High-pitched noise coming from either HDD or Power Supply

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rofflemywafflez

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Oct 8, 2008
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Hey everyone. I'm troubleshooting a problem with my PC. It is a recent occurence, and my PC is relatively 3 yrs old when it was built. I've upgraded my GPU to a R9-270 and installed another HDD, but that's about it.

So I'm hearing a very faint but audible very high-pitched noise that resembles the noise you hear when your ear is "ringing". The noise comes off and on, and is sometimes hardly noticeable to very faint in loudness.

I've tried googling the issue and searching forums online to no avail. My first thought was it was some kind of electronic frequency noise from the CPU or GPU coil whine. I tried disabling CPU power management through an article I found on the forums, and that didn't fix anything.

After opening up my PC and using dust remover, the noise returned after letting it run for a minute. I put my ear directly on my PC and was able to narrow it down to either the power supply or the HDD's, but it was very hard to tell. The noise was very faint and cuts in and out. I "think" it was the PSU though.

My initial thought is it's probably the PSU since the hard-drive's have been working fine with no problems at all.

PC Specs:
Win 7 Pro 64-bit
Gigabyte MOBO
i7 3770k
16gb RAM
Radeon R9 270
450watt PSU
1 SSD and 2 HDD's

Are there any other tests I can run, perhaps verifying voltages through Speedfan or some app for testing?

Thanks for all the help.



 
Solution
Dark Lord of Tech



Not a good idea.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1500086/why-you-should-not-buy-an-evga-400-430-500-600-500b-600b
Why you should not buy an EVGA 400 / 430 / 500 / 600 / 500B / 600B

Get the one I linked plenty of power.
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Shneiky

Shneiky

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All my money is on the PSU. What brand is it? What people need to understand is that the PSU manufacturer is much more important than the rated wattage on the box. If it is something like Diablotek or other known-to-be-bad brand or even a known brand that has a very cheap line like Corsair CX/VS - then it's almost certain where the problem is.
 
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Shneiky

Shneiky

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http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/thermaltake-purepower-430w-np-power-supply-review/9/

"This is an old ATX power supply where the manufacturer added a 24-pin motherboard connector, SATA power cables and a PCI Express auxiliary power cable to make it compatible with computers available today. Simply updating the cables doesn’t make this power supply an updated product. This is so true that this power supply is listed as ATX12V 1.03 by Thermaltake, and not as ATX12V 2.x, despite the presence of the 24-pin motherboard connector and the 6-pin PCI Express auxiliary power cable for video cards.

The main problem with this power supply is that it can’t deliver its labeled power. It is, in fact, a 350 W power supply. "

"Our conclusion is pretty simple: don’t buy this power supply."

350W low-grade PSU is too low for your system. It would have been pretty fine if it was a 400 Watt model from a nice OEM.
 
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Dark Lord of Tech

Dark Lord of Tech

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Aug 18, 2009
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Not a good idea.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1500086/why-you-should-not-buy-an-evga-400-430-500-600-500b-600b
Why you should not buy an EVGA 400 / 430 / 500 / 600 / 500B / 600B

Get the one I linked plenty of power.
 
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Solution
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rofflemywafflez

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Oct 8, 2008
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Alright Blackbird, I'll do that then. Thank you for the help.

I'm a bit embarassed to ask, but is the PSU you posted the "exact" one in specifications that would work for my PC, other than the amount of watts? I bought my PC second-hand, so I'm not entirely sure how to build from scratch.

From what I understand, there are many different sizes of PSU's besides just the power supply. I'm assuming the amount of power cords, the size, and other variables I'm unsure of change depending on what you buy. What exactly are the differences between them? What is the identifier? I hope I make sense.

Thanks.
 
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turkey3_scratch

turkey3_scratch

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Jul 15, 2014
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Most all power supplies are the same with and height, length varies. They are mostly ATX power supplies. There are a few other form factors, but your general PSU will fit in all mATX and ATX cases. The difference is stuff that the average person won't know. It's all about the components inside - again stuff the average consumer doesn't understand, and that's why people buy crappy power supplies, because there is often not a good way to compare them without asking experts who have done testing.
 
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rofflemywafflez

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Oct 8, 2008
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I'm back. Just installed the PSU and everything is running great. No coil whine that I can detect.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the PC is running smoother now. Is it possible that the old PSU was dying and there was an uneven distribution of power? I noticed before that the red and green light on my R9 270 were blinking on and off at times. It sounds like my fan's are pushing harder now, and after loading up Battlefield 3, it feels smoother there too. Could be my imagination though.

Any thoughts?
 
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