Power Supply issues

chiLLZ · 2 Jan 2009 at 18:18

I have upgraded to x58/ core i7 recently and kept the same PSU which I thought would be adequate.

the PSU is an Akasa 850W PowerMax PSU: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-026-AK

The problem is with this new build the PSU makes a very high pitched electrical sound. I am sure that the sound is generated by the components themselves because I have stopped each fan with my finger briefly and still it persists. With the PSU being rated at 850w, i am wondering if it is overloaded since I have 4 hard drives and two gtx280s.

The system is overclocked to 4ghz and completely stable but this sound worries me, it is loud and I don't know if its normal for a psu to do that, I am worried its going to blow or something lol. Also I dont want to spend more £££ on a new psu if I can help it.

with my old 790i/ q9450 setup the sound was there but only in games and not nearly as loud.

Any ideas about if this system is currently safe would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

rkhroma · 2 Jan 2009 at 18:31

I'm newly registered but Ive been reading some threads and people have been having similar problems with PSU's whistling like that and it means its straining to supply enough power. Try to disconnect the non vital HDD (the ones you use for storage) and see if the problem persists. If the noise stops, you need a better PSU.

RJC · 2 Jan 2009 at 18:52

Put your overclock back to normal and remove one card to see how you get on.
Done a quick recky on PSU calculator and that come up with 763w.

rkhroma - You wont get a avator until you reach 100 posts, also your sig is against the rules, no moving images and max of 400 x 75.

chiLLZ · 2 Jan 2009 at 19:09

Thanks for your reply rkhroma, I did as you suggested, disconnected all four hard drives and the power cables to the video cards, and powered up with a blank screen making sure there was as little connected to the psu as possible and the same noise was there.

This noise is still present with such a small amount of components connected so I assume that in this case the noise is not indicating that i have overloaded the power supply, which makes me worry more because it might be a sign that it is going to fail and possibly destroy other components.

I need to know though, if an 850w psu is considered adequate for the amount components I have.

chiLLZ · 2 Jan 2009 at 19:15

RJC, i did not see your post, i am going to give that a try now because I left both cards in when i took out their power cables

rkhroma · 2 Jan 2009 at 19:17

RJC estimated that your components take about 763w. - your PSU is 850w so it seems fine. The reason for the noise is probably like you said; its going to fail. It happened to me (without the noise though) Can you smell any plastic burning smell? How long have you had this PSU and do you leave your system switched on for long periods of time?

95thrifles · 2 Jan 2009 at 19:21

rkhroma said:
RJC estimated that your components take about 763w. - your PSU is 850w so it seems fine. The reason for the noise is probably like you said; its going to fail. It happened to me (without the noise though) Can you smell any plastic burning smell? How long have you had this PSU and do you leave your system switched on for long periods of time?

Actually no, thats more than 80% (89), as 80% efficiency is best you can aim for Id recommend getting a new PSU, prob best go for a 1200

ChrisLX200 · 2 Jan 2009 at 19:25

No good guessing at what it might be, though if I had to I'd venture a power transistor on it's way out :0 what is true is that a PSU running correctly doesn't make that noise. So it's broke (or nearly so).

chiLLZ · 2 Jan 2009 at 19:36

Right, i am on 1 video card, no sound card, and I have loaded the bios defaults and disabled things like the SAS hdd controller and onboard audio. interestingly the sound is almost exackly the same except as soon as I saved the bios changes and booted the pitch lowered a bit, I changed the bios setting to default AFTER taking the videocard out, the videocard does not make a difference to the sound.

I am starting to think maybe the motherboard itself is making this sound, are any other ASUS p6t users are hearing something similar? As i am typing the sound is still quite loud but the psu should not be straining now surely because there are less components. The sound is very hard to pinpoint but it is loudest around the cpu/psu part of the case

:confused:

chiLLZ · 2 Jan 2009 at 19:40

ChrisLX200 said:
No good guessing at what it might be, though if I had to I'd venture a power transistor on it's way out :0 what is true is that a PSU running correctly doesn't make that noise. So it's broke (or nearly so).

yeah I agree but i just spent all my available funds on a i7/ x58 so I am going to have to wait for a month or two.

EsaT · 2 Jan 2009 at 20:02

Depending on CPU those components have combined peak draw between 450 and 500W and that PSU is made by Enhance which is credible maker.

chiLLZ said:
with my old 790i/ q9450 setup the sound was there but only in games and not nearly as loud.

Same graphic card or one less?

Apparently most high end graphic cards make various noises.
The card does suffer from the same high-pitched whine on load that seems to be endemic with modern high performance graphics cards.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article870-page5.html
During testing, the card produced a regular high-pitched electrical beeping when ATITool's artifact scanner
was in use, and a rhythmic whining during 3DView. Unfortunately, this is a common problem on high-end graphics cards
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article851-page5.html
In addition to the usual squealing under load which plagues many modern graphics cards, the card emitted a constant, high-pitched whine when first installed, which did not stop until the drivers
were installed and the system rebooted. Furthermore, after a fresh reboot the card occasionally generated an unusual squeal that fluctuated in frequency and tone for about two minutes. It was as if a tiny gremlin had crawled inside the machine and started to play miniature bagpipes. The noise was associated with an increase in GPU temperature to about 58°C, suggesting the GPU was under some kind of load that we were not aware of.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article891-page5.html

So maybe it would be time to start pointing finger also toward AMD/Ati and Nvidia?
In SPCR forum they've found similar noises from most components of PC and even hints about certain component combinations being able to cause them. PSU isn't only component of PC with lot of power regulation circuitry!

RJC said:
Done a quick recky on PSU calculator and that come up with 763w.

Flush that Extreme BS(U) Calculator down from toilet.
This is only realistic calculator:
http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php
(already uses value of factory overclocked GTX280)

95thrifles said:
Actually no, thats more than 80% (89), as 80% efficiency is best you can aim for Id recommend getting a new PSU, prob best go for a 1200

Stop spreading bullsh*t around. It's best used as fertilizer.

95thrifles · 2 Jan 2009 at 20:07

So if a system is drawing more than 80% thats ok is it? No
If he got the power draw calculation wrong thats fair enough, I was just explaining that if the power draw was that high, the PSU would struggle as it meant it was trying to draw more than 80%
Try reading before you try flaming

EsaT · 2 Jan 2009 at 20:58

I read all I needed to know you were talking nonsense and have slept over school's physics classes.

Advertised efficiency doesn't have anything to do with load where PSU works well. Even peak efficiency varies from fair 50 to 70 percent load of rated output depending on PSU.
Few of the latest highest efficiency PSUs with good effiency down to 10% of full output have peak efficiency at 40-45% load but efficiency still stays quite constant up to near full load. But as rule PSUs running below 20% load waste power compared to correctly sized PSU... just like your PSU is doing except when PC is under under heavy load. (sizing recommendation from that extreme calculator?)

Sure I wouldn't run any PSU constantly under full load but for normal PC use profile peak loads up to something like 75% of maximum shouldn't be any problem for quality PSUs (generally underrated) especially if you just offer PSU reasonable working environment and don't place it to hottest available place inside case.
Contemporary low quality PSUs made to die do that even if they have been idling all the time so in that situation even oversizing won't really quarantee anything.

ChrisLX200 · 2 Jan 2009 at 21:09

chiLLZ said:
yeah I agree but i just spent all my available funds on a i7/ x58 so I am going to have to wait for a month or two.

Ah. Sorry to hear that. You have a good set of components there that deserves a good quaility PSU. No good building a Ferrari and shoving cheap low-octane fuel in it

chiLLZ · 2 Jan 2009 at 21:18

EsaT, my old system also had the two gtx 280 cards, in fact the only difference between it and this one is the upgraded motherboard and cpu for x58 and core i7. I know about that kind of noise from video cards, i remember first really noticing it with the radeon 9800 pro especially when scrolling up and down web pages. these gtx 280's do it a bit when I run ati tool.

I thought about this and went into a game to see if it made the other noise worse and as soon as it had loaded the noise completely went away. I then exited the game and the noise stayed away but as soon as I did a reboot it was back. so now i am more confused then ever. :confused:

I tried to have a listen again with the case side off and it sould like it comes from the cpu/ psu area.

there was another post somewhere, I cant find it now where people were using some device on their computer plug to see what wattage rating there computers were using under load and most of the time on the high end systems the systems were using far less then the psu rating, i dont have much experience with electronics but i think my 850w it enough as you say. This sound is still there even with devices removed and less load.

I checked the +12v +3.3v +5v and vcore fluctuations load vs idle and the seemed very small i checked with asus pc mprobe 2 (stupid i know) but thats as far as my understanding goes.

This sound happens on boot every time and i can get rid of it by just going into a game. (right now i just hear the fans) i am more inclined to blame the motherboard for doing something on boot up
surely if i needed a new psu there would be instability and rail fluctuations ?

95thrifles · 2 Jan 2009 at 21:29

EsaT said:
I read all I needed to know you were talking nonsense and have slept over school's physics classes.

Advertised efficiency doesn't have anything to do with load where PSU works well. Even peak efficiency varies from fair 50 to 70 percent load of rated output depending on PSU.
Few of the latest highest efficiency PSUs with good effiency down to 10% of full output have peak efficiency at 40-45% load but efficiency still stays quite constant up to near full load. But as rule PSUs running below 20% load waste power compared to correctly sized PSU... just like your PSU is doing except when PC is under under heavy load. (sizing recommendation from that extreme calculator?)

Sure I wouldn't run any PSU constantly under full load but for normal PC use profile peak loads up to something like 75% of maximum shouldn't be any problem for quality PSUs (generally underrated) especially if you just offer PSU reasonable working environment and don't place it to hottest available place inside case.
Contemporary low quality PSUs made to die do that even if they have been idling all the time so in that situation even oversizing won't really quarantee anything.

Yes but yet again you fail to read what I actually wrote
I accept that the calculation was wrong, however in my original post, assuming the calculation had been right I was merely pointing out that this meant the PSU running at 89% load, which is not healthy! Period
I realise that the calculation was incorrect and it did seem a tad extreme, I was highlighting the fact about running at 89%. All a moot point now anyway as you have corrected the calcultion which shows that this is not the issue

TerminatorUK · 3 Jan 2009 at 00:24

I used to get a high-pitched sound that came from my old Radeon X800 XT PE when I played certain games....it was really weird. Could just be one of the new components rather than the PSU; only way to be sure is to try and borrow a friend's PSU and try that instead and see if the whine continues.

Merlinbadman · 13 Jan 2009 at 16:47

chiLLZ said:
I am starting to think maybe the motherboard itself is making this sound, are any other ASUS p6t users are hearing something similar?

Yeah I do, I was thinking it was my PSU. I think im going to have to investigate this more.