Coil whine caused by PSU?

[sanzen07]

I recently upgraded my computer with the following parts:

i7 3770k w/ Hyper 212 Evo
Intel DZ77GA-70K Motherboard
16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance Low Profile

I just reused these old parts from my previous build:

Corsair 550VX PSU
EVGA Geforce GTX 460 768MB Superclocked
Antec P183 + Scythe 120mm case fans
Intel 320 120GB SSD
WD 750GB HDD
ASUS Xonar DS PCI Sound Card
ASUS PCI-E Wireless Card

After I put all of this together, I began to notice a strange buzzing noise that I had not heard before when running 3D benchmarks (3DMark, Unigine) and games. I Googled a bit and found out that it's called "coil whine". I opened up my case to see if I could tell where it was coming from and it seemed to be coming from the video card (my best guess, it's difficult to tell). However, I had never heard this in my previous system, where I had been using the card for over 2 years. I was planning to upgrade my video card soon so I just decided to go ahead and get a Gigabyte GTX670. I put it in yesterday and I still hear the same coil whine that sounds like it's coming from the video card. It seems highly unlikely that both of these cards would exhibit the exact same behavior if it truly was the card causing the issue. The system is very stable and I've had no issues except for this annoying buzzing noise.

I'm not sure where to go from here but get another power supply and see if that fixes the issue. Do you think the PSU could be the problem? And is there anything else I should try first?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

If you've used the PSU and GPU together before with no issues, then it's unlikely to be the PSU now. I would suspect the motherboard myself. Can you move the GPU to the second PCIE slot? If it is the mobo, it may not whine in that slot, but if it does you can further isolate where the noise is coming from (could be coming from the CPU).

 

[sanzen07]

Okay, I did a bit more troubleshooting. I switched out the power supply with a different one and it exhibited the same behavior. After that I removed the video card to a different PCI-E slot and it also exhibited the same behavior. I removed the discrete video card completely and switched to Intel HD 4000 graphics. That eliminated the issue completely. I've read that coil whine is common for video cards so I guess I will just live with it since it's relatively faint.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

To troubleshoot noise issues I usually implement the pen test. Take a pen or pencil and stick it in one fan after another until the noise goes away or gets softer.

This is an upgrade from the original index finger test that I used to use.

 

[Puppies04]

From experience I would guess the noise is coming from the area around the CPU socket. Stick your ear in there and tell me if i am correct.