4790k squealing

Hi,

I have brand new 4790k running in an Asus z97i-plus. When everything is set to auto in bios it is squealing like a pig under load, louder than the fans at 100%. Otherwise the system is stable and running well, max temps at 75c while otcc or intel xtu stress testing, no throttling of any kind. I'd be fine with that except for the noise The only setting that stops the squealing is setting core ratios manualy even if it's set to the same intel specs (44-44-43-42) as bios automaticaly would set it to. No squealing then, but max temps only reach 60c and it starts thermal throttling there.

I don't want to OC this, it's a mini itx case, only bought the k version because there was almost no difference in price and it has a higher base clock, and I could even live with the squealing, except I'm afraid it's an indication that something expensive will die soon. Any ideas what could be causing this? The noise seems to come from around the cpu area, but it's hard to tell cause it's a small space so everything is close to one another. Thanks.

Are we saying the chip itself is squealing *scary* or is just coming from the case.
What are the complete specs of the system? This would help in others on the forum being able to diagnose what the situation might be.

Hi,

Specs:
i7-4790k
Asus z97i-plus
Corsair 2x8G DDR3 RAM (o)
EVGA 980ti SC VGA
Corsair CS650M PSU (o)
Crucial 250G SSD
Samsung 840 evo 128G SSD (o)
Seagate 7200rpm 2TB HDD (o)
Western Digital 7200rpm 2TB HDD (o)
Corsair 380t case

Those marked with (o) are old, everything else is brand new.

I can't tell you unfortunately, I've tried to make a tube out of paper to isolate the sound, but as everything is jammed together, I can't. I don't think it's the EVGA card (though I can't be sure), it seems to be fainter there, and it seems to be strongest around the CPU, but that doesn't mean it's the CPU as the motherboard is right there obviously and the top of the PSU is also pretty close. But it does seem to be a bit more quiet at the lower parts of the PSU. I've also tried ramping up all the fans 1 by 1 manualy and that doesn't produce the sound. The only exception is the PSU fan that I can't manualy control, but since the noise is a bit weaker where that is located it's probably not caused by any fans.
It's also not caused by the HDDs or the SSDs, it happens with them disconnected as well. Typing this just gave me the idea that i do have an internal GPU, so I could try to disconnect the VGA as well. Gonna try that, but since it correlates with CPU load and not with GPU load, and setting CPU ratios manualy stops the noise, VGA coil whine is unlikely IMHO.
Thanks for the reply.

CPUs don't squeal.

Try setting the voltage manually and change it... slightly lower or slightly higher.

Guess 1: Make sure the processor is seated properly.

Guess 2: Does the squealing sound like "mic feedback"...or like a really high pitch sound like "ringing in your ears"?

Could be the motherboard...one of the voltage regulator circuits. A choke will "squeal" if it has a loose wire.

When in BIOS, you can move the various voltages slightly to see if you get the squeal (be careful not to overvoltage).

EarthDog:
Tried 1.03, 1.07, 1.08 (highest I've seen on auto), 2.0, same squealing.

JrClocker:
1, Will do, but I don't have any excess thermal paste right now, have to wait till monday to get some. Wouldn't it cause other problems if it was not seated properly? The system seems rock stable so far.
2, closer to ringing in your ears, for a few days i was convinced it was the HDD as it was very much like regural HDD sounds except higher frequency and it was most noticable when loading graphic heavy webpages, then scrolling them. While scrolling it was as if the HDD was grinding as if it had to stream the page constantly, but I found that weird since my system drive is an SSD so I saw no reason for the HDD to work and that led to the discovery that it's some electrical noise.

If it is a choke, is it dangerous? Cause I can live with the noise, it's not that bad, just don't want this system to die on me.

Thank you

Try 1.15

2.0v would have destroyed your chip...


Its likely coming from the board. And some function of setting clockspeeds and/or voltages should correct the issue.

Time to RMA the motherboard...

Yeah, I meant 1.2

Anyone have any idea what changes when i set the core ratios manualy vs when I let it set them automaticaly? The ratios are the same, but no squealing, but insted i get thermal throttling at low temps. It must change some settings that I can't find.

It isn't thermal throttling, it is using power savings features. If you ran prime95/intelburntest/etc the speed should peak up and stay there. If it is dropping down still while that is happening let us know.

Janus67 said:

It isn't thermal throttling, it is using power savings features. If you ran prime95/intelburntest/etc the speed should peak up and stay there. If it is dropping down still while that is happening let us know.

Click to expand...

So with everything set to auto in the bios there is squealing but during stress testing with any software the clock peaks and stays there. If I set the core ratios myself, no squealing, but xtu indicates thermal throttling during stress testing AND the CPU clock jumps up and down constantly.

I will RMA it if I have to, but here I have to be sure first that it is the mobo and not the PSU or the CPU that is causing it and I have no clue how to prove that. (Also, running on iGPU now, squealing is still there).

maybe I missed it, what cooler are you using, or are you just using the stock Intel one?

Janus67 said:

maybe I missed it, what cooler are you using, or are you just using the stock Intel one?

Click to expand...

No, sorry, I forgot that, it's a deepcool gammaxx 300. I know it's not the best ever, but the only air cooler I found that would fit the case. I just ran a test with OCCT, after 1 minute thermal throttling kicks in, while max cpu temp reached is 64c. (Idle at the moment is 29c with case fans stopped, so I think the cpu cooler is not the problem).

edit: Just ran another test with everything set to auto (except cpu current limit set to 256, auto sets is to 110 and then I get current throttling), after 10 minutes, max temp reached 72c, no throttling, but squealing (the best description I figured out for the sound is that it's like an optical drive while seeking).

Run cpuz while stress testing to confirm the clocks are actually dropping. It shouldn't thermally throttle at that point... at least the cpu shouldnt. Perhaps it's the board and vrms....does that heatsink above the cpu get hot? What is airflow like inside that case?

Edit: well the throttling has something to do with the vrms it seems...

EarthDog said:

Edit: well the throttling has something to do with the vrms it seems...

Click to expand...

Yes, after reading around it seems it is the vrms overheating, which seems to be rather usual with tower coolers. Now I just hope it didn't already fry, cause that would make it very hard to RMA it around here, even if it fried by itself... Before I started worrying about the squealing it only ran at the bios' default settings (which was the intel optimized one, 4.6G max turbo), With bios' standard settings and with everything set to auto, so it shouldn't have fried, but who knows. Or would it be completely dead if it did? Is it even possible that the squealing noise is also connected to the vrms overheating?

Thank you for your help guys, it was definietly enlightening, yesterday I didn't even know that there are vrms in the world

EarthDog said:

Run cpuz while stress testing to confirm the clocks are actually dropping. It shouldn't thermally throttle at that point... at least the cpu shouldnt. Perhaps it's the board and vrms....does that heatsink above the cpu get hot? What is airflow like inside that case?

Click to expand...

I haven't checked it with cpu-z and now I don't want to stress test until I get some extra airflow over the area, but bot occt, intel xtu and cpuid hwmonitor say the same thing, that the clocks are dropping, so I'd be rather surprised if cpu-z disagreed. The heatsink is actualy quite cool. It's cooler than my hands. I accidently touched a capacitor next to the heatsink. Now that thing is HOT. It didn't burn me, but I would want to keep my finger on it for more than a second.
Airflow is a standard push-pull, there is a 140mm fan blowing in at the front, and a 120mm one sucking out at the back. As I didn't plan on overclocking and would prefer quietness over performance, I figured at stock speed it should be enough. And for the CPU it is plenty enough, but it seems the vrms will need another fan at the side blowing at them. :\

edit: I've tried setting a large room fan next to the case, blowing on those hot capacitors and the vrm heatsink, core ratios all set to 44, it takes 1.5 minutes until thermal throttling starts, while max CPU temperature reached is 60, but that's a peak, most of the time it stays around low-mid 50s under 100 percent load, still throttling, so unfortunately RMA it is, I hope it will get through.

Thank you all for your help.

Sorry for taking this further, but I've just tried installing Asus AI suite, and noticed that if I set ratios manualy it sets the CPU power phasing to extreme, while if I let it on auto it's set to optimized. Now if i switch it manualy to optimized it produces the same squealing as before even if ratios are set to sync all cores. So this is the difference! So I tried setting it to standard, and it is also squealing but it has a completely different pattern than when it's set to optimized. Setting it to extreme stops the squealing, but introduces thermal throttling even on otherwise default settings and even though according to the ASUS AI suite the motherboard temp is 39c and the cpu temp is 43c (I don't know what this is supposed to be, package temp is around 60c with these settings).

It's time to RMA the board...

You are probably experiencing coil whine
I had a similar problem a while back. RMAing the board did not fix it. Check out this thread to see if this fixes your issue.
In general, disabling some of the power management features made the whine go away, but the obvious downside is increased power consumption.
Chances are, when you are overclocking, these features are being disabled as well.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/701433-CPU-emitting-some-buzzing-noises

Edit: I know you said it's probably not VGA coil whine, but it could be coils on the motherboard (which is was in my case).

Well, ASUS said it's coil whine and it's normal, maybe try it with another PSU to see if it goes away, but otherwise live with it. The only thing that eliminates the noise is setting CPU power phase control to extreme or setting it to manual/medium in AI suite (interestingly setting it to medium in bios doesn't have any effect on coil whine). So for now I have it at medium with LLC at lvl 3, because with LLC set to auto and power phase control set to optimized or standard the vrms seem to be overheating

Well, this build turned out to be a bit more complicated than expected, but for now it works fine and gotta love Asus fan control, I usualy only have the CPU fan running at 300 rpm, which is almost completely silent, and even under medium load only the case fans help out with also around 300 rpm, so I only hear the fans under heavier gaming, which is kinda awesome. Only downside is that idle temps are around 36-38, but at least load temps under normal use don't ever reach 70s and don't go over 75 when stresstesting, so I'm quite happy about this. (Also the mild tinnitus I have is a bit more bothersome now that I'm not sitting next to something that is humming constantly )