SPCR

I've discovered a high-pitch noise from my Enermax EG351P-VE. It's coming somewhere from its electric components. The noise is clearly audible from several feet away. I wonder what causes this, and if this is just me?

[I just read a post by MikeC mentioning an Enermax dying from a year of low airflow and whose coils whined too. Well, I've been running mine with mostly low airflow for a month, but I don't know if the noise was there initially too.]

Maybe it's always been there and you notice only now that the fan noise is not masking it anymore. BUt if it is a new sound that has developed after you reduced airflow, that may be a sign of stress. You could try upping the PSU fan for a few days and see if the whine remains. Now that you have heard it & identified it, you can probably hear the whine even when the fan is making more noise. That's the way my hearing tends to work anyway...

Could the whine be similar to the type in CRTs? It was suggested in another thread to spray lacquer coating into coils to silence it. Might this work for the PSU? http://forums.silentpcreview.com/forums ... php?t=2195

Oh well, I've given up on the Enermax (my 2nd one too *sigh*) and went back to my original 300w PSU that came with the case, which ironically can now be made quieter.

I've heard that they use something for TVs called "corona dope" to silence coils but that varnish works well, too, and shouldn't pose as much a hazard as lacquer of dissolving the insulation off the wiring. I read that it has to be really soaked to coat the wiring deep inside, and someone mentioned even removing the coil or transformer and leaving it in a can of varnish overnight.

Could a capacitor be going bad? I had a mobo whistle and replacing some capacitors, including a bulging one, silenced it.

thanks for the tip, will try it when possible. At the moment the coil whine stutters constantly, it's like another harddrive making constant seek noises, except it's much higher pitched.

[update: the coil whine disappeared after after days of running the fans at 12V.]