PSU noise, Worth worrying about?

[CommanderKyou]

Sorry for posting again but I did not get a answer that was good enough/to the point.

This is some what like the sound my PSU makes when playing games and doing other things of that nature. Is it anything to really worry about or is it just a noise to cope with?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_JbiDSYj2Y

 

[InvalidError]

That is just "coil whine" and as annoying as it might be, it is usually harmless.

My P4's PSU has a faint coil whine from the 5VSB supply at 7.8kHz and 9.5kHz... had to use a spectrum analyzer app on my N7 to track down the noise and confirm that I was not just hearing things.

Normally, switching power supplies operate at frequencies beyond hearing range to make such noise inaudible to the human ear but under certain circumstances, those noises can get modulated back down into hearing range.

 

[CommanderKyou]

Any reason that I get frame skipping now? A way to fix it maybe?

 

[prit87]

sorry i cant hear the sound may be its my crappy headphone....if you are getting some kind of ticking sound then there might be a shorting issue....

 

[CommanderKyou]

It's not ticking. more like buzzing.

 

[prit87]

okk so it's typically inductors that will buzz (caused by the coil breaking free of it's glue/fastener and jiggling slightly as it passes an AC wave).

 

[CommanderKyou]

Why is it causing frame skips? I have a fairly beefy rig.

 

[InvalidError]

okk so it's typically inductors that will buzz (caused by the coil breaking free of it's glue/fastener and jiggling slightly as it passes an AC wave).

You can pour a solid epoxy block around an inductor and vacuum-pump it to eliminate any possible bubbles within it and still get whine. Conversely, you can have a glue-less coil that is perfectly silent. The glue has very little to do with audible whine.

Coil whine is mainly about how regular the PSU's switching is: perfectly regular operation will produce noise only on the PSU's harmonics and those would be well over 50kHz in modern PSUs. When that switching gets modulated by irregular loads, too tight phase margins in the feedback loop, fluctuations in line input voltage, etc, you are likely to get coil whine regardless of how good the inductors and transformers are.

 

[InvalidError]

Why is it causing frame skips? I have a fairly beefy rig.

It is most likely the other way around: your GPU is operating irregularly for some reason and that irregularity is causing the PSU to make noise.

 

[CommanderKyou]

I think the GPU is working fine, It seems then PSU even makes the noise when using google.