High pitch normal for high-end PSUs?

[antimatter27]

Hey all,

I was wondering if higher wattage power supplies inherently produce a high pitched noise. I bought myself a Corsair TX950w and it produced an unbearable high-pitched sound. I tried all the common trouble shooting ideas from Corsair and ended up RMA'ing it. Weeks later I get my replacement and although the noise isn't blood-curdling it's still pretty darn obnoxious to me. The high-pitch on both the original unit and new unit go away under load, which makes me think there is a design flaw.

I've owned a couple desktops in the past with 500w PSU's, never had an issue, nor with any laptop. I'm just wondering if this is an issue inherent to high-wattage units, or if the TX series is garbage. I have to make the decision to either RMA yet again, or throw it out and buy a new unit, or tolerate this for years to come.

 

[hunter315]

Its either capacitor squealing or coil whine. Coil whine is reasonably common but it isn't supposed to be audible, they are supposed to put hot glue or similar on the coils to keep them from whining at a level you can hear. If its still obnoxious to you, RMA it with them again, its an expensive unit and would suck to throw out, and the unit you get to replace it may have the issue as well.

 

[antimatter27]

I'm just worried that this is the "norm" for this unit. I've already RMA'd once and if I do it again that's $40 for shipping on top of the $150 sale price, for what might be a third clunker. Plus the headache of disconnecting and reconnecting everything again, and being without my main system for weeks more.

I guess I'm just not sure how to hedge my bet on this one; I find it pretty amazing Corsair could give me two loud units in a row.