New PC - Fan Noise

Now33

I've just bought a new PC and have found that the fan noise is considerably louder than the PC it replaces. I don't know if this is a fault or whether I will just have to live with it. On my older PC ( a Dell with an intel dual core processor), the fan was only noticeable when it was carrying out tasks which were intensive on the CPU resources.

However on my new pc (a Dell XPS 8300 with an I7 processor) the fan is really noticeable even with little CPU usage).

I appreciate that my new PC is more powerful and as a result will need more cooling down, but I would have hoped the fan noise is lower than what it is.

Anyone any views on whether this is normal and I should expect that more modern PCs will create more noise?

fwor

Some fans are simply noisier than others - either because they are smaller (usually = louder) or the blade design is inferior.

However, before looking at buying a quieter design of fan (and possibly voiding the warranty by fitting it), have a look in the BIOS (usually the F2 key as it boots up on Dells) to see if there is a "Smart Fan" setting for the fan speed control. Many have this, and it's not always selected by default.

Robisere

I have just looked at the spec's for this machine. It is quite a high - performance PC, with High power graphics and sound. That is why I think that the Power Supply is a bit low-spec, it is only a 460 watt model. I would have fitted at least a 650 Watt PSU to such a high-spec, high power gaming rig. It may be that the noisy fan is in fact your PSU fan. Did you ask for extra spec's when you ordered it? I see that it is available with up to 4 TB of storage. If the case fans are fitted with temperature sensors, it may also be that they are running at top speed, especially if they are only 90 mm. I would have fitted at least 120mm. fans, preferably 140 mm.

Best solution? Contact Dell, tell them you are not happy and suspect that there is a cooling problem.

EDIT: based on fwor's post -

Contacting Dell may lead to them suggesting you do go into the BIOS, and leading you through the process. Be careful if it is by phone - ask what the charges are.

Myser

The first thing I would check is the BIOS fan setting as fwor mentioned. I had a really noisy PC until I discovered the SmartFan option was disabled so the fans were running at full speed all the time!

Do you have high-spec graphics cards? If so, have you enabled the auto fan speed regulation option for them?

A.Penny.Saved

Get some temperature monitoring software such as RealTemp, HWMonitor, Speedfan or CoreTemp to check your CPU temperature. RealTemp can also show the temperature of some graphics cards. Then you will know any differences when you make changes.

The auto fan control setting in the Bios is worth checking.

Now33

Thanks for your responses.

I've had a look in the BIOS (after pressing F2 at startup), but I cant see any mention of any fan settings. I have emailed Dell and they responsed by recommending I update the system BIOS - however when I tried to update I was advised I had the latest version.

My graphics card is a 1GB AMD Radeon HD6670 - I'm not sure how to amend the fan speed regulation option for this?

I've had the case off the side of the unit, but I can't really tell which fan the noise is coming from.

I'm thinking that I may have to get used to this, unless I go to the expense of larger fans (don't really want to do this). Can PCs really be whisper quiet? As mentioned in my opening post, my previous lower spec PC was relatively quiet, apart from when it was doing something which required quite a lot of CPU resource.

fwor

Now33 wrote: »

Can PCs really be whisper quiet?

I reckon with the spec that yours has, probably not.

There are some very good makes of quiet fan - Akasa make some, but there are quite a few others - with special blade shapes, so just changing existing fans for better ones the same size should help. But it can be a bit of a pain to do, and then you start to notice other noises like the HDD seeking.

I've gone through that, with better fans, and suspending the HDD from fishing line, but it's a lot of work for something you would probably get used to anyway.

John_Gray

Dell PCs are quite proprietary, and you may find difficulty replacing fans, and so on. I have a Dell Dimension 8300 (yes, still!) where the CPU fan used to roar like a jet engine when we had a hot summer (remember 1976, folks?). I rang up QuietPC to see if they could do anything: No, since the fan housing was specific to that Dell PC, and you were stuck with it...

Notmyrealname

Now33 wrote: »

I've just bought a new PC and have found that the fan noise is considerably louder than the PC it replaces. I don't know if this is a fault or whether I will just have to live with it. On my older PC ( a Dell with an intel dual core processor), the fan was only noticeable when it was carrying out tasks which were intensive on the CPU resources.

However on my new pc (a Dell XPS 8300 with an I7 processor) the fan is really noticeable even with little CPU usage).

I appreciate that my new PC is more powerful and as a result will need more cooling down, but I would have hoped the fan noise is lower than what it is.

Anyone any views on whether this is normal and I should expect that more modern PCs will create more noise?

You have bought a top end gaming machine. The components generate some serious heat and that requires a lot more cooling. You have to live with it or return it under DSR. All gaming machines have louder than normal fan noise but without listening to it, you're not going to know if it is too loud for you as it is a subjective thing.

spannerzone

Although many Dell computers do have some proprietry parts, they're not as bas as they used to be.... many components are more common or garden such as power supplies although case fans could be a bit more non standard.

My last few Dell desktops are based on ATX design and so offer a reasonable degree of standardisation, it might well be this PC is just noisier to accomodate more fans to keep it cool.... graphics cards are often whiney due to the tiny fan spinning really fast. It may be possible to go into the graphics card settings and adjust fan speed?

A review on the XPS8300 suggests it runs cool and quiet even under load... so maybe your's isn't quite right?

This might be of interest

Now33

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

Get some temperature monitoring software such as RealTemp, HWMonitor, Speedfan or CoreTemp to check your CPU temperature.

I've done a google search for Speedfan - http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php - the info on this site suggests that the Speedfan software can change fan speed. Can anyone anyone recommend this software?