Super Noisey Cooler Fans

[Cat_Dad 17]

I have just had a new i9 9900K  RTX 2080 system for X-plane built at my local computer shop. So far, the performance is what I had expected it to be moving up from my 4 year old i7 4790 GTX 980 system. I now see 50-122 FPS depending upon location compared 30-60 FPS on the old box. What I did not expect is the new computer sound like a leaf blower when under load compared to the almost whispering sounds made by the i7 4790.. In fact I had to turn on the turbo cooling mode on the old one to sound similar to the new one's slightly above idle racket. 

 

The biggest noise maker in the new computer are the two 120mm fans on the Corsair H100i Platinum All In One cooler The idle speed/temp are 1100-1600 RPM and temp of 31-34C.   When running under load (X-Plane 11) 2200-2800 (in quiet fan mode) and temps 38-51C. The Corsair cooler software has multiple settings/speeds for the fans and cooler pump. They are quiet, balanced, and extreme. Also a zero fan mode which allows for no fan if the temp is under 40C. After that the fans come on to aid in cooling.

 

The system is housed in a Fractal Define R6 USB-C case which has 2 front (intake) and 1 (exhaust) fans. The top of the case is removable to allow for additional cooling but the noise level really zooms up when you do this with only a 5-6C drop in temperature.. The power supply is similar to the old system in that it breaths air from the bottom of the case and blows out the back without dumping additional heat inside the case/s. The new RTX 2080 video card though dumps hot air into the case verse the old GTX 980 pushing it out of the case. The video card is mounted mid case and the CPY radiator is mounted at the top of the case. 

 

Since it appears that the cooler fans speed is controlled by temp, would moving the cooler to the front of the case  allow better cooler with lower RPMs? This would put the cooler out of direct line of the RTX video card blowing it's hot air directly into the bottom of the cooler. Does anyone have a similar setup or cooling problems?

 

Terry

 

 

 

 

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Terry,

With a build I just finished a few weeks ago - I used a Noctua CPU Cooler with (1) Noctua fan - with (4) Noctua case fans replacing the stock fans - and it's very quite. While not cheap - their fans make a substantial difference even at max RPM.

Regards,
Scott

Edited July 17, 2019 by scottb613

[Jude Bradley 659]

I've also got Noctua coolers and would recommend them.

[lownslo 592]

2 hours ago, Cat_Dad said:

When running under load (X-Plane 11) 2200-2800 (in quiet fan mode) and temps 38-51C.

If you're seeing only 51C max at normal ambient room temp then you should be able to tweak the fan curve to lower the RPM (and thus the noise).  Your CPU will be just fine running in the 60's-70's C (it will last years running at those temps).

If you've got some spare 120mm fans you could try them in the front of the case to mix cool air in with the warm stuff from the 2080 and the rad.  Wouldn't hurt; you'd have to tell us if it helps.

Scott mentions Noctua fans... the absolute best available today is the NF-A12x25.  It offers both high speed (for moving air through the case) and high pressure (for making a rad cool and happy).  They ain't cheap though: https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-A12x25-PWM-Premium-Quality-Quiet/dp/B07C5VG64V/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=NF-A12x25&qid=1563396925&s=audible&sr=8-1

Good luck,

Greg

[Luke 782]

1 hour ago, lownslo said:

If you're seeing only 51C max at normal ambient room temp then you should be able to tweak the fan curve to lower the RPM (and thus the noise).  Your CPU will be just fine running in the 60's-70's C (it will last years running at those temps).

This. I would lower the fan speeds to reduce the noise and add 15-20C to the temperature. My CPU runs at 55-72C for hours at a time in P3D without issue.

Cheers!

[vortex681 806]

3 hours ago, Cat_Dad said:

The biggest noise maker in the new computer are the two 120mm fans on the Corsair H100i Platinum All In One cooler The idle speed/temp are 1100-1600 RPM and temp of 31-34C.   When running under load (X-Plane 11) 2200-2800 (in quiet fan mode) and temps 38-51C. The Corsair cooler software has multiple settings/speeds for the fans and cooler pump. They are quiet, balanced, and extreme. Also a zero fan mode which allows for no fan if the temp is under 40C. After that the fans come on to aid in cooling.

I also have a Corsair AIO - an H110iGT. I have the Quiet profile selected and, apart from a roar for a couple of seconds when I switch the system on, the fan noise is hardly noticeable, even under load. In  fact, in the Quiet profile, the CPU fans stay at 1000 RPM all the time. The highest CPU temperature I've seen when gaming was 69°C but the fans never become any more noticeable than at idle. The only noise I sometimes get whilst gaming comes from my GTX 1080 if the fans start to ramp up. Could it be your graphics card making the noise under load?

Something else to check is to make sure that the cooler fans are not being controlled by the BIOS rather than the Corsair Link software.

[Cat_Dad 17]

Thanks to all that have given ideas. Hey no one talked about moving the radiator, just bigger fans to move more hot air..  My idea was to supply non-pre-heated air from the video card and other motherboard parts. Unless there is a minimum CPU/system temperature, I say the less heat you have the less performance loss and system stress and wear.

I think I have come across a partial solution. It was something I tried before but did not work well do to the placement of the computer. It sat on the end of the desk in a corner where the airflow was not good even though it was under the ac register.. Moving the computer to the other end of the disk allowed the hot air to be closer to the door and near the rooms cold air return  duct. Since I have never had a Fractal case before I did not think opening the front panel door would do much. Boy was I wrong. Not enough air was being pulled into the case via the side vents. In fact I even reset the door to open left to right so that the open door would not get in the way. With only a short flight to test this out, my temps were 38.7C flying the 737 in ABQ. and the fan speeds were in the 2000-2200 RPM range.  Before 2600-2800 RPM was the norm for something like this.Right now just idling and typing this, my temp is 31.8C and  1160 fan speed on the cooler in the I CUE quiet mode.

Sometimes, low tech can really make a difference. I do not know if they make the RTX 2080 that vents out of the case like my old GTX 980 card. Then the CPU cooler would not have all that pre-heated air to get hit with.

 

Terry

Edited July 18, 2019 by Cat_Dad
additional data

[Harold_Finch 29]

I am cooling a 9900K with a Corsair cooler like yours on the CPU and a Hybrid 2080Ti that dumps all the hot air out of the case and it operates whisper quiet.

Edited July 18, 2019 by Harold_Finch

[Cat_Dad 17]

Harold, 

 

What brand of card do you have? Mine is the EVGA Black RTX 2080. Mine has two fans mounted below the card and blows up through some fins I can see from the side. Looks like there are some sort of slot/flat plates on the top of the card which might be there to mount a water cooler dedicated to only the card. Don't know..

 

Terry

[Dave_YVR 968]

I have the same H100i and the best thing you can do is swap out the fans that come with it. They are horribly loud. I swapped them out for and only use BeQuiet Fans in my PC and it's super quiet as well as a few degrees cooler than when using the ones that came with it.

[Harold_Finch 29]

It's the EVGA RTX 2080tTi Hybrid (11G-P4-2484-KR)    Worth every penny.

[Bob Scott 7,716]

A couple thoughts:

The stock fans on the H100i (excepting the Pro version) are noisy.  I've used both the Noctua NF-F12 (SSO bearing) and the Corsair ML-120 (mag-lev bearing) fans on AIO units like the H100i, and they are significantly quieter.

That said, a 9900K overclocked to 5 GHz needs to dissipate somewhere between 150-200W depending on workload, so a 240mm AIO cooler is going to be pretty close to maxxed out, which means the fans are going to run at high speed under those loads.  Some of the fans are quieter than others, but at full speed none of them are quiet.

You have to be careful about not letting the coolant in the loop get too warm, as it reduces the effectiveness of the loop.  The "quiet mode" on my H100i is not nearly proactive enough (on a 7700K at 4.9 GHz)...I have a custom fan curve that aggressively ramps up the fans and pump when the coolant (not the CPU) climbs to 30 deg C or above.  The idea is to try and stay ahead of the curve and not let the coolant become a heat reservoir.

Placement of the radiator and orientation of the fans can make a difference.  But beware of the tradeoffs...you can get better cooling on the CPU by drawing IN cool air, but then you blow warm air over the VRMs, PCH etc and also raise the temp of the intake air on the GPU.  Exhaust fan orientation draws air from inside the case...and just as important, it alters the airflow, potentially for better or for worse.  I did "cigar tests" on some of my older builds to literally see how the air flows through the case.  In the wrong place, an exhaust fan can dramatically reduce flow in other parts of the case.  There is no one-size-fits-all prescription for how to place fans for best effect, given the wide variety of motherboard heat sink layouts, case configurations, etc.

Regards

 

[scottb613 1,188]

35 minutes ago, w6kd said:

The "quiet mode" on my H100i is not nearly proactive enough (on a 7700K at 4.9 GHz)...

Hi Bob,

Just an FYI - I just finished my 7700K build a couple weeks ago (granted I'm a bit behind the times) - while I used the Noctua NH-D15S CPU cooler - I think it's the "delid" that really did it for me - I used the "canned" single setting 5Ghz setup on the mobo and stress tested with several programs - I can't make the temps go over 65C... With the temps I'm seeing - I'll probably try bumping it up a bit more... My old 2700K has been running for seven years in the low 80C's without issue... If you haven't done the "delid" - it might be worth the time (it was pretty straight forward following a YouTube video) ?

Regards,
Scott  

Edited July 18, 2019 by scottb613

[Bob Scott 7,716]

36 minutes ago, scottb613 said:

Hi Bob,

Just an FYI - I just finished my 7700K build a couple weeks ago (granted I'm a bit behind the times) - while I used the Noctua NH-D15S CPU cooler - I think it's the "delid" is what really did it for me - I used the "canned" single setting 5Ghz setup on the mobo and stress tested with several programs - I can't make the temps go over 65C... With the temps I'm seeing - I'll probably try bumping it up a bit more... My old 2700K ran for seven years in the low 80C's... If you haven't done the "delid" - it might be worth the time (it was pretty straight forward following a YouTube video) ?

Regards,
Scott  

Thanks Scott.  My 7700K has been sort of put out to pasture now, and serves as my daily use and ancillary program PC (Radar Contact, ActiveSky, Navigraph etc).  I've downclocked it a couple notches from the days when it served as my primary sim PC, and it rarely does anything to spin up the AIO's fans any more.  When I moved it over to replace my old 2600K, I took it off the custom water loop reserved for my flight sim box, and put in the H100i, and took the opportunity to run some stress tests on the AIO config then.

My primary sim box runs an 8086K at 5.3 GHz on a monster custom water cooling loop (two 360mm rads with six fans spinning nearly silently at 800rpm)--the temps very occasionally bump up into the low 50s running P3D, and at 5.3 the voltages are already as high as I'd be willing to go 24/7, so delidding the 8086K wouldn't buy me anything except a voided warranty and peak temps in the 40s instead of the 50s.

FWIW, I just finished a new build for a portable LAN box computer for travel...a flat-mounted mobo with a 9900K, and my first completely air-cooled box in 5 builds now using an NH-D15 I have had sitting in my spares closet for about 3 years now.  Still running tests on that config--obviously with the new soldered IHS, delidding isn't an option.  With HT off I have it running stable at 5.0 GHz with AVX-enabled Prime95 and no AVX offset (temps in the low 80s with P95 AVX threads).  I didn't want water hoses, even on an AIO, bouncing/flexing repeatedly during long-distance transport in a vehicle.  I used Corsair ML-140 and ML-120 fans in the case, and the stock Noctua NF-A15 fans on the CPU stack.  All told, it's quieter than the H100i, even equipped with aftermarket fans, and I think I can slow down the case fans a bit more to quiet it down further still when under realistic gaming loads.

I wonder what the effect on fan noise would be from running an AIO on a delidded CPU...seems to me that transferring more heat to the AIO would ramp the fans up and make even more noise (but keep things cooler at the same time).  Most of the folks I know using delidded CPUs are also running fairly high-performance custom water loops as well...it'd be interesting to see how the delid/AIO combo worked.

Cheers

 

[scottb613 1,188]

21 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Thanks Scott. 

Hi Bob,

Hah - sounds like you are deeper down the rabbit hole than I - thanks for the explanation ! I noticed those small mobile computer cases a few times and wondered what they would be like... Enjoy !

Regards,
Scott