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question on noisy PSU

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Z

zan

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Joined
Apr 9, 2012
Greetings fellow overclockers!

I recently bought a PC and am pretty satisfied with it, apart from the noise. I bought the Kaze Master II fan controller (after excellent advice from this very forum, namely EarthDog and MattNo5ss) and this helped reduce the noise considerably, however the problem remains. It seems now that the source of the noise is the PSU. It's again a "fan" humming sound, I think like the one the PSU is supposed to make when it starts but then subside, you know? Well, it doesn't. It keeps humming.

It is not a matter of dust or anything, I cleaned it quite thoroughly with the vacuum cleaner. Although there was an evil "dust bunny" underneath, there was no improvement after its removal.

I read somewhere that the CPU power saving features in the BIOS can cause the PSU to emit the noise and if they're disabled this may cure the problem. What are those features, though? I should also add that the motherboard comes with an EasyTune6 thingie, if anyone's familiar with it. Perhaps something can come out of that?

Any other reasons or suggestions? I truly hope it's something that can be solved softwarewise and not simply a faulty PSU that has to be replaced. It's still under guarantee, but it's nonetheless an inconvenience. I also wouldn't want to go so far as to open the PSU myself and oil the axis of the fan, as I saw suggested elsewhere. Of course, if any of those is the real cause, I'll go for it. Oh well.

My setup:
PSU: Coolermaster SilentPro (500W)
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 (s1155, 3,4 GHz, 8MB)
M/B: Gigabyte P67A D3 B3 (s1155, P67, DDR3)
HDD: HDD WD SATA II 1.5 TB 64MB RE4
SSD: OCZ Agility 3 Series 120 GB SSD (2,5'', Sata 6Gb/s, AGT3-25SAT3-120G)
OS: Windows 7, 64bit
(if any additional info is needed, please let me know)

Thanks again for all the feedback, I really appreciate all the help.
 
why not try swapping out the PSU fan with a gentle typhoon or something

the fan could just be old and the oil idea is a good one
i'd give it a shot before blowing money on a fan

BE WARNED: check to make sure that you wont be voiding your PSU warranty by taking it apart (check online to see if they have stickers and stuff to check for this)...cuz if it does turn out to be a faulty PSU (i don't think this is the situation though) then you could be screwing yourself outa a free replacment
 
It can't be an old fan, the whole system is brand new, less than two months old.
 
Coolermaster SilentPro (500W)
Not the world's greatest, but I did find a review with real load testing and it survived without woefully violating spec. On the other hand the review was in 2008, so it's a bit old.
 
zan said:
It can't be an old fan, the whole system is brand new, less than two months old.
Click to expand...

oh, maybe i mis read your post but i thought you mentioned you cleaned a bunch of dust out of it....so i assumed it was old

but i agree with above posts
RMA while ya can
 
but i agree with above posts
RMA while ya can
Click to expand...
I don't think this is cause for RMA. The PSU just isn't particularly quiet. There's not much to do about it but get a different PSU. :shrug:
 
Bobnova said:
Coolermaster SilentPro (500W)
Not the world's greatest, but I did find a review with real load testing and it survived without woefully violating spec. On the other hand the review was in 2008, so it's a bit old.
Click to expand...
Did the review say anything about the noise level?
 
Very quiet was one of the pros. I don't know what they were comparing it to.
 
Jackhammers. They compared it to Jackhammers.
Click to expand...
It seems to be functioning normally then! Problem solved!

Well, if it's supposed to be a SilentPro, we would hope it would be silent. And if it's not, it sounds RMA-able to me. Or returnable as defective, get your money back, and buy a Seasonic. :D It doesn't look like your system pulls enough power to warrant the fan going full blast all the time.
 
Thanks to every1 for the feedback, it's much appreciated.

Yeah, I suppose a PSU that has "silent" as part of its name should at least be reasonably quiet. I'd love a company being sincere enough to name a model NoisyPro, wouldn't you? Still wouldn't buy it though :D

I'll take it back to the store one of these days and let you know on what happens. Unless some other brilliant suggestion beats me to it.

Thanx again.
 
Aggravating news!
Just got back from the store where they told me the noise is normal! They also said that the PSU was the most quiet thing in the PC and that the HDD or the graphics card made more noise. Here's the cool part: The place where they were trying to listen to the noise had music in the background! Is this FailBlog material or what?

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the PSU, as any noisy gadget would, makes a very "specific" noise, meaning that it emits very specific frequencies, right? So, if you're in a large room that has music (even at low volume) it is possible that these specific frequencies are already present in the room, right?

What proves beyond doubt that they didn't listen to it right is that the HDD and the VGA are almost ENTIRELY silent!

The guys said "no,no,it's normal" so I thought to myself "oh, well, maybe they're right" so I got it back home. When I turned it on I was fuming! With the door open, you can hear the bloody thing from the next room! When you shut down, you let out a sigh of relief! Are these things characteristic of a PSU called SilentPro, whose every review says it's silent? (Your forum's review read: Advantages: Silent, silent, silent.)

A question I have is this though: Is it possible that the setup requires too much power that the PSU can't handle, so it works full blast all the time? The noise is the same whether I'm doing nothing or have 4 heavy programs running simultaneously.

Here's the entire setup:

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 (s1155, 3,4 GHz, 8MB)
M/B: Gigabyte P67A D3 B3 (s1155, P67, DDR3)
HDD: HDD WD SATA II 1.5 TB 64MB RE4
CPU COOLER Corsair Air Series A50 CAFA50
RAM DDR3 Corsair 8 Gb (2x4) Kit Vengeance 1600
VGA PCI EX MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk 1Gb
Case Coolermaster Silencio RC-450
DVD-RW Sata Sony AD-728OS-OB
SSD: OCZ Agility 3 Series 120 GB SSD (2,5'', Sata 6Gb/s, AGT3-25SAT3-120G)
OS: Windows 7, 64bit

and the culprit:
PSU: Coolermaster SilentPro (500W)

I 'm ready to go back and make a fuss if necessary, I've been trying to make this machine quiet and start working (I'm a recording musician) for two months now!

Thanx again for all the help.
 
Last edited:
It may be normal for that PSU, but it is not normal for PSUs in general.
I would contact CoolerMaster. I would also not use that computer shop anymore.
 
zan said:
Aggravating news!
Just got back from the store where they told me the noise is normal! They also said that the PSU was the most quiet thing in the PC and that the HDD or the graphics card made more noise. Here's the cool part: The place where they were trying to listen to the noise had music in the background! Is this FailBlog material or what?

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the PSU, as any noisy gadget would, makes a very "specific" noise, meaning that it emits very specific frequencies, right? So, if you're in a large room that has music (even at low volume) it is possible that these specific frequencies are already present in the room, right?

What proves beyond doubt that they didn't listen to it right is that the HDD and the VGA are almost ENTIRELY silent!

The guys said "no,no,it's normal" so I thought to myself "oh, well, maybe they're right" so I got it back home. When I turned it on I was fuming! With the door open, you can hear the bloody thing from the next room! When you shut down, you let out a sigh of relief! Are these things characteristic of a PSU called SilentPro, whose every review says it's silent? (Your forum's review read: Advantages: Silent, silent, silent.)

A question I have is this though: Is it possible that the setup requires too much power that the PSU can't handle, so it works full blast all the time? The noise is the same whether I'm doing nothing or have 4 heavy programs running simultaneously.

Here's the entire setup:

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 (s1155, 3,4 GHz, 8MB)
M/B: Gigabyte P67A D3 B3 (s1155, P67, DDR3)
HDD: HDD WD SATA II 1.5 TB 64MB RE4
CPU COOLER Corsair Air Series A50 CAFA50
RAM DDR3 Corsair 8 Gb (2x4) Kit Vengeance 1600
VGA PCI EX MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk 1Gb
Case Coolermaster Silencio RC-450
DVD-RW Sata Sony AD-728OS-OB
SSD: OCZ Agility 3 Series 120 GB SSD (2,5'', Sata 6Gb/s, AGT3-25SAT3-120G)
OS: Windows 7, 64bit

and the culprit:
PSU: Coolermaster SilentPro (500W)

I 'm ready to go back and make a fuss if necessary, I've been trying to make this machine quiet and start working (I'm a recording musician) for two months now!

Thanx again for all the help.
Click to expand...

definitely go back and say something...make them look like idiots...also find the specs of your PSU and see what the normal db is at full load and then tell them you want em to test it with a meter in a quiet room.
if they don't, ask for a manager....then make him look stupid lol
just make sure to do your homework before you go in so YOU'RE not the one that looks stupid.

if you can't get anywhere with the company then just put a gentle typhoon in it man.
their not that expensive for just one and their awesomely quiet.
trust me...if you don't get anywhere right away then just save yourself the aggravation and put your own fan in.:attn:
 
SUCCESS! I had to insist for quite as much as John Cleese in the Dead Parrot sketch, that there really was a problem and that it should be included in the warranty, but I finally prevailed! They didn't have the same model, so I got a Corsair and it's perfect (cheaper too, so I treated myself some other goodies!) After two aggravating months my extrovert pc has finally shut up!

A big thanks to everyone for their feedback and support!
 
Perfect. Well done. I'm glad you got some satisfaction for your trouble.
Also, I love that sketch. I use "it has ceased to be!" constantly. Nobody ever knows what I'm talking about. I use it anyway.
 
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