Weird Noise and High Idle Temps

[Kevoltschinal]

First the Basics. I upgraded my PC from:

• CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
• Mobo: MSI X570 Gaming plus
• Cooler: bequiet! Pure Rock Slim
• RAM: Gskill Trident Royal DDR4-3000 CL16 2 x 8 GB

To

• CPU: Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• Mobo: MSI B650 Tomahawk MAG
• Cooler: Lian Li Galahad II Trinity 360 SL-INF
• RAM: Gskill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 CL30 2 x 16 GB

(I also changed the case: Lian Li O11 vision and the fans: Lian Li SL-inf 120.

I kept the GPU: RX6950XT and PSU: Corsair RM850e and my SSDs and HDD)

After configuring the BIOS, booting into Windows and configuring the Lian Li Software I noticed a couple of things.

1. A weird fan noise that was already present in the old pc also appeared in the new pc although I changed all the fans. After some looking around I found out it is the PSU fan that’s the cause of it. Its still under warranty so that’s not a problem. (Just mentioning this because PSU will appear later again.)
2. Another weird sound (Hard to say, but coming from somewhere near the CPU I guess)
3. Poor cooling performance (Idle Temps of 50 to 60 degrees Celsius)

The last two things were a clear indicator for me: Faulty pump or stuck air. Long story short: I tried pretty much everything to get rid of the stuck air. After that a friend of mine came over, we unplugged the pump and all the fans but the noise was still there. Good thing: AIO is fine. Bad thing: Temps are still bad (I will get to that later again) and the noise has a different source.

 

So back to troubleshooting.

 

We found out, that the sound is audible in the PSU as well, so we switched the PSU. The noise is still there, but now you can’t hear it from the PSU, only from the front of the case. We swapped the GPU and the noise was gone. Now we were really confused.

 

The GPU was in the “old” PC and there were no such noises. Also: the sound doesn’t change no matter what load we put on either GPU or CPU except for one game: Satisfactory. As soon as we entered a save the sound got at least twice as loud. The sound only starts like 10 seconds in windows and stops as soon as you hit “shut down” in windows.

This all would lead me to the conclusion: Coil whine from the Mainboard.

 

BUT: Why does the sound disappear when we swap the GPU and why does it sound nothing like I remember coil whine to sound like. Maybe its coil whine, but only when this particular GPU is plugged in?

And this still doesn’t explain the high idle temperatures. We reseated the CPU, and the AIO. We used Kryonaut Extreme as thermal paste. The temps under a sustained 100% load are 70 to 75 degrees Celsius which is completely fine, so why are the idle temps that high?

 

 

In conclusion:

I just want to find the source of the noise and more importantly if I should return any of the components. The noise isn’t very loud. When the case is closed its almost gone, so I am not bothered by it, just interested and worried if something might break in the long run.

 

Audio:

 

Edited April 16 by Kevoltschinal
Fixed the Layout

[OddOod]

Welcome to the forums!
Very thorough post
It's highly likely that the sound is coil whine which is idiosyncratic. Also, it can be hard to isolate exactly where a sound is coming from. If you have an app like spectroid on your phone it may help localize it 

As for returning, most companies won't RMA for coil whine

[OddOod]

On the temps front, what do your fan curves look like? And have you looked at the individual core temps? It's possible that there is a bit of wonkiness in whatever temp sensor you're looking at. I've definitely had a CPU that reported core temp all over the place, but individual cores were all perfectly fine

[Slide-Byte]

The idle temps seem to be a bit higher than the expected norm ~40°C but there's a few things to consider when judging what YOUR normal idling temp should be. 

1. Ambient heat / temp of the room 

2. Placement of your rig, if it's in a spot starved for fresh air...it's "breath" will easily be a little warm 

3. Case fan set up (always aim for that slight positive pressure, not just for dust but it helps keep a steady flow of fresh cool air especially around the radiator.

4. Radiator size and fan type (recommended to have static pressure fans for the radiator, it dissipates heat off them better than a high flow fan).

 

Last, never hurts to double check the contact between your CPUs IHS and the cooling mechanism (in this case you said an AIO I believe?) run some temp monitoring and put just a little pressure on the AIO if the temperature drops when you rest your hand in it, that's a good indication the contact isn't optimal and could be the reason your idle temps are higher than desired. It also never hurts to remove/reapply the paste if you feel comfortable doing so.

 

As far as the noise..that seems tricky, after giving it a few listens it almost sounds vibrational (isn't all sound just vibration? Well. Yes lol) but hard to say it sounds like a electrical component is potentially failing or causing resonance. Double check for ANYTHING that might've made its way up into the fans near where the sound comes from. You'd be surprised how dust or any grime can throw a fan slightly out of balance. For example I had a buddy accidentally wipe off a small clump of thermal paste onto a fan, once it ramped up in speed that little offset weight caused the fan to make a strange hum.

 

Have you checked to make sure no fan blades are making contact with the radiator? Some of those fans sit crazy close and a little dirt or hair could be getting slapped by the fan.

 

If you think it's a fan in the GPU, you can usually disconnect the fans manually, just look between the sheath and the board of the GPU and you'll find it. Unplug one, give it a quick whirl and listen in. Just don't forget to plug it back in later lol

 

Hopefully this provides some help in finding your point of failure / correcting it. As far as potential long term damage, I don't think that'll be determined until the source of the noise is understood. Good luck bud!

[Slide-Byte]

5 minutes ago, OddOod said:

On the temps front, what do your fan curves look like? And have you looked at the individual core temps? It's possible that there is a bit of wonkiness in whatever temp sensor you're looking at. I've definitely had a CPU that reported core temp all over the place, but individual cores were all perfectly fine

I did the same thing yesterday when upgrading my CPU and applying new past. It was a beefier chip so I knew it would run hotter but I had to double check that all the cores were experiencing the same heat before I would allow myself peace of mind lol 

[Kevoltschinal]

13 hours ago, Slide-Byte said:

The idle temps seem to be a bit higher than the expected norm ~40°C but there's a few things to consider when judging what YOUR normal idling temp should be. 

1. Ambient heat / temp of the room 

2. Placement of your rig, if it's in a spot starved for fresh air...it's "breath" will easily be a little warm 

3. Case fan set up (always aim for that slight positive pressure, not just for dust but it helps keep a steady flow of fresh cool air especially around the radiator.

4. Radiator size and fan type (recommended to have static pressure fans for the radiator, it dissipates heat off them better than a high flow fan).

 

Last, never hurts to double check the contact between your CPUs IHS and the cooling mechanism (in this case you said an AIO I believe?) run some temp monitoring and put just a little pressure on the AIO if the temperature drops when you rest your hand in it, that's a good indication the contact isn't optimal and could be the reason your idle temps are higher than desired. It also never hurts to remove/reapply the paste if you feel comfortable doing so.

 

As far as the noise..that seems tricky, after giving it a few listens it almost sounds vibrational (isn't all sound just vibration? Well. Yes lol) but hard to say it sounds like a electrical component is potentially failing or causing resonance. Double check for ANYTHING that might've made its way up into the fans near where the sound comes from. You'd be surprised how dust or any grime can throw a fan slightly out of balance. For example I had a buddy accidentally wipe off a small clump of thermal paste onto a fan, once it ramped up in speed that little offset weight caused the fan to make a strange hum.

 

Have you checked to make sure no fan blades are making contact with the radiator? Some of those fans sit crazy close and a little dirt or hair could be getting slapped by the fan.

 

If you think it's a fan in the GPU, you can usually disconnect the fans manually, just look between the sheath and the board of the GPU and you'll find it. Unplug one, give it a quick whirl and listen in. Just don't forget to plug it back in later lol

 

Hopefully this provides some help in finding your point of failure / correcting it. As far as potential long term damage, I don't think that'll be determined until the source of the noise is understood. Good luck bud!

 

Hi, thanks for the fast response. I'll try to adress all the points.

1. 22°C at 50% Hum.
2. Rig is on a small seperate desk with enough space in all directions
3. Case fan set up is exactely the same as this: 
    (At the timestamp i linked (7:30) he reports of ambient temperatures of 35C while having pretty much the same setup)
4. Fans are the Pre-attached Lian Li SL-INF 120mm

Adressing the concact issues:

I reseated the cpu and AIO multiple times, and tried different strengths of tightening the mounting screws. I'll include a picture of themal paste pattern at the end.

 

Adressing fan noise:

Although it sounds mechanical, we disconnected every mechanical component and the noise was still there. You could defenitely be right about a failing electrical component.

 

But I am pretty sure the problem lies somewhere with the GPU. Because yesterday i found another weird occation where the sound gets louder. I did some light CAD work and as soon as i spun the model the sound got louder and as soon as I stopped movin it immediately dissapeared.

 

Picture of thermal paste spread:

[Kevoltschinal]

14 hours ago, OddOod said:

Welcome to the forums!
Very thorough post
It's highly likely that the sound is coil whine which is idiosyncratic. Also, it can be hard to isolate exactly where a sound is coming from. If you have an app like spectroid on your phone it may help localize it 

As for returning, most companies won't RMA for coil whine

Hi, thanks for the fast reply. I'll try that for sure. I'd be glad if it is just coil whine because that means i don't have to return anything as the noise is quiet enough to not bother me.

[Kevoltschinal]

14 hours ago, OddOod said:

On the temps front, what do your fan curves look like? And have you looked at the individual core temps? It's possible that there is a bit of wonkiness in whatever temp sensor you're looking at. I've definitely had a CPU that reported core temp all over the place, but individual cores were all perfectly fine

I just used the standard fan curve of the lian li software, but turning the fans up doesnt really change the temperature, which would lead to the conclusion of a bad fit. But the load temps aren't unusually high so I don't think that is the issue.

 

I read the Temps with HWinfo but i don't remember if the temps were very different per core, i'll have to check that.

[Slide-Byte]

6 hours ago, Kevoltschinal said:

I just used the standard fan curve of the lian li software, but turning the fans up doesnt really change the temperature, which would lead to the conclusion of a bad fit. But the load temps aren't unusually high so I don't think that is the issue.

 

I read the Temps with HWinfo but i don't remember if the temps were very different per core, i'll have to check that.

It could be that it just runs a little hotter, but if it's under warranty could always contact customer support and see if they're willing to replace it. If under load it doesn't reach temps that cause throttling, maybe it's not much to worry about. As far as the hum goes, seems like you've narrowed it down to something electrical and could lead to a fault / failure in the future. Might need to replace the components you believe are causing it.

 

The paste and distribution over the IHS looks pretty solid so that's definitely not the cause of heat. If the pump wasn't working, those temps would climb to 70s/80C nearly instantly out of the bios