Re: Odd noise, apparently from motherboard.

Well, I'm not quite sure exactly what I should be looking at, but in all the monitoring programs I've used the +12V varies between 12.03 - 11.97. VCore1 varies between 1.14 - 1.28 and VCore2 seems to stay steady at 3.06.

VCore1 varies the most. There also seems to be a slight difference between the monitoring programs.

Re: Odd noise, apparently from motherboard.

Well, for what its worth, I did speak to Dell about this, and according to their support rep "many users are facing this issue." However, I got the distinct feeling the guy didn't have a clue about it because I had to keep reiterating that it wasn't hard drive noise. Anyway, they're supposed to "research" it and call me back on Monday.

The system runs great other than the noise. If it's just harmless resonance from an inductor I'd happily live with it rather than having a hassle with Dell over an exchange...

Re: Odd noise, apparently from motherboard.

Oops, sorry about the lousy photo

Yeah, this is more like a white noise as opposed to a whine. When I listen through the paper tube it almost sounds like a bowl of rice crispies, so I suppose it could be a capacitor sizzling too. But it definitely seems to be coming from the black blocks.

The odd thing is that it does it almost constantly when the CPU is throttled. Whenever the CPU revs up it stops.

Re: Odd noise, apparently from motherboard.

Just an update here.

I rolled up a sheet of paper, put it to my ear, and tried to pinpoint exactly where the noise is coming from.

It appears to be coming from these black box things. When the paper is the area highlighted, I can plainly hear a noise that sounds like static.

What are these things?...

I just got a Dell Q6600 quad core desktop that has a kind of intermittent high pitched hissing, crackling type noise emanating from what seems to be the mobo. It kind of sounds like shh-shhhh-shh-shhhh-sh. I don't think it's a "whine" type of noise as you might get from a graphics card revving up. Rather It's a faint static-like noise, and unless you listen from the rear of the case you can barely hear it. I have very sensitive hearing, so I guess that's why I picked up on it.

Anyway, at first I thought it was a hard drive seek noise, because it kind of sounds like that......