I just completed an epyc build (7402p ebay special) on a new ROMED8-2T/BCM build. (I really would have preferred the original ROMED8-2T but was unable to find it in stock.)
I’m hearing some pretty severe coil whine coming from I believe either the 10GbE chipset or the BCM. I’m kind of guessing the BCM as it seems to correlate with what is being displayed and how much load the machine is under. It occurs with no PCIe slots populated.
I’m thinking I may want to RMA this one as it’s in a fractal torrent, which isn’t very loud on its own, and even with the case closed it’s very audible. Has anyone experienced this with this board or the many other boards that are very similar to it?
I’ll get some details and terminology at out of the way first, then comments on potential coil whine.
The “BCM” part of ROMED8-2T/BCM refers to this revision of the board using a Broadcom controller for the two 10GbE ports. I have the ROMED8-2T with an Intel X550 controller.
The Baseboard Management Controller on the other hand is a fairly low power chip that sits under the long heatsink by the PCIe slots. It and the Broadcom controller consume <6W from the 5V standby rail. Coil whine related to either of them is unlikely.
I have heard whine from my build under memory I/O load (such as y-cruncher FFT), just audible above minimum chassis fan speeds if I’m close to it, but I believe it’s coming from my PSU and not the board.
I’ll try to remember to double check next time I disassemble the system, but it may be some time as I have other projects taking priority at the moment.
I have the same issue with a ROMED8U-2T that I just set up with a 7T83 (ebay special ). Coil whine happens whenever I do something very taxing to the CPU (ie use most of the cores), nothing related to GPU or anything else is making noise.
For example, during a CPU benchmark test, it will make the whine the entire time. However if I do some chia plotting with Bladebit (so all in ram plotting, with nearly all cores used) the whine is very sporadic, so my guess my problem is it is not ram related (nor 10Gbe chipset possibly like in yours OP).
To the OP - maybe this is common with ASRock boards? My experience has been more with Supermicro/Gigabyte/Asus both on the consumer and enterprise side and I’ve never heard this before (maybe it has happened but server fans were too loud). Unfortunately my new MATX Milan build is for a desktop build so this noise will bother me I’m sure.
I did see some recommendation on Reddit of pressing the VRMs and other components with an eraser to see where the culprit is? This doesn’t sound like a solution and maybe risky (IMO) as at the end of the day it sounds like there might not be much that can be done outside of swapping with a different model/make (as it could potentially be a design issue, as well as QC of course). You certainly could in your case since you can fit whatever you need in the Fractal Torrent, I really want to make this MATX build work… but motherboard coil whine could be a deal breaker. Good luck OP!
Use something like “Physics Toolbox Sensor Suite” on your phone to do an audio spectrogram while waving it around the motherboard, it’ll be immediately clear where it is coming from because there will be a peak at a specific high frequency that gets stronger and weaker as you move around.
Once you find it, put some PVA or epoxy resin glue on it, happy days.
Thanks for the suggestions. The reason I was suspecting the BMC (yes sorry I typo’d that) is because it is a GPU, and my experience with GPUs is that they are most likely to exhibit coil when when they are at a very high frame rate. (Like the menu of a game.) I notice it most when the machine is idle. I went with Crucial CT16G4RFS4293. I’ll take another look tonight.
Just knowing I’m not the only person who has had coil whine on this board is helpful. It wouldn’t surprise me if this is not much of a concern for these boards since most builds with it are probably expected to have lots of fan noise that would prevent hearing it.
). Coil whine happens whenever I do something very taxing to the CPU (ie use most of the cores), nothing related to GPU or anything else is making noise.