Cpu Fan Noise

[opalhort]

Hi

in one of our PCs the CPU fan is very noisy and causes a lot of vibration.

it is certainly the CPU fan since I did disconnect all other fans for testing.

The fan is running at 4,500-4,800 Rpm (similar to our other PCs) and CPU Temp is around 45-60ºC in a non-air con environment.

The CPU is an Intel P4 3.2GHz and the MB is ASUS P5GD1PRO.

I did check the mounting of the fan and heat sink and all appears to be OK apart from the noise and vibration.

any ideas what else I could do?

here are two photos of the fan:

opalhort

[Gumballl]

Wow, that fan is huge! Anyhow, it shouldn't be too hard to find a replacement. Go to any PC shop and they will probably have something identical or something similar in stock. Then it is just a matter of disconnecting your "old" fan (it should clip off) and then disconnecting its power cable. Then do the opposite with the new fan.

Another suggestion, if it is possible, is to get a can of compressed air to see if blowing any dust out of the "old" fan makes a difference. Sometimes it does, but only temporarily.

[Firefoxx]

That's the Intel stock fan. It's LOUD and inefficient even when it's working correctly. I took off mine, on two of my machines, and just set them aside (not using them, they're that bad). DON'T BUY ANOTHER ONE. The CPU that you use generates a lot of heat compared to the current generation CPUs, so their heatsinks have fans that run at high RPMs by default (and still don't cool very well).

Go and buy something better. The Arctic Cooler Pro or the Zalmans are nice... they're much quieter, last longer, and are better at the actual job of cooling. The cheaper ones cost a little over a 1000 baht.

[joka]

Hello,

I had a problem with the noisy fan also, it comes from the high rpm's. I downloaded a program called speedfan. This program lets you control the speed of the cpu fan. The fan starts up at around 38000 rpm's, I throttle it down to around 75% of speed or less and get the rpm's down to around the low 20's. Voila, quiet fan.

I am using the cheapest dual-core available, 2.8 pentium. Even with high cpu usage I have no problem with temperature with the fan throttled.

[Guest Reimar]

I would use the full copper Zalman because that one has the most best effect! And Arctic Silver for sure!

The Zalman you can get at Pantip on 3. floor.

[meadish_sweetball]

Hi

in one of our PCs the CPU fan is very noisy and causes a lot of vibration.

it is certainly the CPU fan since I did disconnect all other fans for testing.

The fan is running at 4,500-4,800 Rpm (similar to our other PCs) and CPU Temp is around 45-60ºC in a non-air con environment.

The CPU is an Intel P4 3.2GHz and the MB is ASUS P5GD1PRO.

I did check the mounting of the fan and heat sink and all appears to be OK apart from the noise and vibration.

any ideas what else I could do?

here are two photos of the fan:

opalhort

The fan/heatsink you have is more or less identical to mine - check the thread 'Heat issues' for more thoughts and input about noise and heat. I am buying myself a better heatsink/fan today if I can find one of the better brands in Chiang Mai Panthip.

[opalhort]

Hello,

I had a problem with the noisy fan also, it comes from the high rpm's. I downloaded a program called speedfan. This program lets you control the speed of the cpu fan. The fan starts up at around 38000 rpm's, I throttle it down to around 75% of speed or less and get the rpm's down to around the low 20's. Voila, quiet fan.

I am using the cheapest dual-core available, 2.8 pentium. Even with high cpu usage I have no problem with temperature with the fan throttled.

Thanks for your hint to speedfan, installed it and reduced speed to 75% and now all is quiet with temperature remaining stable below 50C even under load. This is probably a short-term measure until I get around to change some hardware.

But I have one question: what is the AUX? the temp is showing 126C but no fan speed and not possible to adjust.

opalhort

[paveet]

Yeah, it's the Intel stock fan.. but I don't have too much to complain about it since I did 3.9Ghz out of a Core2Duo 2.4Ghz before on that heatsink+fan..

My suggestion is to go buy a Zalman set as they're really quiet and one has served me well for so long!

[Deke]

In any case, you should replace the fan. Once it fails, the CPU won't be far behind (speaking from experience).

[Tywais]

But I have one question: what is the AUX? the temp is showing 126C but no fan speed and not possible to adjust.

It's a non-existent sensor I believe, shows up that way on mine also.

From a forum > "Reading the speedfan forums, there's an "AUX" temp indicator on the most recent release which always shows a wrong reading - and does not actualy correspond to any part."

[opalhort]

Thanks taywais,

all is clear now.

opalhort

[opalhort]

Looks like not all is clear yet:

How can I get the speedfan to start at boot time and retain the 75% CPU fan speed setting?

When I restart the PC I have to start speedfan manually and configure it again to run the CPU fan at 75%.

opalhort

[Firefoxx]

Many bioses have the option to do something similar. Asus mainboards have the "Qfan" setting, with settings like "optimal", "performance", "quiet", etc, and it's in the system monitor menu.

Zalmans used to be king of the hill, but there are now bigger and better heatpipe based coolers.

[opalhort]

Many bioses have the option to do something similar. Asus mainboards have the "Qfan" setting, with settings like "optimal", "performance", "quiet", etc, and it's in the system monitor menu.

Zalmans used to be king of the hill, but there are now bigger and better heatpipe based coolers.

Thanks for the BIOS tip.

I didn't know about that. Did enable Q-fan and set CPU fan speed to 70% and now all is quiet without even having to run speedfan.

so far all looks OK regarding temperatures but will have to wait and see how it goes.

Thanks again also to everybody who has replied with very good advise

opalhort