Help prevent CPU noise during low usage (I suspect a BIOS setting might solve it)

[KonyHawksProSlaver]

Just recently built a PC with 10700K and it constantly makes a weird ass high-pitched noise (it's like 3 sec noise, a short pause - maybe 100 ms - and then again the noise - this goes on 24/7) and now I finally had an eureka moment, when I realized it only does it under low load. I started Prime95 to test my hypothesis and suddenly the noise disappeared.

 

I tried to set Windows on High performance (so it wouldn't throttle my CPU during inactivity) but that doesn't help. Seems it actually needs to be under usage, just removing the underclock doesn't work.

Do you have any ideas what could I do? Maybe increase the minimum voltage in BIOS, or change some settings... (I recall Intel CPUs having some sort of power saving features, maybe those?)

 

i7-10700K

MSI MEG Z490 ACE

latest UEFI BIOS, cca January 2021

[MorbidAngel]

Are you sure it's the CPU and not the GPU? Because then it could be coil whine? There's different videos on YouTube you can look at to compare if the noise is in fact coil whine. If so there's not really much you can do about it, maybe buying a better PSU could potentially make it better.

[Alex Atkin UK]

In my experience whine tends to be caused by the motherboard or PSU, as its down to how the power regulation works.

 

I had to replace a PSU and motherboard due to whine as once it started, just replacing one or the other didn't fix it.  Although in my case it was only really a problem under load rather than idle.

[.Apex.]

4 minutes ago, KonyHawksProSlaver said:

Just recently built a PC with 10700K and it constantly makes a weird ass high-pitched noise (it's like 3 sec noise, a short pause - maybe 100 ms - and then again the noise - this goes on 24/7) and now I finally had an eureka moment, when I realized it only does it under low load. I started Prime95 to test my hypothesis and suddenly the noise disappeared.

 

I tried to set Windows on High performance (so it wouldn't throttle my CPU during inactivity) but that doesn't help. Seems it actually needs to be under usage, just removing the underclock doesn't work.

Do you have any ideas what could I do? Maybe increase the minimum voltage in BIOS, or change some settings... (I recall Intel CPUs having some sort of power saving features, maybe those?)

 

i7-10700K

MSI MEG Z490 ACE

latest UEFI BIOS, cca January 2021

If you're sure that after setting the power plan to High Performance it doesn't downclock itself anymore then it could be because the BIOS is shutting down VRM phases under low load to save power and that could be why it's noisy? not sure where you'd find that setting on an MSI BIOS, or it could be that at low usage the voltage is shooting up so you might need to set up LLC or set up a fixed overclock with manual voltage, I've never heard about noise issues at low load, it's usually the opposite..

[Albert F]

This my friend, is coil whine, you can't really fix it. My laptop had it for years and so does my PS4 and my router. The best thing you can do is ignore it. If you can't do that do what car guys do when their car has an issue and turn up the music

[KonyHawksProSlaver]

5 minutes ago, MorbidAngel said:

Are you sure it's the CPU and not the GPU? Because then it could be coil whine? There's different videos on YouTube you can look at to compare if the noise is in fact coil whine. If so there's not really much you can do about it, maybe buying a better PSU could potentially make it better.

I'm sure it's not the GPU, because I recently upgraded motherboard+CPU+RAM+PSU, while GPU stayed from the old computer (also, the noise disappeares under CPU load - not GPU load)

[KonyHawksProSlaver]

1 minute ago, .Apex. said:

If you're sure that after setting the power plan to High Performance it doesn't downclock itself anymore then it could be because the BIOS is shutting down VRM phases under low load to save power and that could be why it's noisy? not sure where you'd find that setting on an MSI BIOS, or it could be that at low usage the voltage is shooting up so you might need to set up LLC or set up a fixed overclock with manual voltage, I've never heard about noise issues at low load, it's usually the opposite..

Yeah weird isn't it? But it's true, when I don't touch the computer, it's noisy, as soon as I start a heavy CPU task, the noise stops...

[thepoorgamer]

You could adjust your fan curve on your CPU cooler, but that might cause your cpu to thermal throttle. What is your cooler? If you have a big aio or something, you could probably run with the fans off most of the time.

[KonyHawksProSlaver]

1 minute ago, thepoorgamer said:

You could adjust your fan curve on your CPU cooler, but that might cause your cpu to thermal throttle. What is your cooler? If you have a big aio or something, you could probably run with the fans off most of the time.

Maybe I misunderstand what you mean, but the noise isn't coming out of the fan. I have a Noctua.

[KonyHawksProSlaver]

For future reference, I "solved" it by disabling C-states. Nothing else worked (even tried limiting it to C0, but until I specifically changed "C-states" to Disabled it was making the noise).

[thepoorgamer]

On 3/2/2021 at 11:33 AM, KonyHawksProSlaver said:

Maybe I misunderstand what you mean, but the noise isn't coming out of the fan. I have a Noctua.

Ok my bad