PSU failing. Time to upgrade?

[TroyAllan]

Hey everyone.

I have my old gaming PC setup for my girlfriend and for a while now it has been making a high pitched squeal. Not unbearable but you can definitively hear it. It will go away after a few minutes have passed, but, it seems to come back once she starts playing a game.

At first I thought it was the HDD.
I replaced it with a new SSD but the problems persists. Now i'm starting to think it's the PSU.

Here is a video I have recorded

PC specs:
win10
i7 960
6gbram
480 GTX

The PSU that's in there right now is Corsair TX950.

Should I buy another 950watt or could I get away with something newer, but, lower in wattage?

Thanks for your help!
-Troy

 

[Onus]

A Good 550W PSU would be sufficient. Personally, I like Seasonic, and might choose their Focus or Focus+ model.

 

[jankerson]

You don't need a 950W PSU, nowhere near it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.59 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $79.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-27 10:49 EST-0500

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: SeaSonic - G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($66.59 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $66.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-27 10:49 EST-0500

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($73.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $73.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-27 10:50 EST-0500

 

[Onus]

^Any of those would be solid. Make sure it isn't the graphics card that's whining though; you'd be miffed after getting a new PSU if there were no change. If that's the case, you could replace it, or possibly (someone correct me if I'm wrong) use gobs of hot glue or epoxy on your existing card's coils to quiet them down.

 

[TroyAllan]

You don't need a 950W PSU, nowhere near it. ...

Thank you all for your help! I think I'm going to go with the SeaSonic Fully-Modular. Before I order i'll pull the card and run onboard graphics to make sure it's not the card.

Back in the day when I built this PC (6 or 7 years ago) I was told I needed the 950watts because the card need that much energy. A few different sources told me that too. Have we come a long way in the PSU area or were the people I was asking just ignorant?

 

[jankerson]

You don't need a 950W PSU, nowhere near it. ...

Thank you all for your help! I think I'm going to go with the SeaSonic Fully-Modular. Before I order i'll pull the card and run onboard graphics to make sure it's not the card.

Back in the day when I built this PC (6 or 7 years ago) I was told I needed the 950watts because the card need that much energy. A few different sources told me that too. Have we come a long way in the PSU area or were the people I was asking just ignorant?

They were just stupid.

A 550W would have been fine back then also.

Would have gotten a Seasonic M12ii 620W back then, that's what I was running in my i7 870 machine when I built it.

 

[Onus]

With the card pulled, the load on your PSU will be so much less that it might become silent even if it's the real problem. You'd really need to use a stethoscope or other highly directional method to identify the source. You have my sympathy; I'm deaf in one ear, meaning I have NO sense of direction of sound.