Strange noise from PSU - clicking?

[Diasper]

Hiya, basically something that has been occuring for a while now but haven't thought to deal with except now again when I'm tweaking a few things on my PC and giving it an MOT.

Basically, the PSU (a Zalman 400W rev A so 15A on +12V) emits a clicking sound which is quite sporadic but regular in as much as typically there is at least a click every 2 seconds.

This seems to typically happen when the case/room is getting hotter and the PSU starts pushing out much more air and in fact alot of quite hot air - much hotter than the air coming from my 120mm exhaust. This is despite the system often being idle although currently it's priming at the o/c as in my sig. What can remedy this is when I take the side of my case off - I presuming this is because everything cools down but the suddenly stop of clicking is so immediate I'm wondering if it is to do with the pressure (negative pressure) in the case?.

However, I am confused as what is giving here. What is making the clicking sound - is it something to worry about? Also I don't understand why the PSU can suddenly heat up so much (and presumably struggle) especially when the system is idle and even more mildly overclocked to 200x11 @1.75.

What advice can people give? Atm I've now taken the side of the case off.

 

[Diasper]

Interesting, it appears to be air pressure related as I just took off the front filter and thus improving airflow and its stopped. (Antec 3700AMB case - I have 2 x 120mm papst where the exhaust is 7v, the front is 10v while I have an artic cooler exhausting straight out from my 9800pro and obviously my PSU exhaust).

Bit strange. Temps have dropped a couple of degrees being another positive. (Only priming about 57.5C now though thats on blend...)

 

[Diasper]

Oddly enough my PSU seems by far the hottest part of my computer....? I'm sure that's not right given a decently overclocked processor. Oh well lol - maybe the PSU is a bit askew?

 

[Diasper]

After some further testing it seems to thing is now fixed ...after all that time and annoyance.

Ah well thread finished. lol

 

[albumleaf]

If your rear 120mm fan is pushing out too much air, not enough air will flow out of your psu because of the pressure difference. I can tell in my Sviking case that when i turn up my rear fan to highest, the amount of air coming out of the weaker panaflo fans in my psu drops significantly. Try and even this out and you won't have a heat issue

 

[obeseotron]

I've heard extremely faint clicking from my OCZ 520w before, but it's only audible with my head less than 6 inches from the psu. I've ignored it since I have a reasonable degree of confidence in my PSU and people use it to power far more than an 130mm a64, single 6800gt and 4 hdds. Would be curious to know the solution if you find out.

 

[Diasper]

Originally posted by: obeseotron
I've heard extremely faint clicking from my OCZ 520w before, but it's only audible with my head less than 6 inches from the psu. I've ignored it since I have a reasonable degree of confidence in my PSU and people use it to power far more than an 130mm a64, single 6800gt and 4 hdds. Would be curious to know the solution if you find out.

Well it was due to air pressure as it seems because as soon as I too the front filter off the sounds has not never come again and this is despite the cpu being overclocked a bit further than before. The result is the same when I take the side of my case of - the sound suddenly disappears and that is faster than the necessary time it would take to cool down if overheating was the problem.

As for the sound the clicking could sometimes be quite faint and you'd only hear it if you had your head close or were really listening for it. Other times you could clearly hear it on the other side of a quiet room which was more worrying.

I hope that helps to clairfy things.