Replacement PWM Fans and H100i louder than before

[MacNB]

First all many thanks to tech support and customer services - great service.

They sent a completely new H100i (the new 4-pin PWM fans) with firmware 1.0.5. Lot # 12529434

 

The good:

• LED's now work. They even change colour with the coolant/pump temperature (which did not work for me before).
   
  
• I can even use Link S/w with Windows 8 (I have plugged my own mini USB to the pump and the end of this USB cable to external USB 3.0 socket). HDD lights and HDD ticks every second (a known issue).
   
  
• No buzzing/grinding fan noise.
   
  
• cooling fine: idle temp 32degC, max 89degC at full load (Prime95); OC i7-3770k @ 4.7 Ghz @ 1.284v
  

 

Not so good:

• With new fans connected to pump, the default config is very noisy...running at around 1600 rpm.
  
• Changed the profile in Lnk s/w to quiet. Fan speed drops to around 900 rpm but I can still hear them....hmmm.
  
• Ran Prime95 (small FFT stress test). The fans speed up to nearly 2600rpm...sounds like a vacuum cleaner now. Previous were just as noisy so no change there and as expected.
   
  
• The pump noise is louder than the previous unit. I can actually hear it. It's almost like a low whine/hum like a notebook fan when a notebook heats up. First I thought it was the fans so I disconnected the fans briefly from the pump and the noise is still there. So it's the pump making the noise as well.
   
  
• Connected the new fans to the CPU fan header and configured the BIOS to Manual/PWM/Silient mode. They now run at around 600rpm idle load....much quieter but can be faintly heard (temp increased by 2degC. But now the pump noise is prominent.
  
• The pump is louder than the previous H100i.
   
  
• I have been testing for a week now in the hope that the pump will settle and the noise would reduce but no joy.
  

Pump is running 2160rpm (according to AIDA64, Gigabyte EasyTune6 and HWMonitor) and at 2060rpm (according Link s/w)...i.e. Link s/w always reports 100rpm less than other s/w.

 

Anyone else seeing this increase in noise with the new H100i pump and new fans ?

Any way to reduce the pump noise

[sinnedone]

I have yet to install mine so I cant really comment, but you could make a custom fan profile so the fans spin at 600 rpm most of the time and only ramp up when a certain cpu temp is reached.

 

I have mine setup that way.

[MacNB]

yes tried custom and 600rpm with the new fans and they are fairly quiet but the issue is that the noise of the pump is louder than the fan. The pump noise is drowned out when the fans go above 1200rpm when the fans are audible.