Hey everyone,
 
I seem to have coil whine on my system and I am not sure whether it is the GPU or PSU. When I first built this PC, my PSU came faulty and had it replaced (EVGA 650 G2). I started to notice coil whine even with the simplest tasks/games like Minecraft (GTX 1070 SC Black). How can I check where the coil whine is coming from and what should I do?
 
Thanks

Use a paper towel roll to listen all over your pc to narrow it down.

What does a coil whine sound like guys?

Okay, one of my bad 1080's was doing that also. I could hear a buzzing sound almost like a voltage noise buzzing off and on coming from the video card. The bad card was also having every other problem showing signs of hardware failure. Let me ask you all this. Can coil whine issues happen with liquid coolers? We all know it can happen on a video cards and PSU. Any thoughts on the liquid cooling systems?

Super_Mario
I am inexperienced when it comes to coil whine and liquid coolers as this is actually the first time building a pc and so it is the first time I have come across this issue. I don't use liquid cooling as this is my first build so I wanted to keep it simple. I believe coil whine is something to do with the copper coils inside the hardware that vibrate but I don't know for sure. I am just trying to figure out what is causing the coil whine and whether I can get a replacement or not for my hardware.

If you determine the coil whine is from the GPU, and it is really bad, you may want to contact EVGA for your options to replace it.  https://www.evga.com/about/contactus/
 

Super_Mario
I am inexperienced when it comes to coil whine and liquid coolers as this is actually the first time building a pc and so it is the first time I have come across this issue. I don't use liquid cooling as this is my first build so I wanted to keep it simple. I believe coil whine is something to do with the copper coils inside the hardware that vibrate but I don't know for sure. I am just trying to figure out what is causing the coil whine and whether I can get a replacement or not for my hardware.

PWM whine, coil whine, inductor whine/noise are all the same thing. It's induced vibration in the circuit caused by high current switching. It's most commonly found in gaming PC's coming from the GPU as that is typically the part with the highest current load in the  system followed by the CPU. A poorly regulated or failing PSU can also induce noise in the system. Personally, I've always used a fish tank air line as a 'stethoscope' to isolate system noises from coil whine to vibration. Lastly, while liquid cooling does not cause whine, it can make it more noticeable compared to a system using fans which can mask the noise. As far as replacement, EVGA is pretty good about it. I can't answer for anything else.

It sounds like it is! :)
 
As suggested before, contact EVGA and let them know about your finding.

Ghost13
like someone said paper towel roll or do like i do to find the problem with noise.  I use my cell phone, i record with my phone at each location, like PSU i lay my phone on  its side place the mic to the PSU hit record boot the system and then movie to the next location on top of the video card and then i use some tape and stick it to the inside top of my case.  each time i move it i listen to the play back each time before placing it at the next location ..

Nice!
It's giving me the idea of using a phone with a unidirectional microphone to pinpoint the origin of a noise.
Kind of a digital stethoscope.
Thank you!

As degenerate said, here's an official definition for coil whine:
 
Coil whine, also known as electromagnetically excited acoustic noise and vibration or audible magnetic noise, is one of the most frustrating phenomena in modern technology.
As its name suggests, this high-pitched noise is caused by electromagnetic coils that act as inductors or transformers.

HeavyHemi
 
Really? I just use about a 4 foot length of fish tank airline (I've never even changed the air in it!) . It allows me to precisely, to the fraction of an inch, locate the source of a noise in seconds. Why would any one go to that amount of work? I clearly must be missing something about using this newfangled tech...Come on....

That's a brilliant idea too!
 
Reality is, not everybody is having a few feet of fish tank tubing (or something similar) in the house, whereas almost everybody has a cellphone.

Or simply use a phone!