Need help with coil whine noise. GPU or SSD?

Hi All,

I've been doing some research into my problems, and this forum kept popping up! So I thought I'd ask here seeing as most of my posts get ignored over at tom's... Anyway!

I have just built a cheap gaming pc: asus h81i plus, i3 4130, kingston 1600mhz ram, evga gtx 750ti sc, crucial m500 120gb, western digital blue 500gb, corsair cx430m psu

Recently I have been hearing a whining/screeching sound. At first I thought it was my gpu, but now I think it maybe my ssd instead. I realise that ssd's don't have moving parts and 'shouldn't' make a noise, but after reading this thread, I'm not too sure. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1571052

The sound I hear sounds something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33CDsIwNZa0 or like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdNqrP-0GNg so I'm guessing coil whine.

But, my problem is, is that the sound isn't consistent. I have tried to make my own recording, but guess what... As soon as I got my mic out the noise stopped. And I am finding it very hard to be able to produce the sound under test conditions, if that makes sense? It doesn't seem to occur much during gaming, but does sometimes for example whilst titanfall is loading. It did it a few times whilst playing ftl too? Which makes me question whether it is the gpu? I have also run the rog realbench software multiple times and, sometimes the computer whines and sometimes it doesn't. One time, i didn't load anything very intensive and then ran ccleaner and it made the noise, but then another time not.

I have read a few things that say coil whine can lessen after a while, but I don't know if it is normal considering the inconsistency of the noise? I guess, I would like to figure out what is actually causing the noise, and some opinions of what I should do?

Thanks in advance

Rob

Sometimes you can use an empty papertowel roll cardboard to help determine the source of the noise. Just hold it up to your ear and you can move it around to try and help pinpoint the noise. Sounds silly I know, but it works!

I would also make sure it's not your power supply, which can often be the source of coil whine, in addition to the graphics card. I've personally never heard of coil while from an SSD.

You could try doing what one of the posts in the SSD Screech thread did to confirm or rule out that it was the SSD:

Dew itt right said:

I left the side panel removed, stretched the SSD about 2-3 feet outside of the PC to isolate it, and held it up to my ear while I ran a benchmark on it. Sure enough the high pitched screeching noise appeared. Plus it was very easy to pinpoint that the screeching was not coming from anywhere in the PC, it was definitely coming from inside the SSD casing somewhere.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies, I'll try what has been said and confirm exactly where the noise is coming from.

As for ssd coil whine, I'm not sure if it is actually the ssd per se. But rather the power it is taking from the psu. I read somewhere that they don't use the 3v rail and instead down regulate the 5v rail - I'm not sure if I have got that 100% right because I don't really understand that kind of stuff too much. So maybe it is the psu?

I just find it strange for example if it was the gpu because some people say enabling vsync works to lessen the whine. I always have vsync enabled so I wouldn't have thought it was the gpu, but I understand that's the most common component for coil whine along with psu's. And as I said it did happen whilst running ccleaner to the best of my knowledge I can't imagine this program using the gpu, and that's why I mention the ssd?

What benchmark tool is recommended for ssd's? I'll ask google too

My geforce titan coil whines.....but only when it hits super high framerates in older games or benchmarks

I think I may have finally solved it... Feel a bit stupid now

I think the power cable connecting to the PSU wasn't securely connected. I haven't heard the noise since, but I am still keeping an ear out just in case!

It was quite strange, as I say it wouldn't occur typically in games making me question whether it was the GPU.

@Cube Do you enable vsync on the older games? I hear that helps

Rob