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Hi, long detailed information of my problem.
My Asus P5KC motherboard has been making a slight hissing sound ever since I bought it. This is louder under load and can be heard from sitting unright in front of the computer screen on a chair. I think it has got louder since I first got the part.
I believe that the noise is coming from the area around the top of the heat pipe or behind the stock cooling fan for the cpu. Both of these parts are installed and attached correctly to the motherboard. I don't think there are any standoffs (screw connectors) under the motherboard that would be making contact, and if so surely it would short out the whole motherboard. No screws are overtightened against the motherboard. The computer works exactly as it should with no problems apart from the hiss noise.
It is high pitched and sounds electrical, and is best heard about a foot away. When in games and when the cpu is under load the hissing noise is louder, but can be heard all the time, I don't think it makes the sound when in bios.

To prove my point I uploaded a to youtube of my problem. Around the 1:38 area best gives the flickering electrical hiss noise. The fans are set to the lowest speed. The second sound recording in the video is when the cpu is under stress in Crysis, and as a result the hiss is louder.
Either way I plan to RMA and send it back for a replacement, as it is causing my ears to ring slightly because of the high frequency when sitting next to the computer. Unless heatpipes are known to make these hissing noises. According to this they are not. If someone can post who has an Asus P5KC or just an Asus motherboard with a heatpipe that would be brilliant
I have read several forums, such as this one (High pitched hissing noise. [Archive] - Bjorn3d.com Forums brought to you by XFX), where there are very symilar problems.

Do you think that this a faulty motherboard, or just a normal noise?
The problem is effecting me, and If I can I will try to replace the board - Do you think this would fix it, as it could have come from a bad batch of Asus P5KCs?

PRODUCT INFORMATION

* Asus P5KC
* serial number: MS1C81BE0A03827
* Part Number Revision: Rev 1.xx
* Chipset Model (Bearlake) Processor to I/O Controller
* South Bridge (ICH9) LPC Interface Controller
* SMBus Intel Corporation (ICH9) SMBus Controller @0400h

Does anyone know how to contact asus- their email- their site is painfully slow
Any info, help, reccomendations are very appriaciated, thank you, jake

I could not hear the noise... but i'm an old geezer.
How about a phone number??

Asus company and contact information

jakedude,

I heard 2 sounds. One hissing and the other was a very faint high-pitched tone.

With all the similar complaints you've uncovered, and applying the SWAG method, I'd say another board will more than likely exhibit the same characteristics unless ASUS has specifically addressed this noise problem. I'm a little amazed you found a video.

BTW, maybe I could hear the noise because I'm only a Semi-Old Geezer.

Good Evening ih8bills........................

ok thanks for posting guys
I am going to try and contact asus or find out in an asus forum or somthing along those lines. I have already contacted the site I bought it from about the problem, and asked them symilar questions to here. They havn't replied yet though. The youtube video was made by me.

thanks, jake

According to the asus site power calculator I need a 650w + psu for my system (screenshot), and that some problems may be caused by insufficient power. I currently have a 620w Corsair HX series psu. However another psu calculator reccomended a much lower wattage for my system. screenshots for extreme-outervision. That one is the one I used to jusge for buying the psu I have now. I experience no problems with running the psu, nor for hot air coming from it, and it still has several free connections.

I found that this guy is experiencing the exact same problem as me. And this guy has replaced a different model only to find the same noise, and he is suspecting the hard drive. This is strange, and I don't think any other part of the ststem or the psu is making any hissing sound/noise, apart from this one around the heatpipe/cpu area.
So now I'm wondering what other componets could make this noise, even though it sounds to be coming from the heatpipe area.
Still trying to find an asus number.
If i did replace this motherboard with a new one, would I have to reformat for xp or just update the activation?

thanks, jake

I took that test for the ultra-high pitched ringtones that kids are using today. Could not hear a thing. A little too much of:
a) loud music
b) explosives in the Military...
c) working in noisy factories when I was younger.
Last factory I worked in made nails for nailguns-- so loud that you could physically feel it on your skin-- never mind hear it. I always wore ear-protection there-- in fact I wore ear plugs under my top-rated ear muffs (it was mandatory), but it's not 100 % effective against that kind of volume. I was not out there on the workroom floor all the time like the machine operators were... I don't know how they did it. I did machine-shop work

Well, that explains the video. I read right over that without it sinking in.

I have my doubts about the PSU being your problem, but I guess stranger things have happened.

Before you buy a new PSU, go back and make sure the +12 volt load is balanced between the 3 different rails. While I'm on the subject, your last 3 screenshots were hard for me to make out. One appeared to list your video ard as an 8600, but the video showed what looked like a higher end card. I mention this because if it's say an 8800, it might need to be on a leg all by itself since the HX620 PSU you're using supplies only 18 amps to each if it's three +12 volt rails.