Whining VRM under load

[Lean L]

Perp: Ga-78lmt-s2p

This motherboard has been paired with an amd phenom II x6 1045t. Under load, one VRM produces a whining noise.

I felt them with my fingers, they are cool enough to touch.

Will it be fine running like this or should I look into getting a new motherboard?

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Typically the whining isn't a "bad" sign. Most electronics whine/vibrate, just mostly at frequencies above what we can hear. Unfortunately sometimes you get PSUs, Video cards, or Motherboards that produce that annoying whine noise. However, the only bad thing about that noise is how annoying it is.

There are things you can do to reduce/eliminate the whine. For example sometimes gluing down the part that is whining can help, but this is a task not to be taken lightly. Usually this is done with capacitors, not VRMs that can get hot.

Sometimes the whining can be caused by other things in the house. For example, in the house I am renting there is an old dimmer switch in the kitchen paired with new fluorescent bulbs. Whenever this light is on and my computer is drawing more than idle power there is a buzzing noise coming from my PSU. Annoying? Definitely. Dangerous, nope.

Also, the motherboard is whining, but it might not be the motherboard's fault. If you have any spare PSUs you might try swapping just to double check and see if the whining remains.

 

[Lean L]

Okay, thanks for that info.

I guess I am worried because this mobo has a 4 + 1 vrm design, the phenom II is overclocked, and it only whines on load. Again, it does not seem to be overheating. Is this still in the realm of normal?

 

[Plimogz]

does it whine at stock? did it whine before you OC'd?

I have a 4890 which was quiet until I started upping vGPU and Furmarking. Then it started buzzing under 3D load and was never quite the same again, even at stock. I remember that it really bothered me at the time...

This was roughly 3 years ago; I'm still waiting for the thing to give up the ghost so I can in all peace of mind get something faster.

 

[Lean L]

does it whine at stock? did it whine before you OC'd?

I have a 4890 which was quiet until I started upping vGPU and Furmarking. Then it started buzzing under 3D load and was never quite the same again, even at stock. I remember that it really bothered me at the time...

This was roughly 3 years ago; I'm still waiting for the thing to give up the ghost so I can in all peace of mind get something faster.

Idk about that. It's kind of feint so that I never really noticed it until very recently.

Basically I got the combo for a good price so I slapped on a huge heatsink and started overclocking right away. It's definitely a fun little machine but I fear the OC is limited by the mobo's 4+1 phase design. I dropped it down to stock and it still did that. I think that tells me it's either nothing to worry about or the mobo can't support 6 cores period.

 

[Rvenger]

Gigabytes are notorious for whining. My z68 board had coil whine until I disabled cstates, normal.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Gigabytes are notorious for whining. My z68 board had coil whine until I disabled cstates, normal.

Damn, that's so true. 2) Most gigabyte video cards that I have used, the majority whined.

 

[Rvenger]

Damn, that's so true. 2) Most gigabyte video cards that I have used, the majority whined.

My Gigabyte gtx680 was squeeling pretty bad yesterday, but I think its normal for all the 4 phase reference cards. It did run nice and cool so far.



OverlordI, remember how bad the coil whine was on that Gigabyte 5850? Probably one of the worst cases. lol

 

[Lean L]

Hmm update on this.

Turns out the revision of my board only has a 3 + 1 phase design.

So basically, is that enough to overclock a phenom ii x6 with? Also how do vrms generally fail? Just overheat or can they fail despite cool enough temperatures? The mobo tells me that it's staying under 55C right now.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Hmm update on this.

Turns out the revision of my board only has a 3 + 1 phase design.

So basically, is that enough to overclock a phenom ii x6 with? Also how do vrms generally fail? Just overheat or can they fail despite cool enough temperatures? The mobo tells me that it's staying under 55C right now.

That's good enough for a conservative overclock. At 250 FSB, it is absolutely safe and stable with everything set on Auto [the processor doesn't have to pull much power in this situation]. Don't worry about the temps too much. The bare VRMs, as they are, are designed to withstand heat. Additional cooling is usually a must only for extreme overclocks when they can go a little bit "out of spec". Don't pay, for what you don't need. You can put an extra exhaust fan, for the piece of mind, though.

For a higher overclock, you would, ideally want a more sophisticated power circuitry, especially, if you care about stability and efficiency. But whether it's worth the extra megahertz/performance versus the increased cost/manhours, it is entirely up to you to decide. I'd probably be satisfied with less, knowing my system is cool, quiet, reliable and didn't cost me an arm and a leg to build and maintain it.

 

[Binky]

Try a different power supply if this is an option (mentioned above).

Try cooling the VRM's. I had a video card with a moderate whine under load. The whine completely disappeared when I installed a new cooler with new VRM heatsinks. The whine may have been stopped by the physical touching of the heatsinks, or it may have been due to temperature declines. I don't know.