PSU whine stops when disconnected from MoBo?

[timnswede]

I read some people say that changing out the wires would stop PSU whine, so I tried to find out what was causing it. I disconnected each thing in my PC one-by-one and flipped the PSU on to see if the noise was there, and the only thing that made the whine stop was disconnecting the MoBo. So I am kind of confused if it is my Motherboards fault or my PSUs or maybe a combination of both? I don't hear anything on my 500 watt OCZ PSU, but my Seasonic x-850 makes a high pitch whine. Would a different PSU brand possibly get rid of the noise? I was already recommended a Kingwin LZR-850 which is not made by Seasonic.

Oh and my Mobo is an Asrock z68 extreme3 gen3.

 

[C12Friedman]

The noise you hear from the PSU is called 'coil whine'. Although annoying, it doesn't have much (if any) effect on performance. The most common way to eliminate it is to change the load on the PSU - disconnecting hardware is one way, adding hardware is another. If you have space for another fan or two in your case, I might suggest that load up the PSU a bit more. If you have the money, buy a(nother) graphics card. Since it is the X model, you can start a dialogue with SeaSonic due to noise. Why buy a semi-passively cooled PSU for a premium if you're simply trading fan noise for coil noise?
A different PSU (such as the Kingwin) should make the noise go away (even an identical SeaSonic) since coil whine is due to a specific PSU component (the coil) being slightly less than perfect off the assembly line.
I would either load up the PSU some more or talk to SeaSonic. Of course the Kingwin swap would be an option - hoping it doesn't have a 'bad' coil too.
Hope it helps

 

[timnswede]

The noise you hear from the PSU is called 'coil whine'. Although annoying, it doesn't have much (if any) effect on performance. The most common way to eliminate it is to change the load on the PSU - disconnecting hardware is one way, adding hardware is another. If you have space for another fan or two in your case, I might suggest that load up the PSU a bit more. If you have the money, buy a(nother) graphics card. Since it is the X model, you can start a dialogue with SeaSonic due to noise. Why buy a semi-passively cooled PSU for a premium if you're simply trading fan noise for coil noise?
A different PSU (such as the Kingwin) should make the noise go away (even an identical SeaSonic) since coil whine is due to a specific PSU component (the coil) being slightly less than perfect off the assembly line.
I would either load up the PSU some more or talk to SeaSonic. Of course the Kingwin swap would be an option - hoping it doesn't have a 'bad' coil too.
Hope it helps

The thing is this is my replacement x-850, and it makes the exact same noise. So that makes me believe there is something wrong between the x-850 and the MoBo, since as soon as I unplug the MoBo the noise stops. If I unplug the GPU or any of my fans the noise is still there though.

 

[smorizio]

check to aee if the standoff and i\o shield is on right. you may have a ground issue with the mb.

 

[timnswede]

check to aee if the standoff and i\o shield is on right. you may have a ground issue with the mb.

Can you explain what that is? I don't really know anything about motherboards.

 

[C12Friedman]

Wow, that is weird... and has me thoroughly confused. I could probably write a dissertation on why that shouldn't be...

 

[C12Friedman]

Standoffs are the little legs the motherboard is mounted on. The I/O shield is the metal(?) plate at the back of the computer where the connections attach

 

[timnswede]

Everything looks good so I don't know what to do. I can add that the motherboard cable has two different plugs that go into the motherboard. Only the ten pin causes the high pitch whine. The bigger one (18 pin) doesn't cause a whine, but I need both plugged in.

 

[timnswede]

Oh I found a video of what it sounds like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDgvgM202dE