My PC is very noisy doing basic stuff

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Joined
11 Apr 2017
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43
Location
uk
Here is my PC setup that I got from overclockers ~4-5 years ago.

  • "Titan Envy M DC" Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.4GHz Overclocked Nvidia GeForce Gaming PC
  • MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
  • Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD
  • Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW)
  • Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/8-OC)
  • Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614)

My PC is fairly quiet when I start it up, but then when I do something like watch youtube or run a VM or play a game the fans quickly get noisy.

I used to think it was the graphics card. I even purchased a new beefier graphics card off a friend: so I now have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 with 4GB memory.

But that did not have an effect on my fans. So I realised it must be the CPU causing the fan speed to ramp up.

But just watching youtube or simple things can cause it to get really noisy (it has always been like this - not a new thing). I am just tired of the noise. I did play around in the BIOS to change the fan speed profile - I set the PWM graph to as low as it would go until a certain temp and then it ramps up - I have played with a few setups - but always the same general outcome.

I am guessing my CPU just gets hot.

Is there any advice what to do here?

I am looking at getting more RAM - but I can't see that being the issue

EDIT: Just had a thought - would "under-clocking" the CPU help?! - I am that desperate!
 
@Minibiker I have not, that is a good point. I will setup msi afterburner - I used it to look at the fan and GPU temps, but I never did the same for the CPU (I thought it was only for GPU) - so I will start to do that and see what happen : )
 
So I have been doing some testing using prime (to stress my CPUs) and HWMonitor to look at what is going on. I would like to paste the images here - but I can't see how that is done (needs a URL?).

When I run the tester (all cores == 100%) my CPU temps get up to ~100*C after 5-10 minutes, so I got a bit worried and stopped it.
Then I ran a lesser stress CPU cores all get to between 50-80%. My cores all seem to still jump up to 90-100*C - seems quite hot to me.

HWMonitor seems to be telling me the CPU fan is staying between 2250 and 2331 RPM this whole time (i.e. not changing). But I can hear the fans get really loud. These are probably the case fans (two on the top and one on the front).

As soon as I stop the test, the cores all drop instantly down to ~35-40*C - so would that imply that the thermal coupling is working well?

Also when I stop the stress test my fans only ramp down very slowly... I am not sure they ever go quiet again.

So now I am unsure if my CPU fan is doing anything (speed change-wise, although the fan speed does vary slightly) or HWMonitor is not working... just confused now...

My cooler (I took a picture): Is a corsair heat pump of some sort. The top two case-fans have a large heat-sink block attached below them and from there two thick cables go down into the corsair (labelled) heat cooler on top of the CPU. I am not sure how to identify the exact model.
 
Here is my images:

Cooler:
DzP9Syv

https://ibb.co/DzP9Syv

Temps / fan speed - Note the CPU fan speed min/max - does not appear to be changing - although I am starting to think the corsair fans (on the case) really are trying to do their job because I can hear them
https://ibb.co/tqG6WXr
tqG6WXr
 
Thanks Minibiker - ordered it :)

How would you go about checking if the pump is not working? - from what I have (just) read by goolge'ing if the pump was not working my CPU (even at idle / bootup) would get really hot really quick and possibly shutdown due to over temp. Also I was reading the the fan speed RPM for these water cool pumps should be ~2200RPM which is what I was seeing (I don't understand that, but it matches what I see).

I am going to pull out all the fans and heatpump when my thermal paste arrives and see what happens :)

thanks very much for your support :)
 
BTW when I dis-assembled my PC. The corsair water cooler heatsink had a really think layer of dust trapped between the two fans and the heat sink itself. Even my vacuum cleaner struggled to suck that off - it came off in think flakes!

I wander if that could be the reason the cooler was not working really well (i.e. stopping the air getting drawn through)?

I check also the thermal paste - that looked perfect (using my very in-experienced eye). There where some patches missing on the CPU, but they matched exactly the patches on the cooler pad - so I think the paste was put on well (and also very thin layer). It could still be the pump, but as I observed it did cool down really quickly when I stopped stressing the CPU, so I am thinking it just needed a good clean. Had I not taken it apart I would never have guessed that there would be dust between the fan and heat-sink :o

I'll probably end up re-build that PC (since I have nearly everything I need) and re-try it once I have my new PC up and running :)
 
One more thing - if I shacked the water cooler heat sink/CPU pad gently I can hear water sloshing about... does that mean there is an air gap? - or is that normal? - I assumed normal, but worth a check with you guys :)
 
@doyll I think it is this one: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...cpu-cooler-240mm-cw-9060040-ww-hs-03n-cs.html

Here is a (bad) pic:
https://ibb.co/DzP9Syv

However - (long story short) since my mobo is a bit old and I want to upgrade my ram etc etc, (I have about 5-6 threads going!) I decided to get a new mobo, CPU and RAM - and as a result I need a bigger case because I did not pay attention to the size of the new mobo!

So I will probably re-build my old PC as was at some point, but my new setup is this (this is the one I want to get right):

This is my new case (same as the old one but taller):
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...4CyTn5DPD19n5aUFIxdzjUs_jLLWEqlxoC0C0QAvD_BwE

I will start with the stock fans. I am not planning to put on my corsair water cooler (at least not to start with) - the CPU comes with a nice big heat sink/fan (in case) so I will probably just leave the top of the case grill empty and see how that goes. The rest of my system is:

My current system:
But now that I have had noisy fans in the past - I am keen to avoid the same issue in the future! - so any suggestions welcome! - I read that article you posted. Feels like I should probably upgrade my case fans (though I don't really know how good the ones that come with the case are). I still have two spare case fans from my old unit - I could put them in somewhere too!
 
@Zefan - I use some software (can't recall the name - but one of the well known ones - afterburn?) it told me the speed was constantly 2300RPM (+/- a little) but then I read somewhere this is a normal reading for a water cool system (which I don't really understand), but I could def hear the fan getting louder.
 
So while I was waiting for my new case to arrive so that I could assemble my new mobo, CPU, RAM etc... I thought I would re-assemble my original setup (the noisy one).

Having given everything a good clean - especially the thick thick layer of dust between the AIO cooler heat sink and its two fans - I put everything back together. I did not have any new thermal paste (it has not arrived yet), so I was a bit worried, so I did not clean off the old paste - and hoped for the best.

I started it up and the fans came on for the usual start-up burst and then went very quiet. I was ready to pull the power at a moments notice. I got all the way to windows and started to monitor the temps - here is what I noticed:

- The temperatures fluctuate a lot more then they did before, but stayed between 40-60*C. The fans are very quiet, but some times where ramping up just a tiny bit if I did something (like open a web browser).
- I ran a VM (to take 50% of my CPUs) and did a quick build (got a few core upto ~80% for a while. The CPU temps still fluctuated a bit, but the fans kicked in a little bit and that kept them below 60/65*C.
- Then I did a full stress test (all cores 100%). Now the temps got up to 80-85% and the fan ramped up, but still not very much - and the temps held indefinitely at around 80-85*C.

The is far better then before where my fans where max'ed out and my CPU temps where exceeding 100*C!

So I think if I clean the old thermal paste off and re-apply some new stuff (in theory) it should be even better.

I am just so amazed by the difference, its like a new PC! - so things to take away from this are:
- Clean the dust out from between the heat sink and the fans (on AIO) - not sure if the same applies to normal CPU heat-sink/fans?
- The old paste looked quite dry, so probably worth a clean/re-apply when I do the dust-servicing...

Also I am amazed that I put the PC back together again first time and it did not blow up! - it did take me like 3 hours though :o - now I feel a lot more confident to put my new PC together (which was the original purpose to re-assemble my old PC)
Thanks to all for various advice and pointers :)
 
@doyll thanks for your feedback on CLCs (had to look that one up!).

I don't always watch forums, so sometimes it might be up to a day before I reply. Hope that's not a problem.
No problem at all - I am really appreciating all the great advice I am getting from OC - very friendly forum :)

Its good to know they are not so much better then their air cooler counterparts :) - after re-building my old PC back to its original form, the CLC takes up a lot of space (not that this is an issue anymore), they are more complicated to install and - as I found - have a major dust issue after a few years (I never had that problem before). Also it sounds like they degrade over time - I am not really into that! - far too lazy to have components that degrade.

FYI: my I purchased my original PC from OC in 2014 - so it was about 6 years old. I had cleaned most areas a few times - just never though to look inside the CLC fan/heat-sink assembly.

I just got my new case - so I will stick with that one! - it says in the spec: "Includes three AF140L fans, with room for up to eight fans." Could not see them on the OC website, not really sure how good they are - but they sound like a decent fan from corsair website. There are two in the front (middle-ish) sucking air in and one at the back near the top of the case.

Looks like I can fit two more at the bottom near the front (under the drive bays) and three more along the top. I guess that I could (not saying I will):
- Add two at the bottom that are pulling air in.
- Add 1-2 (or 3??) at the top, more towards the back venting air out
To give a sort of front to back, bottom to top air flow...
 
@doyll Firstly, I have just built my new PC (new case, plus mobo, CPU etc). I used the stock CPU air cooler as you guys suggested (I kept the CLC cooler for my old PC in case I need "something" temporarily, but it is effectively de-commissioned). I also just have the stock case-fans.

Already its a really quiet machine! (well, I am used to ridiculously noisy machine - so I am probably easily pleased!).

It does not really tell me what the heatsink/fan is - it but it just came with the CPU. For the moment I am not tempted to spend too much since I have just forked out ~£600. But I am really interested in your fan setup you suggested. If my fans are crappy, and new good ones are so cheap I might as well upgrade :) - why do they provide such poor fans when they are so cheap? - doesn't make much sense, ah well!

I think I will go with the PH-F140MP fans on the front and seal up the bottom. I might leave the rear fan in place since it can't be worse the a hole! - and remove some more back plates

really appreciate the great advice :)
 
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