Did you ever get your RMA replacement? Did the high pitched fan noise go away? I was looking at the BIOS fans speed models between the different IceQ 4850's and the "Turbo X" model uses a "lookup table" with the fan speeds @ 30% min. but probably more like 41% @ idle. The other two lower models use a less aggressive fan profile (same for both) and I was thinking about going with one of those models (for Quiet). Most websites keep reviewing the "Turbo X" models so I haven't found any good feedback about the fan noise for the lower models.
Sadly not, pccasegear refuse to acknowledge the problem, and say it's just the fan spinning up during load. I actually emailed HIS first about my past problems with pccasegear and if i could go through them instead, they told me to try pccasegear first and email back if i had any problems, i did, after that i emailed back and now it's been around one week with no reply
The fan hits 25% and the high pitch noise kicks in, at around 35% (what it usually sits at when gaming) the noise becomes VERY noticable, destroying any atmosphere in my games
So it seems my bios is all good, i've just got a dud fan, but I've got a solution to all my problems coming soon, an Accelero S2 Rev. 2, actually two, with another 4850
Hope no one gets discouraged from getting and IceQ 4, i'm sure it's very silent, i just got a dud, unlike my old X850XT IceQ 2, that was a dream
Edit: Also, the best part about the IceQ model 4850 and putting an accelero on, is i can use the original ram etc heatsinks, no need to remove them