Need advice on an issue I am having with my new I7 rig.

mogwai

mogwai

mogwai

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27 Aug 2004
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I have just built my new rig made up of the components listed below:

  • Intel Core i7 920 D0
  • Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58
  • Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7
  • Zotac GTX 280
  • Asus Xonar DX PCI-E
  • Antec P183
  • Corsair H50-1
  • 2 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB - RAID 0
  • LiteOn IHAS324-32 24x DVD±RW
  • Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 550w

The problem that I am having is that I am getting noise from what I assume are some of the capacitors in the PSU especially in intensive stuff e.g. Crysis especially on the menu, but also when browsing the web more so when a download progress bar is in use. It is definitely coming from the PSU rather than the mobo or GPU.

To try and troubleshoot this I have swapped out the GTX 280 with an 8400 GS I have kicking about. The noise is still present. I first noticed it during the tests for the windows experience index.I have also swapped out the PSU with a spare Coolermaster Real Power M620. The noise is the same. The GTX 280 has been taken out of the rig in my signature which does not have the above issue.

Following a suggestion in another thread I have turned off Speedstep and C1E in the BIOS. This has not helped unfortunately.

While I was build my other rig (the Q9450 based one). I had a similar noise issue; the difference here was that the noise seemed to be coming from the Mobo. The fix here was to RMA the Asus Maximus Formula and replaces it with an Asus P5Q – Deluxe. The main difference here other than the chipset is that the P5Q has more power phases than the Maximus.

However I don’t think that the RMA will be successful in this instance as the POST indicator on the board says FF which indicates that it has posted successfully.

Can anyone think of anything else I can try or do I need to bite the bullet and change to an Asus P6TD or similar?
 
If you replaced both the PSU and the GPU it means that neither of them is causing the sound.Maybe its coming from the HDD.Or it could be a bad capacitor on the mobo.Also you should make sure that the sound isn't made by vibrating components.
 
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It changes pitch too much expecially on the menu screens in Crysis, to be caused by a vibration but thanks for the suggestion.
 
Caps,VRMs,gfx cards and RAM have all been known to possibly make a sort of rattling noise - like a soft clicking/shuffling noise that varies according to voltage, speed and load. When my machine is clocked over 3.5Ghz I get the same. Its caused by EMF electro magnetic force and it is not nessesarily a bad thing.
 
tatts said:
A lot of UD5s do this, fixed mine by flashing to F9m and updating the Lan & sound drivers.
Click to expand...

I will try F9m tonight as I am running F9e. I am running the latest driver for the LAN and I have got the onboard sound disabled as I am using an Asus Xonar DX PCI-E sound card.
 
Also I noitced that as part of the score in the Windows Experience Index everything is 7. something except my disk which is 5.9. This seems a bit low for a RAID 0 array. HD Tach suggests an average read of 224 mb/sec which sounds OK?
 
mogwai said:
Also I noitced that as part of the score in the Windows Experience Index everything is 7. something except my disk which is 5.9. This seems a bit low for a RAID 0 array. HD Tach suggests an average read of 224 mb/sec which sounds OK?
Click to expand...

Hmm, I would have thought that would be higher too as I have one Samsung F3 1TB HDD that also scores 5.9 with a reading of approx 140mb/s.
 
mogwai said:
Also I noitced that as part of the score in the Windows Experience Index everything is 7. something except my disk which is 5.9. This seems a bit low for a RAID 0 array. HD Tach suggests an average read of 224 mb/sec which sounds OK?
Click to expand...

richb93 said:
Hmm, I would have thought that would be higher too as I have one Samsung F3 1TB HDD that also scores 5.9 with a reading of approx 140mb/s.
Click to expand...

Mechanical hard drive, irregardless of it's array will always score 5.9 maximum on W7.
 
mogwai said:
I will try F9m tonight as I am running F9e. I am running the latest driver for the LAN and I have got the onboard sound disabled as I am using an Asus Xonar DX PCI-E sound card.
Click to expand...

I have tried the new BIOS. This hasn't helped :confused:.

Am I likely to get anywhere with an RMA for noisy capcitors/vrms etc. when the thing posts a successful post on its indicator?
 
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im no expert ...
but isnt that even slightly underpowered
550w for an i7 with 2 disks in raid 0 and a sound card
does the GTX 280 consume much power because if it does it may be that especially if you say it happens when you stress the system out
 
I have tried a 620w PSU as well and get the same issue. In my other Q9450 which has RAID 0, a sound card and the GTX 280 this is running a 650 w version of the Be quite psu. But as I get the sound when I swap the GTX 280 for an 8400 GS, it seems to be pointing towards the motherboard. I have also tried removing hte sound card.
 
sorry i tried and failed (to diagnose)
time to regain scraps of dignity:
I vote RMA, ring up and ask if itll get you anywhere im sure Giga have tech support or something like that
 
I doubt OcUK will be happy RMAing something cause it is making a noise unless the noise is pretty loud. Does the system pass stress tests alright?

This is a pretty confusing statement:
mogwai said:
I have also swapped out the PSU with a spare Coolermaster Real Power M620. The noise is the same.
Click to expand...

If the noise is the same, as you say, when you swap the PSU out then thats a pretty strong indicator that it is not the PSU.
 
I have been having the same sort of problem since day one with my system, although it only ever happens when there is flash objects on websites. Everywhere else is fine, except when trying to watch most streaming video sites or certain banner adverts.

Having swapped around pretty much everything in the system, it seems to be the HDDs ( 2x http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-211-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279 ) making all the noise.

Although, it could be the graphics card rendering >250 fps ( always seemed to be the magic number with my old 8800GTX ) thats making a noise on the crysis menus. The same thing happens on the WoW title screen when my fps is above 120+
 
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