Replacing fans on be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler

davetherave2 · 6 Feb 2019 at 15:10

Over the past couple of months I have been slowly replacing all my case fans due to annoying intermittent fan whine and given that this the last fan and I still have the noise I have to conclude that this is the fan that ultimately where this noise is coming from.

So my questions are:

1) How easy is it to replace the fans on this cooler?
2) It seems the inner fan on this is a 135mm fan and I don't see that as option to replace so would it be ok to put a 140 or 120mm in the middle?

All my other fans I have replaced with Noctua A8 PWM Fan's so I am looking to try and keep everything as quiet as possible.

Alternatively would it be probably time to move to an AIO watercooling solution? (this is for an i7 5820K)

LuckyBenski · 6 Feb 2019 at 18:03

Just a thought, have you checked it's not your PSU fan? I'm in this position with a watercooled build I've done - need to open up the PSU and change its fan!

davetherave2 · 6 Feb 2019 at 19:30

I am pretty sure it's not the psu fan (at the bottom of the case) as it sounds as though it is coming from the cpu area of the case and if I give the case a "gentle" tap it stops for a while. It is possible that it could be the PSU as it is PSU that I have been using it for over a decade now running pretty much 24/7 for it's lifetime.

LuckyBenski · 6 Feb 2019 at 19:34

Definitely worth chasing down the noise rather than replacing random components. The CPU fan is easy - just unplug it while it's running and see if the noise stops

mattyfez · 6 Feb 2019 at 21:23

Yeh no harm in unplugging it for a few seconds for diagnosis. The noise will either continue or stop so you've either found the problem, or ruled out that part

Danny75 · 6 Feb 2019 at 22:58

Intermittent... tap on case makes it goes away... had that with a mechanical drive, the vibrations it was sending throughout the case made it sound like it was coming from elsewhere. Don't know if you have any mech drives though. Ended up decoupling the HDD cage and resting it on some foam.

davetherave2 · 6 Feb 2019 at 23:32

Danny75 said:
Intermittent... tap on case makes it goes away... had that with a mechanical drive, the vibrations it was sending throughout the case made it sound like it was coming from elsewhere. Don't know if you have any mech drives though. Ended up decoupling the HDD cage and resting it on some foam.

I have 5 mech drives and 2 ssd's in my machine. the 5 mech drives are in an icy dock 5 bay removable cage. I thought it was the fan on the back of that at first so swapped it out then the top fan and now finally I am left with the cpu fan as have recently changed out my gpu.

LuckyBenski · 6 Feb 2019 at 23:49

davetherave2 said:
I have 5 mech drives and 2 ssd's in my machine. the 5 mech drives are in an icy dock 5 bay removable cage. I thought it was the fan on the back of that at first so swapped it out then the top fan and now finally I am left with the cpu fan as have recently changed out my gpu.

My money is on the drives. Having quietened down all my PCs aiming for silence, I've discovered mechanical drives are unacceptably noisy. Even on idle.

davetherave2 · 7 Feb 2019 at 19:32

well I have been looking at a case upgrade so may wait until I get round to that and then do the cpu cooler upgrade at the same time. Thanks for the input guys.

pingu666 · 10 Feb 2019 at 03:23

it might be the center fan's position, because fans are normally more noisey if theres obstruction on the intake side, but ive had whine from pressed grills too on exit

, but non clean air can give you odd noise artifacts.

you might be able to remove the middle fan and just tape over the sides? or go to a a classic tower style heatsink.

small chance oiling the fan might help too

doyll · 10 Feb 2019 at 11:26

davetherave2 said:
Over the past couple of months I have been slowly replacing all my case fans due to annoying intermittent fan whine and given that this the last fan and I still have the noise I have to conclude that this is the fan that ultimately where this noise is coming from.

So my questions are:

1) How easy is it to replace the fans on this cooler?
2) It seems the inner fan on this is a 135mm fan and I don't see that as option to replace so would it be ok to put a 140 or 120mm in the middle?

All my other fans I have replaced with Noctua A8 PWM Fan's so I am looking to try and keep everything as quiet as possible.

Alternatively would it be probably time to move to an AIO watercooling solution? (this is for an i7 5820K)

You are correct, the middle fan is 135mm and front is 120mm. Both have mounting holes that are not full depth of cooler so normal 120mm fan may not work wiht stock clips without modification .. 135mm fan clips may not even work at all on 120mm fan.

As others have suggested make sure the noise is in fact one of the cooler fans, then if it is cooler fan I suggest contacting be quiet! for a replacement. I've always had good customer support from be quiet!

B1scu1T · 10 Feb 2019 at 11:49

Whining noises can also be caused by turbulence. Acoustics is an utter black art and you can lose time and money searching and replacing things, only to find that the fan blades are at the exact distance from the grille, and moving at the exact RPM to cause a resonance.

I had this with my case and had to install a filter to break up the air to quieten it down.