RX 580 Fan noise - alternative fans

[ronnie147]

Hello, just looking for some opinions on cooling my gigabyte rx 580. It's not overheating, it's just when it requires more power like from certain games, the fans will go 3000+ RPM and sound like a hairdryer. I've seen people removing the shroud/fans and strap some new ones on, which I'm interested in doing. The trouble is i'm using a mini ITX (coolermaster elite 130) case, so the card stands vertically near the side of the case. It doesn't leave enough room to fit in a standard 25mm wide fan, it will however just about squeeze in 2 slim 120mm x 15mm fans. The best I can find are the Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM, I'm wondering if 2 of these are gonna do the job, or am I wasting my time?

[WoodenMarker]

It may be quieter but you'll be mainly limited by the weak heatsink on the card. What are your current temps? 

[ronnie147]

7 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

It may be quieter but you'll be mainly limited by the weak heatsink on the card. What are your current temps? 

It's 40 - 50c idle and around 75c when on 100% load, this is when the fan goes at 90%. It seems to be quite common for this card to being a noisy one. So the temps are ok, it's all about the noise really

[WoodenMarker]

9 hours ago, ronnie147 said:

It's 40 - 50c idle and around 75c when on 100% load, this is when the fan goes at 90%. It seems to be quite common for this card to being a noisy one. So the temps are ok, it's all about the noise really

In that case, NF-A12x15's should work fine. 

[ronnie147]

On 10/6/2019 at 8:14 PM, WoodenMarker said:

In that case, NF-A12x15's should work fine. 

I've gone for the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12, it has more airflow than the noctua. I'm not sure whether to connect them to the GPU with an adaptor or just connect them to the motherboard. The original fan is 12v 0.5a, new ones 12v 0.12a. Would that be ok to connect to the GPU? 

[Boyohan]

On 10/5/2019 at 8:38 PM, ronnie147 said:

so the card stands vertically near the side of the case. It doesn't leave enough room to fit in a standard 25mm wide fan

How much room do you have between the GPU and side plate ? Because if they are to close you will limit the air supply making the fans work harder than necessary with more noise.

A common problem with vertical mounted GPUs

Just a thought...   

[ronnie147]

3 hours ago, Boyohan said:

How much room do you have between the GPU and side plate ? Because if they are to close you will limit the air supply making the fans work harder than necessary with more noise.

A common problem with vertical mounted GPUs

Just a thought...   

Barely any, the side it's next to does have vent holes in it though. If needed I'm prepared to modify it, hopefully not. 

 

This is how it currently is and what I could do if necessary, with a bit of cutting and drilling

[Boyohan]

3 hours ago, ronnie147 said:

Barely any, the side it's next to does have vent holes in it though. If needed I'm prepared to modify it, hopefully not. 

 

This is how it currently is and what I could do if necessary, with a bit of cutting and drilling

Ye those vent holes should be enough to get good air to your GPU. 

How old is your GPU ? Could the noise be due to bad bearings ?

The RX 580 is still a decent GPU so I definitely think it is worth a try to get some new fans for it.

[WoodenMarker]

9 hours ago, ronnie147 said:

I've gone for the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12, it has more airflow than the noctua. I'm not sure whether to connect them to the GPU with an adaptor or just connect them to the motherboard. The original fan is 12v 0.5a, new ones 12v 0.12a. Would that be ok to connect to the GPU? 

Unless there's some higher rpm version of the Ultra Sleek Vortex 12, it only has 1 more cfm and much less static pressure according to specs. Pretty sure it'll perform worse than the NF-A12x15. The main red flag is the low rpm. 

Either an adapter or motherboard works. I prefer a gpu fan adapter with a splitter for two fans on the graphics card. 

8 hours ago, ronnie147 said:

Barely any, the side it's next to does have vent holes in it though. If needed I'm prepared to modify it, hopefully not. 

This is how it currently is and what I could do if necessary, with a bit of cutting and drilling

Modding the side panel would definitely help since that's seems very restrictive. 

[ronnie147]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

Unless there's some higher rpm version of the Ultra Sleek Vortex 12, it only has 1 more cfm and much less static pressure according to specs. Pretty sure it'll perform worse than the NF-A12x15. The main red flag is the low rpm. 

Either an adapter or motherboard works. I prefer a gpu fan adapter with a splitter for two fans on the graphics card. 

Modding the side panel would definitely help since that's seems very restrictive. 

Ah, I was looking at the LNA rating. Mixed reviews on both, some say they're silent then the next will say they're loud. I may try them both, if I think one is too noisy or doesn't perform well, I'll send it back.

[WoodenMarker]

1 minute ago, ronnie147 said:

Ah, I was looking at the LNA rating. Mixed reviews on both, some say they're silent then the next will say they're loud. I may try them both, if I think one is too noisy or doesn't perform well, I'll send it back.

No fans are truly silent so take those descriptions with a heap of salt. Most 'quiet' fans can be noisy at high rpm but that's mainly for thermal headroom. What makes them quiet is the ability to cool adequately at low noise or just cool better with lower noise. 

[ronnie147]

On 10/8/2019 at 8:48 PM, WoodenMarker said:

No fans are truly silent so take those descriptions with a heap of salt. Most 'quiet' fans can be noisy at high rpm but that's mainly for thermal headroom. What makes them quiet is the ability to cool adequately at low noise or just cool better with lower noise. 

Yeah, I'm certainly not expecting it to be near silent, my main goal is just to make it significantly quieter under load. I'm getting the noctua fans this week and will be using a mini pwm splitter to connect them to the card.