FULLMETALJACKET7 wrote:
Many people can't hear it because of their age or simply because they have bad hearing.
Many people can't hear it even at "prime" age with "perfect" hearing. Coil whine is not a yes/no thing, the noise is
always present to some degree in
every oscillator - it's judged (by the manufacturer) to be "inaudible", at least to most people most of the time and with most devices under normal usage.
"Psychoacoustic" effects are variable and unique for each one of us, imperfect semiconductor qualities are variable and unique for each manufactured part or assemblage of parts. Sometimes all these parameters match up in the worst possible combinations.
And, of course, operating things out of rated spec (ie: overclocking, overvolting, undervolting, excess heat) puts more electrical stress on the parts - coil-whine is sometimes a good barometer for indicating when your hardware is starting to redline.
Pre-emptive answer to the question which will be asked:
No, ASUS warranty does not normally cover coil-whine (unless it explicitly says so).
But yes, ASUS will still sometimes accept RMA for reported coil-whine. At their discretion. Especially if it seems particularly noxious.
It can help a lot (and certainly won't hurt) if you can submit some sort of audio or video recording which demonstrates the coil whine. And if you can explain why you find it offensive or unacceptable.
Also, google offers plenty of "solutions" and workarounds for coil-whine. Some of which may seem inglorious and low-tech, but are still effective enough often enough (and cheap enough) to be worth trying. Beware that some of these approaches may void your ASUS warranty.
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[/Korth]