PSU making purring noise

[Kirkland]

Hey! For some time now my PSU has been making strange noises. It literally sounds like somebody snoring or a cat purring which is really strange, I've tried to research it but couldn't find anything with this exact noise. 
Sometimes the noise gets louder and faster, sometimes quieter and slower, however the tone remains the same. It is an 80+ certified EVGA 500W PSU so that's that. 

Specs - 
Xeon e3 1231 v3
R9 380 MSI Gaming edition
8GB RAM
250GB SDD 
1TB HDD


And of course, the noise http://vocaroo.com/i/s0bZi4BpPooF

 

[Chugalug_]

Hey! For some time now my PSU has been making strange noises. It literally sounds like somebody snoring or a cat purring which is really strange, I've tried to research it but couldn't find anything with this exact noise. 
Sometimes the noise gets louder and faster, sometimes quieter and slower, however the tone remains the same. It is an 80+ certified EVGA 500W PSU so that's that. 

Specs - 
Xeon e3 1231 v3
R9 380 MSI Gaming edition
8GB RAM
250GB SDD 
1TB HDD


And of course, the noise http://vocaroo.com/i/s0bZi4BpPooF

Sorry, can't listen to it atm, the headphone jack on my laptop is broken! 😱
I get home from work in a few hours, so i'll get back to you then. (Its my break hour, dw! )
What model specifically is it? The 500B?

 

[Kirkland]

Hey! For some time now my PSU has been making strange noises. It literally sounds like somebody snoring or a cat purring which is really strange, I've tried to research it but couldn't find anything with this exact noise. 
Sometimes the noise gets louder and faster, sometimes quieter and slower, however the tone remains the same. It is an 80+ certified EVGA 500W PSU so that's that. 

Specs - 
Xeon e3 1231 v3
R9 380 MSI Gaming edition
8GB RAM
250GB SDD 
1TB HDD


And of course, the noise http://vocaroo.com/i/s0bZi4BpPooF

Sorry, can't listen to it atm, the headphone jack on my laptop is broken! 😱
I get home from work in a few hours, so i'll get back to you then. (Its my break hour, dw! )
What model specifically is it? The 500B?

Ahm no it is just the 500

 

[tsnor]

Would the sound be consistent with a foreign object (dust, paper, anything) stuck on the PSU's cooling fan ? That's what it sounds like to me. Or maybe a fan bearing failing.

Have you taken a look inside thru the exhaust fan? Do not open the PSU case.

Have you ever used a can of compressed air to blow dust out of a video card fan, CPU cooler or PSU? If so have you tried that ?

Or is the sound more like coil whine ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_noise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA8FY7t5S-M this one may be the best to show coilk noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeahtqeTrGo

 

[Chugalug_]

As said above, if it is purring, there could be an obstruction to do with the fan clipping on some part of the power supply, or a failed ball bearing.
This unit in my experience and in reviews such as JonnyGuru, has poor performance on its 12v rail, and the changing strength in the output of the sound could be to do with increased load, and therefore increased instability due to aforementioned rippling.
Run some tests with your PC, preferably stress tests using benchmarks such as 3DMark or Prime95, and use monitoring software such as GPU-Z or CPU-Z and check to see if you notice any performance drops which coordinate with the noise getting stronger or weaker.