PSU Making an Electrical Buzzing Sound

rlg5150

Honorable
Apr 26, 2012
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10,690
First off, it's not a budget PSU. It's a Thermaltake SMART Series 850W 88% Effecient.

I don't think it's coil whine, as my MSI 7950 has coil whine if I don't limit the frames (sometimes a game will load or a menu will produce several hundred frames and the 7950 has coil whine if I don't limit it to 120 fps).

It's a more subtle sound. Almost sounds like a HDD loading but quieter and gets a little more noticeable when I launch a game.

As far as I know, it may be normal. The reason I say this is because I have a Silverstone RV03 case. If you aren't familiar of the design of that case, the "back" of the PSU in this case is actually on the front left (my case is on the right so the "back" of the PSU is right beside my mouse). This means that if I had a traditional case, I probably wouldn't be able to even hear it. But where it exhausts so close to my ear, maybe that's why I hear it.

I can always RMA I suppose, but who knows how long that would take. It has a 5 year warranty and I've only had it about a year.

Should I be concerned about this "buzzing?"