Jump to content
Corsair Community

Question regarding fan noise


r0uter

Recommended Posts

I built my first computer in the spring of 2019 and I had some problems with fan noise, however after installing iCUE and Fan Xpert4 the noise stopped.

 

However, within the last 10 days the noise came back in full force.

 

I'm stumped as to how I can fix it... I've tried resetting options in Fan Xpert and iCUE, opening my cabinet and cleaning it, I'm not sure what to do here.

 

I hope someone here can help me.

 

The RPMS show as 2500-2700 even on quiet in iCUE, at the very lowest, regardless of the temp.

 

These are my specs:

MotherboardEdit Value

Asus ROG Strix B450-F gaming

 

ProcessorEdit Value

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X

 

Memory (part number)Edit Value

G.Skill TridentZ RGB DDR4-3000 C16 DC, F4-3000C16D-16GTZR

 

Video Card # 1Edit Value

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 VENTUS

 

Hard Drive # 1Edit Value

Samsung 860 EVO MZ-76E1T0B

Hard Drive # 2Edit Value

Samsung 970 EVO MZ-V7E500BW

 

NZXT H500

Power SupplyEdit Value

Corsair CX750M, 750W PSU

 

Operating SystemEdit Value

Windows 10 64

 

Cooling system Corsair Hydro H100i RGB Platinum cooler

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see a Commander Pro (Corsair fan controller), so I am assuming the H100i Platinum is the only CUE controlled fan device. It will take care of the two radiator fans. Fan speed is based on coolant temperature, also displayed as "H100i Temp" in CUE 3. It is to the right of the pump display in the cooler tab. Normal values are between 20-40C. Most people will idle about +4-6C above room temperature, then see load temps 6-10C beyond that. However, all of the presets (and all fan curves) are dependent on that base room temperature. The curves were designed for a standard 20-23C room temp. If you live in a warm climate and it 28C in the room, your fans are going to turn quite a bit even at idle with no hope of making things any cooler. We need to have some idea of what the coolant temp is to put any of this into context.

 

As for the motherboard and AI Suite controls for the case fans, it is likely they were preset to CPU temperature as the control variable. That is a terrible choice and CPU temp has no bearing on your case temp, but CPU temp is the standard default anyway. You'll have to see what kind of options you have in that software, for that specific motherboard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

So I've tried to check up on your remarks.

 

I do not have any other Corsair products controlled by iCUE. The two radiator fans are the fans making the (extremely high) noise. The temperature sits idle at around 30-32 degrees celsius in a room at about 21 degrees and load until 36-40 degrees celsius.

 

The idle rpm of the radiator fans connected to the H100i Platinum sits at around 1000-1200, the pump at about 1900.

 

However, as soon as i start doing anything on the computer, the RPM goes up to about 2500-2700 no matter how I try to configure them.

 

Is this necessary at a CPU in between 30-40 degrees in a room with a temperature at around 21 degrees?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As noted above, the preset curves were designed for a 20-23 baseline temperature. You are warmer because of your case layout. Quite a bit warmer actually and perhaps that is something that we should look at. However, immediate relief is at hand and the same thing every one with a programmable fan controller should do -- make your own curve. Performance Tab, + button, this will create the "cooling mode" curve.

 

You have noted your current H100i Temp baseline is 30-31C. Make that the start of your curve with a flat line and corresponding fan speed that is acceptable to you. For most people that will be between 750-1000 rpm. You can't cool things below with (with the fans alone), so there is no reason to blast them.

 

For me, the effective sweet spot for 120mm fans as to noise vs performance is 1300-1500 rpm. Anything past that is loud, with or without headgear. You noted your peak coolant temps have been around 36C. That is normal for where you started. My suggestion is you create a quiet baseline of 750-900 rpm between 20-33C, then the next point would a upwards line to 1300 rpm@36C and another point at 1500 rpm@40C. That will cover your normal use. Stick one more point at 45C=2000 rpm. This is a deliberate fan spike outside of the expected temp range. If you hit this (and you shouldn't), then you'll immediately hear the 'alarm' response.

 

The other thing you can do is create a custom curve, then go to the shape tools in the upper right hand corner. Those represent the Quiet/Balanced/Extreme presets. Select Quiet. It will duplicate the Quiet curve in editable form. Increase each data point by +8C. This effective changes the baseline temp to match your baseline temp.

 

NONE of these temp or RPM points have any significance on their own. No magic fan speeds. No magic temp point. 37C coolant means your CPU is 1C warmer than 36C coolant. That's it. This is a small change game. Use noise as the guideline. Most people do not need to scrap over 2C of CPU temp. You can't overheat the CPU as long as the pump and fans are working. The immediate CPU "cooling" is really heat transfer into liquid through the cold plate. The cooling system is really trash removal. It doesn't matter that much how fast the service works, as long as it keeps working, the heat is removed. Again, +1C coolant rise is +1C CPU temp, so no need to be over-reactive to change. Same thing in reverse -1C coolant, -1C CPU temp.

 

*If you want to try and figure out why your resting coolant is +10C over ambient, we can. Cutting that in half will make all CPU temps idle and load 5C cooler. That is a little more tangible. I would need to know where in H500 the cooler is located, the direction the fans blow (intake or exhaust) , and if you have any dust filters directly on the radiator. I guess it would have to be front mount the H500, but that makes me wonder about the dust filter.

Edited by c-attack
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, I tried making a custom curve approximately based on the numbers you suggested. That worked out pretty well. It certainly lowered the rpm output and as such the noise as well.

 

Only issue is that the H100i temp reaches real high temperatures awfully fast. E.g. when I open any random non-high performance game or other program, the temp will go to 40 + C with this custom setting and the fans will reach 2,5k rpm (max) anyhow.

 

Anyhow, that got me started on the case management. I've attached a picture to show my setup, I don't know if that's enough. As is shown, I have a backmounted chassis fan, a topmounted chassis fan and the frontmounted H100i radiator fans. As far as I've been able to assert they blow as exhaust (towards the front of the cassis) where there's a dust filter.

 

I'm thinking that it might actually just be the case itself that doesn't have enough cooling/airflow. Otherwise I might have to change the cooling paste between processor and cooler to see if that works. Beyond that I'm fresh out of ideas.

kV1tfc9V

Edited by r0uter
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only issue is that the H100i temp reaches real high temperatures awfully fast. E.g. when I open any random non-high performance game or other program, the temp will go to 40 + C with this custom setting and the fans will reach 2,5k rpm (max) anyhow.

 

This really shouldn't happen. Coolant changes should be relatively slow. If I ran a 100% CPU stress test, it might take 6-10 minutes for the cooler to reach +6-8C, which would still have you below 40C. When you stop whatever you are doing, does the coolant temperature drop somewhat quickly? Or does it stay elevated? The first several degrees should come off in less than a minute. The last few back down to the baseline temp often take much longer as usually the case itself is now warmer.

 

Your picture didn't come through, but surely the cooler has to be as front intake. If you are using a dust filter on the front, it will hamper your performance quite a bit.

 

We don't see very many (any) coolant flow issues on the Platinum coolers the far, so it seems like environmental issues are the place to look. However, in order to take other factors out of the equation, you can run a mild CPU stress test like the CPU-Z (bench tab) load. It is mild and linear, so the CPU should sit at temp X and stay there, only rising +1C for each +1C of coolant change. That makes it very easy to observe versus the highly variable test type.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The coolant temp drops (relatively) quickly after finishing - most of the time. However, it usually stays at about +4-5 C higher than the starting point of 31-ish.

 

I'll try reposting the picture. After reconfiguring I made sure that it is indeed H100i rgb platinum as a front intake and the two nzxt H500 case fans as rear and top exhausts.

 

I tried running the CPU-Z stress test in the bench tab for xxx minutes with these results as recorded by iCUE for the coolant and NZXTcam for the CPU temp:

Start: Coolant, 33,5C; CPU 35-47 C.

After 2 min: Coolant, 34,5 C; CPU 55 C.

After 9 min: Coolant, 37,5 C; CPU 59 C.

After 14 min: Coolant, 37,8 C; CPU 59 C

Then turned off the stress-test

After 1 min cooling: Coolant, 37,9 C; CPU 35-44 C.

After 6 min cooling: Coolant, 35,2 C; CPU 35-47 C.

 

When playing the coolant went up to 41 C quite quickly but CPU never goes above 57-58 C. Coolant stays at 37-ish for a long time after i stop doing anything on the PC. Is this an issue of too little intake/output of fresh/used air? I have seen quite similar builds to mine online with little to no issues (although the NZXT 500H cases also have some reported heat issues according to google) - but I was wondering if my problem is likely to be solved if I buy a more efficient fan for either to or rear exhaust?

 

It seems a little better than at the last post - I tweaked the rpm curves and got the little bit of dust that was left on the radiator off when I was checking the intake/exhaust of the H100i, so that is probably why.

 

I do have dust filters on the front intake, since that's how the case is configured. No way to get around that with the NZXT 500H, and it's not possible to place the H100i as an exhaust on neither rear nor top.

 

 

I did notice that the base clock of my processor, AMD Ryzen 5 2600X shows as 3,6Ghz on AMD's website, while NZXT shows my clock as average 4K while stress-testing. I did not manually overclock, but I don't know if I should turn this down to 3,6 and whether that would help?

83258685_796522027490979_5538203149568835584_n.thumb.jpg.292efcf4c24f5ef776686dcfbb95ac0d.jpg

Edited by r0uter
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do have dust filters on the front intake, since that's how the case is configured. No way to get around that with the NZXT 500H,

 

I did notice that the base clock of my processor, AMD Ryzen 5 2600X shows as 3,6Ghz on AMD's website, while NZXT shows my clock as average 4K while stress-testing. I did not manually overclock, but I don't know if I should turn this down to 3,6 and whether that would help?

 

Your clocks are fine and the differential between CPU peak temp and coolant temp is only 20C. That is quite low and completely dependent on Vcore voltage. Most people trying to stretch their CPU out with a decent overclock will have a coolant to CPU temp differential of 35-50C. That would be a problem for you. 50C + the 40C coolant puts you at 90C. In the current state, your are just fine as the end CPU temps seem to stay in 50-60C range and that is lower than most people.

 

However, that dust filter may be killing you. Surely it is removable, unless it is physically part of the panel. The large panel type of filter that clamps down on top of the fans is the killer. If the side venting is mesh, that's not really the same and far less problematic. I am looking at it now and obviously the front is solid. I see the side vents on the back side. Are there any other entry ways? Little slots bottom?

 

If the above premise is true, I am not sure what else can be done. It seems like the air flow entry is chocking off the air flow through the radiator. Which way are your fans/radiator positioned now?

 

radiator <- fans <- case wall

 

or

 

fans <- radiator <- case

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been trying to use the PC a lot today to test it.

 

The RPM and temperatures have gone down quite alot, albeit it not to where I would have preferred it. Nevertheless, it really helped a lot to tweak temp curves and switch to intake instead of exhaust on the radiator fans.

 

I'll stick with the clocking as is.

 

I have 2 non-filtered exhausts on top and rear where the case fans are mounted (as when case was bought). On one side (front) there's a mesh with a dust filter included. There's also a small (2cm) mesh in the bottom (front). Under the PSU there's another filtered mesh. I might consider taking the filters out of the bottom and front mesh areas, if the noise gets unbearable again. Otherwise I will just have to regularly clean them - seeing as they were full of dust when I started working on getting the temp of the CPU and coolant down I am thinking that it might be better to leave the filters in to avoid getting the whole case completely full of dust.

 

As for the fans/radiator position it is:

From outside case front side and bottom (through dust filters) -> through radiator -> through fans. (as shown in the picture attached to my last post).

 

I'll go with this config for a while and see whether the temps stay on a level where the fan noise is bearable - unless you have further comments on the fan positions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched a couple video reviews of the case and have a better grasp on the physical set-up now. Don't worry about the bottom dust filter. That should be for PSU intake and won't affect the cooling at all. The side (front) intake is mesh filtered on the side. Nothing to be done with that and this is not the same as a full filter pressed against the fan blade.

 

It's good you are making progress and I don't see much else you can do. At some point down the line, you might put the fans in between case and radiator to see if there is an improvement. I have no strong feelings about how that will turn out and I don't have any side inlet cases like that to test. Chances are it is about the same, but this is one of the few options you have. However, there is no reason you have to do this and the best possible gain might be 2C.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll stick with my current setup for now and remember the option to move the fans in front of the radiator, if my temps go up again.

 

Thank you very much for taking your time to answer my questions and for the help you've provided!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...