{
  "id": 5077371,
  "title": "Techie creates a database of coil-whining graphics cards, power supplies, and liquid cooler pumps — open-source project wants community reports of affected parts",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/02/techie-creates-a-database-of-coil-whining-graphics-cards-power",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-02T11:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Tom's Hardware",
    "slug": "tom-s-hardware",
    "url": "https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/techie-creates-a-database-of-coil-whining-graphics-cards-power-supplies-and-liquid-cooler-pumps-open-source-project-wants-community-reports-of-affected-parts"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Lowell K. Wood IV, also known as iBlessi, a tech enthusiast from TechFuelHQ, has developed an open-source database to catalog coil-whine occurrences on various electronic components. Coil-whine is an annoying buzzing noise that can affect graphics cards, power supplies, and liquid cooler pumps among other electronics. Wood believes that purchasing more expensive hardware does not guarantee avoiding this issue.\n\nThe database allows anyone to submit a report using a simple form or contribute via a pull request to the project's repository. The form requires users to specify the product category, brand, product version, SKU, and year. They can also rate the coil whine from 0 (silent) to 4 (audible at idle), and describe the circumstance of the issue occurring - at idle, under load, within a game menu with an uncapped framerate, or running a benchmark like Furmark.\n\nWood emphasizes the importance of recording silent units to counter the tendency of annoyed owners to over-report issues while under-reporting silent ones. He notes that the reported coil-whine percentage is a ceiling rather than an estimate. For instance, a part may not be noisy even if there are reports of both coil whine and silence.\n\nAn electronic component exhibits coil whine due to a vibration-induced noise originating from components that switch states at high frequencies. While low-frequency sounds travel further, the human ear and brain are more sensitive to mid-range frequencies, making mid-frequency coil whine noises more annoying. The term \"coil whine\" originated from inductors with coiled wire, but is now used to describe other parts that can exhibit similar behaviors.\n\nWood's project is part of several open-source initiatives he has created, including the GPU Undervolt Settings Database and a PC Builder with compatibility verification, similar to the popular PCPartPicker website. As soon as enough data is collected, the Coil Whine Database should begin displaying results.",
  "summary": "Techie creates a database of coil-whining graphics cards, PSUs, and AIO pumps — open-source project wants community reports of affected parts",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}