Loud Fans

Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2005
Posts
6,371
Location
Northants
Hi all,

Looking for some advice on the amount of noise my fans make. I'm wondering if it is normal or not.

So my current specs are:

Asus Z97i-Plus
i5 4690K (Devils Canyon)
H80i Cooler
KFA2 920 OC Silent “Infin8 Black Edition”
BitFenix Prodigy Mini ITX Cube Case
PSU: SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550w

Once I turn the computer on the fans start up with it, they are quite loud. I presume this is just a test the computer runs, the fans calm down shortly after. When I start gaming however, no matter what game I seem to play the fans kick in and they really loud (I am not overly bothered because I wear a HS but I am sure it can get annoying for those around me).

I understand that my case probably doesn't do much to dampen the noise but is this completely normal? Is there a safe way to reduce the amount of noise those fans make without putting the components at risk of damage from over heating? i.e get the fans to only kick in at a certain temperature, what are the implications of doing so?
 
First thing to do is work out what is causing the noise. Case fan, h80 fans or 970 fans. 970 fans can be controlled in msi afterburner, other fans can be unplugged. Obviously have something monitoring temps whilst doing this but it's far from risky.

Once you know what is noisy then you have a choice of buying low rpm fans or control your current fans. I'd recommend the latter. Your motherboard probably has software (fan xpert) to control fans, you can set up fan curves based on cpu temp. Or but something like an nzxt grid+ v2 to control them based on cpu or gpu temps. I prefer gpu based control as it produces twice the heat and the temperature is far more stable.
 
Yeah, the better quality fans allow more airflow with less noise, but try speedfan first ofc as you might be happy with your fans once you've set them up properly.
 
And I am going to go against the crowd and tell you that "silent" fans are a scam.

No fan at 1200rpm is going to be quiet. Doesn't matter if you spend £3 or £20, it's going to make noise, not least from the air moving. From Noctua to Arctic my fans make very little noise when sat on a table spinning at 100% but when in a case they make a lot more noise as they have to push the noise through the rads. Having played around with lots of case and rad fans I have found that temp differences are very minor at a given noise level - maybe a degree or two.
 
Personally I have some noiseblocker b12 2 fans in my case and they are damn near silent. I do however agree with Disco to a point that if you ramp up to beyond 1000rpm you will hear them if only because of the sound of the air being moved. A good sound dampened case such as the fractual r5 does in my experience help with this sort of low level humming noise but so does putting the case under your desk!
 
I opened up the Asus monitoring program last night and it reckons my case fan was at 700 and the CPU fan was at 2300rpm?! This was whilst browsing the net, I am not sure how accurate that was tbh it didn't really sound loud at all and seems like an excessive figure to be running at. I will download speedfan tonight and have a little play about. What sort of temps should I be aiming for? I am running stock speeds.
 
I could be wrong but the CPU fan will likely be the h80 pump in which case 2000rpm is normal. In the corsair software you should be able to control the fan speed.
 
Hope you don't mind me hijacking this thread.

I'm finally getting around to replacing the fans in my H80i as they're super loud. Any recommendations on what fans to go with?
 
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