Intermittent high pitch whine but not the GPU?

[Valend]

Ryzen 7950x3D

Gigabyte AORUS X670 Elite Ax Rev 1.0 (bios F7b)

G.Skill Trident Z Neo 2x32GB (F5-6000J3040G32GX2-TZ5NR)

ASUS TUF RTX 4090 (non-OC version)

WD SN850X (1x 4TB, 1x 2TB)

Corsair RM1200x Shift

EK Nucleus Lux D-RGB (360)

Lancool III

Stock fans (case + AIO)

Win 11 Home 64-bit build 22621.1265

 

This is driving me nuts - I would have bet an arm it was GPU coil whine, but I removed the GPU and it was still there. I mean, it's different from coil whine I've heard before (I've RMA'd two cards for it before), but I couldn't guess where else it'd be coming from.

 

It's a high pitch tone that can last anywhere from a few seconds to a while. Doesn't seem to be directly related to GPU load, CPU load, file transfers, or anything else I can think of. I have the pump set to run 100% all the time and I can do the same for the fans, tried stock BIOS settings, it doesn't matter. It'll happen when running benchmarks or just poking around the BIOS.

 

Temp wise, CPU and GPU temps seem way better than I even expected.

 

Where would I even start? I have few components I could even swap to test - the PSU or NVME drives but that's about it, and I'd rather avoid having to steal them out of my other computer if I can help it. (This is also the first time in two decades I've ever done a build full of 100% new components now that I think about it - yikes).

[aledsav1]

roll up some a4 paper into a funnel one end your ear opening size other end a bit larger and go around the system/board and try and locate where its coming from.

 

could be anything, from a fan to a small component on the board..unclean electrical noise etc

[Valend]

21 minutes ago, aledsav1 said:

roll up some a4 paper into a funnel one end your ear opening size other end a bit larger and go around the system/board and try and locate where its coming from.

 

could be anything, from a fan to a small component on the board..unclean electrical noise etc

That's a good idea - I'm actually kind of shocked how well I could isolate certain sounds using just a piece of paper. Only takes a slight difference in position to make the difference between the fans sounding like a jet engine or not.

 

Sadly the only thing I can tell about the whine is that it's vaguely in the CPU/pump, GPU, RAM, M.2 area. Already ruled out the GPU and aside from the pump I've never even considered any of the others as potential noise makers. But doesn't appear to be any of the fans.

 

I almost want to bring it to Micro Center and tell them to have at it, as much as I would hate having to admit to having to do so. But I'm not even sure "annoying noise" is on their list of diagnosable criteria

[aledsav1]

well I would first determine if its the pump as thats the only moving part out of those(so potentially not an electrical reistance noise) if its not that then chances are its some unclean power related issue

[Blqckqut]

1 hour ago, Valend said:

That's a good idea - I'm actually kind of shocked how well I could isolate certain sounds using just a piece of paper. Only takes a slight difference in position to make the difference between the fans sounding like a jet engine or not.

 

Sadly the only thing I can tell about the whine is that it's vaguely in the CPU/pump, GPU, RAM, M.2 area. Already ruled out the GPU and aside from the pump I've never even considered any of the others as potential noise makers. But doesn't appear to be any of the fans.

 

I almost want to bring it to Micro Center and tell them to have at it, as much as I would hate having to admit to having to do so. But I'm not even sure "annoying noise" is on their list of diagnosable criteria

what about the psu?

[Isseen]

Have the same problem after replacing my AIO with a new one. You could try to unplug it for a short time just to make sure, nothing bad should happen

[Valend]

Huh, I might have made a little progress. I fired up Memtest and it drove the noise absolutely bananas. Most frequently I'll hear it come on for about 8-10 seconds, it'll go away for a few seconds, come back. But Memtest was a bizarre combination of different things, including short bursts, and it was present during the entire test.

 

I need to try each DIMM individually tomorrow and see if there's any difference (and for all I know it could be something on the motherboard's end of things), but that's just like the strangest thing - I've never heard of RAM causing noise before?

 

EDIT: The noise starts between 4-5 seconds:

 

[aledsav1]

It is unlikely that the ram is the cause, it will be the mobo very likely in relation to the ram, if some component has failed (or is missing?) that reduces/cleans the flow of electricity (noise)