[star882]

When I run Survivor on my Athlon 64 PC, the video card makes an electrical buzzing sound similar to a mercury arc lamp, though not as loud. I noticed it when I opened the case to check the temperatures. The card is passively cooled so that rules out a noisy fan.

Specs:
3000+ Athlon 64
1GB DDR400
128MB GeForce FX 5200 (it's not a CAD machine)
Antec 350w PSU
ECS 755-A2 motherboard
200GB 7200RPM HDD (/)
20GB 7200RPM HDD (/usr, swap)
16x DVD+-RW
Fedora Core 3 AMD64

I have narrowed down the noise to some inductors on the video card. The system does complete a run of Survivor and the noise is not noticeable with the case closed, but is it a sign of electrical problems? Nothing on the card is overheating.
Interestingly, running Fear Factor gets the card even hotter, but it also completes and actually doesn't make noise!

 

[Born2bwire]

Do some searches on coil whine at silentpcreview.com and you might find something. I get it too in my computer, but only when I run COD 2.

 

[star882]

I guess it's normal. That particular video card (made by EVGA) uses open wound inductors instead of potted inductors or power supply modules like the ones used on better cards. It's free after rebate, so I guess I shouldn't expect much. But it does run Survivor and Fear Factor without crashing, at an acceptable speed, too.