A couple of questions about my new PC

[Dayve]

Hello all. My new PC came yesterday, got everything updated and whatnot and now it's time to start gaming unk: But I have a couple of questions. I have a switch on the top of my case that controls some fans. I think it controls the rear extractor fan and the two extra case fans I asked for (£9 extra) which are located at the top of the case, right above the motherboard heatsink. It has two settings - silent and turbo. On silent the fans spin but... slowly and silently, obviously lol. And on turbo they spin faster but are still very quiet which I'm really happy with because I hate noise. So it's kind of an obvious question but I should just have the turbo switched on when I'm gaming, right? When I'm playing modern games I mean, such as Metro or Battlefield 4, but I could leave it on silent when playing old games like Age of Empires HD edition?

Also a question about my graphics card. When I'm gaming it seems to be making a noise that I can only describe as a high pitched cricket chirping. I think it's my graphics card doing it anyway, since it only happens when gaming. Is this normal or harmful or indicative of a problem in any way? Shouldn't it just be a smooth phwoooooooo'ing sound?

Cheers in advance.

 

[Deklore]

With regard to your GPU noise, is it like a high pitch tone? Does the tone change when different things are being displayed on your screen? e.g. when there is a cut scene and the noise changes as the cut scene changes? Also does it happen with all games or just one?

One possibility is it could be coil whine and if so it could depend on what game/settings you are playing on.
Example - when i got my new graphics card i had no problems with it, but then whenever i started up Lego Marvel the noise was very noticable (and that was just the start up screen). But when i changed the resolution to 1080p the coil whine stopped. Also i never had this problem with any other games.

 

[steaky360]

Firstly the fans, to be honest, if your PC isn't getting hot you can keep the fans on silent all the time. Switch it to turbo if its getting toasty maybe? Or if the noise isn't excessive just leave it on turbo? Shouldn't be a big deal either way as long as your temps are acceptable.

Might be worth trying to narrow down where the noise is coming from if you can, I've not heard of coil wine before (and would have assumed it was something to do with a PSU myself, but you learn something every day ) however try following Deklore's advice if it is your graphics card making the whine. If not and its the PSU or something else, its probably worth letting PCS know and they can let you know if its something you need to sort asap or not.

 

[Dayve]

Thanks you two. I'll do some investigations into the whining noise. On my old PC it started making that noise a few months after I got it but I used it for 2-years afterwards and apart from the noise there were no other effects. My sister will be using it next. On that one the whine was a different tone for different things, like you said. For some strange reason it was louder and higher pitched in menus rather than when playing the actual game. Especially the main title menu of games. On this one, from what I can hear, it seems to be the same noise all the time. I've only played Far Cry 3 so far though so I'll install some other games shortly and see what happens.

 

[Deklore]

On this one, from what I can hear, it seems to be the same noise all the time. I've only played Far Cry 3 so far though so I'll install some other games shortly and see what happens.

Definitely try other graphics intensive games to see if you get the same noise. Also for Far Cry 3, try putting vsync on (im pretty sure FC3 has that option) or change the resolution to see if the noise changes.

 

[Dayve]

I tried turning v-sync on in FC3 but it doesn't stop the noise at all. I also tried changing resolution and if anything the noise gets louder at lower resolutions. Also I've noticed the noise stops if I look at the sky in Far Cry 3. If I look at the sky... no coil whine. If I look at anything else, it's loud. If I didn't wear a headset it would be unbearable.

I'm also hearing it in Crusader Kings 2, but it's very quiet compared to what it sounds like in Far Cry 3. But then Crusader Kings 2 isn't a graphically demanding game. It's more processor heavy than anything.