Airtop3 cooling is silent because there are no fans or any other mechanical cooling device
Airtop3 incorporates high power electronic circuits that may emit acoustic noise during operation generally known as "coil whine"
Coil whine is the result of high frequency switching of power circuits that induce piezoelectric force on capacitors and strain on inductors making each vibrate. In some cases these vibrations are in an audible frequency
Coil whine is common in computers but in most cases it is not audible above the louder fans, which is not the case for Airtop3
Airtop3 hardware is designed using techniques for reducing coil whine, but unfortunately it was not possible to eliminate it completely in hardware
The main sources of coil whine are the the motherboard, graphics card, SSD and power supply
Coil whine is often related to the specific workload at a given moment
Adjusting power management policies can significantly reduce coil whine / acoustic noise as detailed below
Worth noting that changing power management settings slightly affects power consumption and thermal performance so the user should consider the trade offs. It does not affect reliability and warranty.
Acoustic Noise Mitigation in BIOS
Reboot and press F11 (not DEL) to enter advanced BIOS settings
Advanced --> Setup items availability: Development
Advanced --> Power and performance --> CPU - Power Management Control --> CPU VR Settings --> Acoustic noise Settings:
Acoustic Noise Mitigation: Enabled
Pre Wake Time: 255
Ramp Up Time: 255
Ramp Down Time: 255
For each of the four sections below (IA VR Domain, GT VR Domain, SA VR Domain, VccIn VR Domain):
Disable Fast PKG C State Ramp for xx Domain: TRUE
Slow Slew Rate for xx Domain: Fast/16
Save and Exit
Reducing graphics related noise in Linux Mint
Symptom:
When running Linux Mint using Intel graphics, running glxgears, glmark2 or other graphics intensive application results in continuous buzzing sound
Solution 1:
Reboot and press F11 (not DEL) to enter advanced BIOS settings
Advanced --> Setup items availability: Development
Advanced --> Power & Performance --> GT - Power Management Control:
RC6(Render Standby): Disabled
Disable Turbo GT frequency: Enabled
Save and Exit
Boot into Linux Mint
Open NVIDIA X Server Settings
Select Intel (Power Saving Mode), enter root password to apply
Log off and login
Solution 2:
Open the file: /etc/modprobe.d
Add to the end of file: options snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N
Restart the device
Disabling C-states in BIOS
Reboot and press F11 (not DEL) to enter advanced BIOS settings
Advanced --> Setup items availability: Development
Advanced --> Power & Performance --> CPU -Power Management Control --> C states: Disabled