Have you ever had a prebuilt PC have coil whine?

[Cyber2B]

I fix peoples computers as a hobby, tested multiple system configs and its a weird phenomena I have where each prebuilt gaming PC with their stock PSU has had zero coil whine, compared to a PC with a Corsair, EVGA, Thermaltake, etc.

Just to put it out here, a Dell Optiplex with a 1660 TI (Upgraded it for him) and a 500w Dell PSU it comes with was more "silent" then a custom built PC with a Corsair CX 600w 80+ Bronze that emitted a small whine when playing certain games (This guy had a 1650 Super), and even huge whine when FPS was unlocked.

I am confused by this because I always believed prebuilt stuff was always bad, but through real world testing it makes me reconsider this notion.


What is your experience regarding this? Is 80+ just a gimmick? Are prebuilts actually made with quality components?

It could also be out of the 10+ computers I have serviced since 2020 are just really good units.


My theory is that Dell, Asus, HP, Acer glue the coils that vibrate, but I have never opened a PSU nor do I want to due to the possible dangers.

[Supafly]

Prebuild or none prebuild does not = coil whine. That's luck of the draw. You coiuld get coil whine on a GPU while 1,000's of others with the exact same GPU don't. Look at it the same way as silicon lottery. Just because one can hit x speeds on x volts and not exceed x temp doesn't mean they all will.

Just because something is 80+ gold, [latinum or whatever doesn't reflect if it'll whine. That 80+ rating is just how efficient it is at supplying power without wasting some

[_I_]

it can happen
oem and aftermarket use simlar components
coil whine is from choke coils in psu, mobo, gpu and a few other components
more often in higher power components

most oem are low power and have less issues
but if an oem with high tdp cpu/gpu and psu its more likely to have whine

[Illusion of Progress]

I've had coil whine that I've been able to hear on three (six, technically, but I'll clarify) things that I can recall sine being at this for around two decades.

Keep in mind that coil whine is a by-product, and it happens regardless. The issue becomes an issue when it occurs within the wavelengths of the spectrum that become audible, and some people may notice it more or less than others.

With that being said, first was a motherboard, an AsRock P4I65GV. I got it from eBay around ten years ago, and it was in pretty immaculate physical condition, but the VRM area appeared to emit the noise, and I think it occurred when simply moving the mouse cursor. It was minor, but it was there.

Second (and third, forth, and fifth) was a video card, an EVGA GeForce GTX 970. This... one... was... AWFUL! Trying to play Minecraft made it squeal like something I've never heard. The reason it was either one or four, depending on how you count, was because I requested an RMA and was granted it... once, then again, and then again. All four of them behaved 100% identically. I tried everything on my end; removing overclocks, different PCI-Express sockets, different PSU, different wall outlet, every variable was changed except motherboard (as I couldn't change this), and nothing made any difference. Finally EVGA granted me a full refund after I expressed concern I was wasting both of our time, and seemingly samples of new graphics cards (they said they found no issues in their testing and were returning new cards but I'm not sure if they were; they seemed to be though), and this was my third time going with EVGA for anything (first was a GTX 560 Ti that failed [VRM area was burnt], and second was a PSU), and they sort of won me over for it. Given the news that later broke about the whole memory configuration with the GTX 970 (3.5 GB of fast speed VRAM and 0.5 GB of slower speed), I guess I avoided more issues, and in the end I settled on a pitiful GTX 650 from PNY that was weaker than the GTX 560 Ti that failed, but was super cheap at, surprisingly, Best Buy and used it for a number of years since coil whine was sort of a "thing" around this time on all brands so I gave up even trying.

Third (or sixth) and last is my current video card, an EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB, but is was so minor when i got it that it wasn't a deal, and it seems to have faded over time. Funny thing is, again, Minecraft (and only when using a certain graphical mod) made it audible, but it was minor and went away eventually.

So, no, I never heard it in cases of pre-built PCs, but I've also never heard it until recently-ish (not counting the used, old, low end motherboard, it's only around five to seven years ago) and I was done with pre-builts by then, so my sample of hardware I deal with has changed. As someone else said, it can happen on them, and I'd heard/read of it being the case. My oldest pre-built I use is an OptiPlex 380 though and it never had issues.