Videocard (?) makes "buzzing" noise?

The system I built a few weeks ago (thanks to the help of this board!) is running 99.9% wonderfully, but there's one thing that's annoying me: while playing some games, for lack of a better description there seems to be a buzzing/tweetering noise coming from the case. It sort of sounds like a really soft modem connect, or a higher-pitched cricket...? Hard to explain.

I haven't opened up the case yet to pinpoint the noise, but I'm guessing it's the videocard (9800 GTX+) because it only happens in games; I've never noticed it while in Windows proper or any non-game program.

I first noticed it only when in the menu screen of Crysis, but then once I knew to listen for I could heard it in other games like Neverwinter Nights 2 (only while in the main menu screen), Witcher (menu screen and if I look straight ahead in-game), and Guild Wars (all the time). I can change the pitch or tone of the sound by enabling or disabling graphical elements: changing AA, post effects, resolution, etc. all seem to have an effect on the noise.

Does anyone know what the heck it is...? I've never had a component do this and I'm concerned that I'm damaging the card somehow.

m19

 

its just the fan spinning up and down gpu fans are noisy

 

I don't know, I don't think that's it. It doesn't sound like a fan at all. It's not that type of a whirring noise, it's more a buzzing. And it doesn't seem like a fan would be that instantaneous: I mean, I can go from hearing the noise in a menu to it immediately stopping as soon as I'm out of the menu. If it were the fan, I would think there'd have to be at least some spin-up/spin-down time...

m19

 

the bearings in the fan a could be defective is i have heard some fans make so horrid noises (Screeching high pitch buzzing grinding )

there are 3 things in a pc that can make noise

1 fans
2 hdd
3 cdrom/dvdrom

if it was a hardware fault making the noise you would get one or both of the following

1 smoke and sparks
2 blue screens


ps: make sure there are no cables rubbing on something IE a fan (iv seen cpu fans cut psu lines clean in half)

btw if ya wanna test the fan theory pop open the case and stop the fan with your finger (not more then a second or two mind you, and be carefull some times the fans them selfs get pretty warm ) do the same with all the fans until ya find the noisy one

 

Well, after much poking around I've finally narrowed the buzzing noise down to the PSU. I believe this is the same problem I'm having:

http://www.asktheramguy.com/v3/showthread.php?t=73834

Frustrating, because everything thread seems to end with the Corsair tech staff insisting it must be something other than the PSU... Nice. I'm planning on picking up a non-Corsair replacement from a local shop in the next couple weeks to test if that is indeed the problem component.

m19

 

Yep, it's definitely the PSU... Found this video on YouTube that shows almost the exact same problem as mine. Frustrating, because from what it sounds like it might be doing it across the board on Corsair PSUs, so an RMA through them probably won't make a bit of difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4d23F2jehQ

Gyah! I can't get it to just be a URL instead of embedding... Well, click the link at the top of the video and it'll take you to the right place, hopefully.

m19