During conventional use of the PC , the computer should run fairly quietly, but even so, there is no PC that is completely silent. Many times we have talked about the noises that a PC can emit and how to mitigate or fix them, but today we are going to tell you which PC noises are completely normal and that you shouldn’t worry about at all.
Obviously, when we talk about noise on a PC everything is relative: for example, we can expect that when we start a game, the fans will start making more noise since they will spin faster as the hardware components heat up, and that obviously is totally normal. What would not be normal is that the fans emit excessively unpleasant sounds that go beyond the air itself flowing or the bearings rotating, so you should be able to assess to what extent you consider something normal or excessive.
Clicking or scraping noises on the PC
Mechanical hard drives were the standard for PC storage due to their low cost-capacity; however, these have been replaced by SSDs, since they are much faster, as they have become more and more affordable. The use of an SSD also implies a lower noise level since it is a component without moving parts, but if you continue to use conventional hard drives on your PC, then it is normal for them to emit some typical PC noises.
Therefore, if you still use conventional hard drives, it is important that you bear in mind that they are mechanical and therefore have moving parts, which when moving emit sounds both through the rotating platters and through the heads moving and writing or reading data.
Of course, if you look at the video that we have inserted above there are certain “exaggerated” sounds, such as squeaks , which can indicate that the hard disk is failing or about to do so. However, clicking or scraping noises are normal on a properly functioning hard drive and you shouldn’t worry about them at all. However, if you have an SSD and it emits any kind of noise then you should be concerned because these devices are absolutely silent by nature.
Coil whine
The coil whine or “groan coil” is a kind of high – pitched squeal coming from certain electronic components, usually the power supply, graphics card or sometimes even motherboard. As energy passes through the coils of these components, they can vibrate and emit this noise, which will change depending on the intensity of current that passes through them.
This noise, while unpleasant, is perfectly normal and does not necessarily mean that the component is bad. Some manufacturers support managing an RMA (warranty) if the coil whine is excessive, but most of them (and especially the manufacturers of graphics cards) admit the coil whine as one of the acceptable noises in the PC since, as we have said above, they do not necessarily mean that the component is not working properly.
There are methods to try to alleviate the coil whine, such as using two PCIe cables from the source in the graph instead of one so as not to force the + 12V rails of the source so much, for example, but if you have a component that emits coil whine You can hardly get rid of it. Bad luck.
Hums and hums
Fans are essential for keeping PC hardware running at good temperatures, and on a PC you can find fans on the processor heatsink, on the graphics card, in the case, or in the power supply on a regular basis. Its standard noise volume will depend on the type of fans you use, their size, and if your mounting system has anti-vibration measures, but in any case one of the most typical PC noises are the hums produced by the vibrations of the fans. .
In addition to the noises generated by the fans when moving due to the friction of their bearings and vibrations, we also have the noise that simply the air makes when it is pushed by the components themselves, starting with the grille behind which the fan is installed. When air “hits” against flat surfaces, even though they are quite thin such as the aluminum fins of a heatsink, noise is generated and sometimes even turbulence, generating one of the most typical noises that we can find in a PC.
Rattling noises on the PC
If you can hear rattling noises on your PC, the first thing to do is check that you don’t have anything on top of the computer case, like an external hard drive, headphones, a figure, or whatever. Vibration within the equipment could be transmitted to connected components and cause a malfunction. If this doesn’t solve the problem, the rattle is likely caused by a fan, either because it is wearing too much wear or because the moving air is causing some cables to move and collide with other parts.
These noises are quite normal on the PC, and although you can check as we have said that you do not have anything on top of the box or that there are no loose cables and that they are well tied, it is not something you should worry about, although it is true that these types of noises are usually quite annoying and get on our nerves until we finally find the cause and proceed to solve it.
Beeps when starting
Finally, as we all know, most PC cases include a piezoelectric speaker that we can connect to the motherboard so that it emits the usual beeps during POST.
Obviously these beeps are normal (and necessary) during system startup, but what would not be normal is that the computer begins to beep once it has already started and during use. As a note, the usual thing is that the computer makes a single short beep when starting up, three short and in a row in the event that you have a PCIe 4.0 graphics card connected to a PCIe 3.0 card, but if it emits any number or type of beeps other than this or if the beeps are generated during the use of the PC, then you should know that something is not working as it should.
