, such as when playing games or rendering graphics, I can hear a distinct high pitched squeal. It occurs immediately under heavier loads and disappears immediately once whatever application is causing the noise is closed. However, it does occasionally start up again afterwards, for short periods of time.

I believe this is coming from the PSU and I'm worried that I might have a defective unit. It's also quite annoying that this is happening when the computer is nearly brand new. It's possible that it may be coil whine/squeal and that it's just something I'm going to have to live with, but I'd like some opinions on this. If it is just coil whine, is there a way to fix it? If it's not, should I be concerned?

The PSU is a Corsair CX600 80 Plus Bronze Certified 600w Power Supply, if that helps.
 
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RustedBot

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Thanks for the reply.

Would you mind providing me a link to where you found the complaints?

I'd rather not have to get the unit replaced if possible. Is there nothing else I can try before such measures?
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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before you call up corsair about the coil whine, make sure it's not the graphics card first. squeeky gpus are heck of a lot more common then squeeky psus.

easiest way to make sure is simply put your hand on the gpu when rendering, just the touch of your finger will change the frequency of the coil whine.
 
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I downloaded OpenHardwareMonitor and had a look at my temperatures. The CPU and GPU were both roughly 30 degrees Celsius at idle. I opened up a rendering window in full screen displaying a simple circle, nothing you would think is too demanding, to see how much the temperatures might rise. After a few moments the whine started up again and as I watched the readings I could see the core temperatures steadily rising. After about five minutes the GPU core was at nearly 60 degrees and the CPU cores were at roughly 50 degrees. I closed the window and the temperatures slowly started to drop.

Is this normal, or should the temperatures not be rising so fast? Is 30 degrees okay for idle temperatures?

Afterwards, I removed the dust filter underneath the PSU on the underside of the case and tried it again. This time the whine took a few moments longer to occur and wasn't as pronounced, but the temperatures continued to rise in much the same way as before. Is it a good idea to remove the outside dust filter to allow more air flow?

Also, when reading the temperatures I manually adjusted the GPU fan speed until it was clearly audible. It sounded like the fans were whirring smoothly, no coil whine, so I don't think the problem is with the GPU.
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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those temps are normal.

and coil whine is 100% not related to temps; but rather voltage. If it's temp related that's a fan with a bad bearing, not coil whine. did you try what i suggested and touch the gpu to see if the frequency of the noise changed?
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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fans =/= coil whine

coil whine is a "buzzing" noise... sometimes low pitch, sometimes high pitch, sometimes on the edge of hearing, sometimes so loud you want to throw your system out a windows. It changes with current load. It has zero to do with temps or fans. Coil whine is caused by the ceramic capacitors soldered to your circuit boards, harmonizing with the electrical frequency running through them, vibrating and bumping up against the circuit board.

because it's a sound caused by vibration touching the offending part will alter the frequency of the noise, making it VERY easy to identify what is actually suffering coil whine. there are 3 main parts in a computer that will have it. 1) motherboard, 2) gpu, 3) psu. Typically the gpu is the single most common offender, which is why i'm suggesting you touch it to make sure it's not the gpu. Setting that aside, psus are also known offenders, so you probably are right in suspecting it as the cause.

In the grand scheme of things coil whine will go away with time, as the ceramic wears off and simply stops touching the board. that said i've often found it far too irritating to live with so i wouldn't blame you for returning the offending part.

-sidenote, it is possible for parts to develop coil whine over time, mostly the part always had it, just it was making the noise outside of your hearing range; as it got older the capacitors wore away, and the frequency will change making it audible.
 
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RustedBot

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Does the voltage passing through a PSU increase with graphical load?

Since coil whine is related to voltage and not temperature, I think that would have to be true for the problem to be the PSU and not the GPU.

Otherwise, the problem would have to be the GPU being unable to handle temperatures higher than idle, possibly because of, as you say, a faulty fan.
 
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RustedBot

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What about afterwards.

In my system, everything is perfectly quiet until I increase the graphical load, either through playing graphically intensive games like Skyrim or opening graphically rendered windows. Then once I do the squeal (it sounds more like a squeal than a whine to me) starts. The odd thing is that after I stop doing whatever caused the noise, it persists, only at the edge of hearing. This doesn't always happen, but often enough for it to be annoying. Could this an indication of voltage issues?
 
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PCBuilderProbs

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about not opening up your system:

I've been there. Trust me. We've all been there, unless some of you grew up with motherboards lying around the house or something. All you need to do is open up the side panel of the computer, and just listen. That's it. All you will be doing is listening for whether the noise is coming from your video card or the power supply unit.
 
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RustedBot

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Thanks for the encouragement, but honestly I'm just not willing to do it right now. I'm afraid I'll either damage some components or electrocute myself, as unlikely as that probably is. I've only recently bought the computer and it cost over a grand, so I just can't bring myself to go messing around with the internals.

Any advice relating to my earlier questions would be appreciated.
 
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RustedBot

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Okay well it's been a day and nobody's replied so I might as well re-iterate my questions.

Is 30 degrees okay for idle temperatures?

Is it a good idea to remove the outside dust filter to allow more air flow?

And here's a new one:
ingtar33 said that coil whine will wear off with time. Would inducing the coil whine for sustained periods help speed that process along?
 
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Sapphire Thunder

Sapphire Thunder

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You can't really get lower than 30 degress idle with air-cooling. You need at least All-In-One liquid cooling/hybrid cooling for that. And even then it's only 1-3C lower than that.
Custom loop liquid-cooling can bring it to 25C.
Of course, the ambient temperature plays a part. If the room temperature is 23, you can't get lower than 23C by regular cooling ways.

Removing dust filter doesn't change airflow at all. It would just let more dust inside.
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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sorry, i didn't mean to leave you hanging. work, friday night, stuff happens, not on the net all the time.

1) coil whine will "wear out" over time. understand though, "over time" probably means 3-12 months, and for most people the issue is far far to irritating to live with for that long

2) 30C is fine for idle temps. Understand the temp delta between the hot parts and your ambient room temp helps affect how useful your cpu/gpu cool is. the larger the delta the more effective the cpu/gpu cooler will become; or to put it in other words, the hotter the part gets the more effective your cpu/gpu cooler gets. To get your idle temps under 30C you'd need to either put your pc in an ice box, or use something like a TEC/Peltier or some exotic sub ambient cooling solution.

3) the noise your system is making, can you record it? It might be a bad bearing for a fan that you're hearing, not coil whine. i have heard coil whine described in a number of ways before, i don't think i've ever heard it described as a SQUEAL. typically squeals come from bad bearings.

4) as for reluctance to touch anything in the pc:

The rules for touching powered on pc equipment are as follows.
1) ground yourself by touching the metal frame of the pc case
2) keep your touch light, just the tip of a finger
3) try to keep your touch off everything but the circut board
4) don't touch anything in the case with a metal object
5) limit your touching to the edges of the circut boards, or the metal housing of parts like the outside of the psu, or headsinks
6) don't touch the fans

it's actually very easy to do, and all i'm looking for is confirmation it's actually coil whine, and what part is making it. as it's caused by high frequency vibrations, simply lightly touching the part that's effected will change the sound of the coil whine.
 
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RustedBot

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If I'm willing to live with the coil whine until it wears off, however long from now that may be, is it safe to continue using the PSU? It's not likely to malfunction and fry the other components in the machine is it?
 
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