Antec Earthwatts 430W is ridiculously loud?

[LxMxFxD4]

I just installed the earthwatts into my 2.5 year old amd system to have it play better with my new 8800GT video card. But, compared to my enermax 465 whisper which is 5 years old (and has 2 fans) this thing is ridiculously loud.

And its not the sound of the fans, its a metalic sound, of sorts. High frequency-ish. But the fan noise IS reduced over my enermax.

Is this high frequency sound normal? Maybe my system overstresses the little +5V and +3.3V, I dunno. Here are my specs:

AMD X2 3800+ @ 2.4ghz
1GB PC3200 Ram x2
300GB Maxtor drives x4 (SATA RAID)
160GB IDE Seagate x1
16x dvd buner x1
Floppy drive x1
e-VGA 8800GT video card
PCI envy24 generic sound card
USB hub that has no connected devices
Keyboard & mouse

Now yes my comp as 5 HDs and probably uses a lot of power, but my enermax didn't emit this annoying metalic-ish humm.

Does anyone else have this noise? Also, anyone know if the Kill-a-watt meter can be bought at like walmart or home depot, and would you recommend it?

One final note: the noise does not change whether under full graphics usage or at idle.

 

[MarcVenice]

Earthwatt units are supposed to be quiet, I mean, in silentpcreviews tests they are as quiet as some of the quietest PSU's out there. Have you tried replacing it with your Enermax ? Just to see if the metalic sound stays or dissapears ? If it dissapears, then it's most definately the Earthwatts unit, and I would rma it. Your rig doesn't look that heavy at all, except for the HD's, which only require a lot of power at bootup, but once spinning the don't consume much power at all.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

I haven't tried placing my enermax back in there, as it took me a good 30 to 40 minutes to remove and replace it, and it would then take me another 30 to 40 mins to do it again. I suppose that is an option.

I did however put the enermax in another system thats even older (AMD 2100+) and fired that up a moment ago and heard no metalic-ish noise coming from it.

Now there is no doubt that the wind noise from the fans is less in the antec, but the constant hum will drive me nuts.

Should I call antec about this maybe?

 

[MarcVenice]

Well you could try, but noise is something so relative, they'll probably dismiss it, unless it's some kind of known problem to them. I'd really try the enermax, you don't really have to screw in the enermax, just hook everything up.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

well I just got off the phone with antec (which was damn speedy to get to a person btw) and he said to RMA it, as there shouldn't be any metalic noise.

The biggest worry I have here though is i'll get another one and hear the same sound. Can anyone CONFIRM that their antec earthwatts 430W doesn't make a humm beside the fan noise even with your ear near it with their case open?

 

[herm0016]

mine is barely audible. just got it too. really quiet.

 

[Zap]

I don't have a 430W in use (in the garage as a spare from a hot deal) but I am using an EA380 in my HTPC and an EA500 in my main rig, and both are really quiet.