[bjoli]

I always wanted to do such a project and decided to go for it. I ended up hating it because it made me realize how much I hate coil whine. I mean: it looks so friggin cool, and placing it on your desk will probably give much better air circulation than under it. No fans spinning just made me realize how much noise most computers make that is hidden under fan noise.

I did have dedicated graphics card though, but a passively cooled one. None of my friends found it bothersome, so maybe I'm just sensitive.

[dijit]

FWIW Coil Whine affects some machines much more than others.

The sad part is, coil whine is unpredictable, two machines with the same make/models can behave differently.

Coil whine is usually much more noticeable when you fully load a system too.

What I would do is buy components and then fully load them as much as I could, and RMA anything with noticeable whine.

It's not "normal", Dell XPSs for example were notorious for bad coil whine where as my macbook air doesn't have any at all.