P45-C51 - Noise from CPU Phase LEDs

Question

Hi,
I've just finished setting up a new PC based on the MSI P45-C51 (MS7519) mainboard (see full specs for the system in my signature).
Everything works fine, but.. The CPU Phase LEDs LED1, LED2, LED3 (the three blue LEDs in the upper right corner of the mainboard) emit some kind of very annoying high frequency noise as they flash (in sync with the hard drive activity LED on the front of the cabinet/tower).
It's very important for me that I have a silent PC, so I've gone into great detail choosing the most low-noise components for this specific machine. Everything on this machine is very silent - except for the motherboard, which I would have expected would be the least of my problems when creating a low-noise PC!
So my thoughts and questions are:
- Is there any way I could turn off the flashing of CPU Phase LEDs (in BIOS, jumpers, software)?
- Could it be a PSU issue (is 400W not enough for this setup)?
- Or is it just a faulty mainboard (has other users experienced a similar noise from these LEDS)?
I don't even see the reason for why the LEDs are there. The mainboard manual only has a very short and practically useless explanation of the LEDs. It only says what power modes they show (1 and 3 phase power mode) - not when and what to use them for..
Hoping that someone can shed some light on this issue, and hopefully help me solve the problem..

Answer 1

Now that I found out that the problem wasn't related to the LEDs on the MSI mainboard, I shifted my focus towards the CPU - The Intel Core 2 Duo E8400.
From searching/reading about this specific processor on various pages found via a Google search, it sounds to me like a lot of other users have this issue to - it's called CPU whining - some kind of piezo vibrations caused by the extra power (that would normally be used by the CPU) which is being thrown back into capacitance when SpeedStep throttles down the CPU (no load). So it's not the CPU per-say, but the capacitors and voltage regulators that generates the noise (at least from what I am able to read). I guess it's not directly related to the MSI mainboard, and so maybe this post isn't even relevant in this forum any longer..
When I write it's not directly related to the MSI mainboard, I mean that perhaps if I mounted this CPU in another mainboard, maybe the problem would go away - so I think it might be the combination of this specific motherboard and this CPU that creates this noise. A lot of other Intel Core 2 Users doesn't seem to have this problem, while others again complain about it. I guess it's also a very subjective question about how sensitive your ears are to high-frequency noises (probably in the 15.000-18.000 KHz range). Some write that they hear the sound, but don't care, while others hear it (and like me, are annoyed by it) from across the room through music, conversation and/or other background noises.
Long story short, the users of the MSI HQ Forum (especially Jack t.N. - a lot og appreciation and thanks goes out to you, my friend  ) should not use more time and effort on this issue..
Except if there's something that I might still have missed in the BIOS settings, that you think I need to try out first, or if this "newfound knowledge" raises any other questions or inspires a possible solution!
I will leave the post open for a few days just in case.