PC making horribly irritating sound!

[Scott1483]

After installing a new motherboard in my system (upgraded to MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum), I have noticed a new, very unpleasant sound coming from my system. It is not particularly loud, but high-pitched and very annoying, somewhere along the lines of a whiny buzzing/whirring sound, maybe kind of like a mosquito. It will change in pitch and intensity, sometimes it goes away entirely. The new motherboard was the only hardware change, all other components are the same. I removed the side panel and turned my computer on and stuck my head in there to see if I could tell where the sound was coming from, and it seemed to be coming from the power supply. It is a Rosewill 450W with two fans. It honestly doesn't really sound like its coming from a fan, which of course is the first thing I would assume when it comes to pc noise. It is interesting to note that the noise seems to correlate with software activity, for example, I was running PCMark05 and when one of the tests was running there was no noise, but then when that test finished and it was moving on to the next one, it started up again (I have observed instances like these enough to conclude that it's not a coincidence. Obviously, there is a lot of current running through the power supply, is it possible that this could cause an annoying buzzing sound? Thanks in advance!

 

[shadowthor]

It is probably the power supply, and I would change it quick, as the rosewill powersupplies aren't that good, and when it goes, it usually takes down components with it.

 

[Scott1483]

Alright, assuming I need a new power supply, does anyone have any recommendations for me? My system is Athlon 5600+ 64x2, evga 9600gt, 3gb ram, 2 sata hard drives, dvd & floppy drives, 4 case fans. I'm not planning on doing any major oc'ing, and right now I'm not doing anything sli, but I suppose it would be nice to have that option for the future.

 

[roadrunner197069]

It could be the northbridge fan if there is one. I had that happen before.

 

[pbrigido]

Before I got to the part where you said you thought it was coming from the PSU, that was going to be my guess as well. I had two in the past 5 years that did the exact same thing. They were cheap ones, so I wasn't surprised once I found out where the noise was coming from.

 

[rgsaunders]

http://game.amd.com/us-en/crossfirex_components.aspx?p=3#ATI%20Radeon%u2122%20HD%204850 This link lists power supplies that have been certified by AMD to work with the new HD 4XXX series cards in Crossfire mode. These units are good quality, and the listings provide plenty of choices for anything from a mid-range to a high end setup. Its not unusual for a poor quality power supply to make high pitched sounds when stressed, frequently a precursor to it blowing. A whine may be coming from a transformer or coil, or frequently you will get it from capacitor charging circuits.

 

[Scott1483]

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies, it must indeed be the power supply. I checked out the link rgsaunders posted, but I don't think my chipset supports crossfire, as it is an nForce 750a. Basically I'm just looking for one from a reputable company with sufficient wattage for my current setup.

 

[Mousemonkey]

A Corsair 450w should be OK if you are running a single GPU setup.

 

[pbrigido]

Check out Antec also. They have some great modular PSUs for better cable management.

 

[reho1990]

hi it might not b the power supply i came across this video have a look
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wdrQDK388E

 

[reho1990]

and i have had that noise before when i oc my gpu to much so i had to turn it down i hope this helps