Noctua fan noise

Nononame

Nononame

Nononame

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Joined
21 Jul 2019
Posts
43
Hi,

I recently bought two Noctua NF-A14 PWM fans for the front of my meshify c case, replacing two non PWM fans which were loud. They top fan is great, whisper quiet and when it has to ramp it has a ‘not annoying’ tone.

the second fans however, during normal usage make a (not loud) pulsing/drone sound. Not always, and not loud but *annoying*.

now I don’t know is it a fan defect, is it my motherboard varying the fan and then dropping the rpm or am I just being super sensitive? It’s making me want to run with just one intake fan…

any thoughts much appreciated!
 
Are both headers 4-pin? Do you have the same curve set in the BIOS for both headers?

Does the BIOS have a setting for PWM/voltage mode for the respective headers? If so, try setting it explicitly to PWM rather than auto.
 
VersionMonkey said:
Are both headers 4-pin? Do you have the same curve set in the BIOS for both headers?

Does the BIOS have a setting for PWM/voltage mode for the respective headers? If so, try setting it explicitly to PWM rather than auto.
Click to expand...


Yes, both are on 4 pin headers, set to silent fan curve in bios. Bios has an option to set a manual curve but not by voltage, and is extremely fiddly (ASUS prime b450 plus, so a budget board).
 
In this situation, I'd stop each fan in turn while the machine is on and see what effect it has. You just have to do it carefully because 1. it can hurt 2. you can break fan blades.
 
I have the Meshify C and 2 of the A14 Noctua fans, I've removed the foam mesh behind the front panel, but I've also made sure I left a gap between the two fans, so that they aren't touching and causing resonance. Are yours touching? Can you move them apart any more, see if that helps?
 
VaderDSL said:
I have the Meshify C and 2 of the A14 Noctua fans, I've removed the foam mesh behind the front panel, but I've also made sure I left a gap between the two fans, so that they aren't touching and causing resonance. Are yours touching? Can you move them apart any more, see if that helps?
Click to expand...

They were touching but are now as far apart as possible, but that means thet are resting on the top/bottom of the frame. I'm move them slight from the edge and make sure they don't touch.

Have you had any issues since removing the foam? Excess dust etc? That was my next move...
 
Nononame said:
They were touching but are now as far apart as possible, but that means thet are resting on the top/bottom of the frame. I'm move them slight from the edge and make sure they don't touch.

Have you had any issues since removing the foam? Excess dust etc? That was my next move...
Click to expand...

No issues with dust personally, it does get more dust than with the filter installed. But I have one of those electric air blowers/compressors and I give it a blast out every couple of months, but it barely gets dusty. I have my fans about 3 or 4mm apart to avoid resonance and they seem to be fine, might also be worth seeing if they are tightened enough with the screws, or maybe even rotating them 90 degrees clockwise or anti clockwise just to try?
 
VaderDSL said:
I have the Meshify C and 2 of the A14 Noctua fans, I've removed the foam mesh behind the front panel, but I've also made sure I left a gap between the two fans, so that they aren't touching and causing resonance. Are yours touching? Can you move them apart any more, see if that helps?
Click to expand...

Just moved them to be seperate, and still with the noise! And that is without the front mesh panel on. Maybe my machine is so quiet now that change in frequency of the fans is the issue? Wish I could post a video to show the problem...
 
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