Loud GPU coil whine and PSU fan maxed out

[dmc595]

When playing graphically demanding games on my RX480 STRIX that I purchased a few months ago I get really loud coil whine. Also at the same time the fan on my PSU a Corsair HX750 ramps up to full speed and is very noisy. The HX750 should be totally overkill for my CPU, the i7 3770k and the GPU, so I don't understand why it is being so noisy. Is the coil whine likely to be an issue with the GPU or the PSU, don't want to RMA one and find outs its the other. The PSU is 2 years and 10 months old.

[Gonio]

Maybe you accidently crank up fan speeds in software? Just checking btw, but you are sure it is coilwine and not just the loudness of the fans spinning around under high loads?

 

Anyway, have you OCed your system? What are your temps for CPU, GPU and overall system temps?

[dmc595]

The PSU fan is non-adjustable and all the other fans have custom fan curves. The CPU is not currently overclocked, the CPU is cooled by an H100 exhausting from the top of the case. The GPU runs at 40 degrees C idle and the CPU does as well. CPU maxes out at 70 and so does the GPU.

The PSU is noisy when I stress the GPU, not when the CPU is being stressed. It's definitely coil whine as I can here with all the PC fans stopped. The PSU fan is still noisy even when I crank up the case fans.

Edit:

The power temperature gets up to 80 degrees C

Edited January 8, 2017 by dmc595

[Quinnbeast]

The PSU fan can react to both load and temperature - it's possible that additional airflow to the PSU would help. What sort of case do you have - can you take a picture (internal) of your setup?

[dmc595]

On 08/01/2017 at 7:31 PM, Quinnbeast said:

The PSU fan can react to both load and temperature - it's possible that additional airflow to the PSU would help. What sort of case do you have - can you take a picture (internal) of your setup?

Case is a Coolermaster CM 690 II Case. Bottom and front fan are intakes, rear and top fans are exhausts, there are two intake fans on the side of the case but, they are only set to switch on at high system temps as they are quite noisy. I'm considering flipping the PSU so the intake is on the bottom of the case. My previous GPU was a blower, so it could be thermals related issue. The new card is also quite large in the case so it restricts the airflow a bit.

[Quinnbeast]

2 hours ago, dmc595 said:

I'm considering flipping the PSU so the intake is on the bottom of the case. My previous GPU was a blower, so it could be thermals related issue.

Yep, flipping the PSU might cure the issue with the fan noise altogether (if it's a thermal trigger). Even under moderate load, it's drawing in warm air which will push up the RPM. I'd also consider removing either the upper or lower part of the HDD cage (assuming it does separate that way); the SSD doesn't necessarily need to be hard-mounted... you could use velcro tabs / zip-ties / whatever to reattach it elsewhere. This will improve the airflow from the front fan towards the under side of the GPU. I usually try and ditch anything that can cause an obstruction, and unneeded HDD cages are an easy improvement.

[dmc595]

On 12/01/2017 at 8:47 PM, Quinnbeast said:

Yep, flipping the PSU might cure the issue with the fan noise altogether (if it's a thermal trigger). Even under moderate load, it's drawing in warm air which will push up the RPM. I'd also consider removing either the upper or lower part of the HDD cage (assuming it does separate that way); the SSD doesn't necessarily need to be hard-mounted... you could use velcro tabs / zip-ties / whatever to reattach it elsewhere. This will improve the airflow from the front fan towards the under side of the GPU. I usually try and ditch anything that can cause an obstruction, and unneeded HDD cages are an easy improvement.

I've flipped the PSU so it's intaking from under the case, and removed the front drive cages. The PSU fan is now also randomly spinning up when the PC is idle. And is still making quite a lot of noise when gaming. I'm less sure it's a thermal issue now or at least one caused by the GPU. The PSU is 750W and the system hardware at idle draws nothing close to that, so I would have thought it should still operate in zero rpm fan mode. Maybe some of the components are wearing out and generating more heat, although I would be surprised if that was the case.

[Quinnbeast]

That does sound as if the fan controller / design is a bit wonky, and you're not the only one to have had this problem it seems (see link). In this case they ended up testing the PSU outside of the case to make 100% sure it had plenty of fresh air and no restrictions to the airflow. Short version: once outside the case it took far longer for the RPM to ramp up, but when it did, it seemed to still hit 100% rather than increasing in stages.

 

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=111877

 

Also - bearing in mind that the original HX units were released around 2009, so designs will have moved on quite a bit since then. These units do have a 7 year warranty it seems, so it might be worth considering an RMA as a last resort.

[Coldfuson]

On 1/12/2017 at 3:47 PM, Quinnbeast said:

Yep, flipping the PSU might cure the issue with the fan noise altogether (if it's a thermal trigger). Even under moderate load, it's drawing in warm air which will push up the RPM. I'd also consider removing either the upper or lower part of the HDD cage (assuming it does separate that way); the SSD doesn't necessarily need to be hard-mounted... you could use velcro tabs / zip-ties / whatever to reattach it elsewhere. This will improve the airflow from the front fan towards the under side of the GPU. I usually try and ditch anything that can cause an obstruction, and unneeded HDD cages are an easy improvement.

I would suggest you check out lukes video on fan obstruction here. However flipping the PSU was definitely the right call 
 

 

[Quinnbeast]

14 hours ago, Coldfuson said:

I would suggest you check out lukes video on fan obstruction here. However flipping the PSU was definitely the right call 

I would suggest you try and recognise that one LTT video does not equate to some sort of universal truth that removes the need for any discussion. In that particular video they're using a blower-style card which ejects heat out the back of the case and is largely unaffected by case size / layout / airflow. They're also not looking specifically at temps for VRMs and memory modules etc over an extended period, so we can only guess the results there. I also find that heat build-up to be more cumulative than the 10-minute testing window shown in the video. An open or custom design GPU cooler dumps all the heat into the case and (in my experience) is more affected by case layout; my old GTX780 used to see a 8-10 degree improvement in temps by opening the door of my Fractal case by about 2 inches and removing the HDD cage and front dust filter.

 

Fortunately, all these things can be easily tested so there's relatively little need for theory-crafting. It doesn't cost anything to try a few tweaks in an attempt to solve a problem. My case layout and component list is completely different to the that one in the video - as are the results I get from intentionally obstructing the fans.