Hyper 212 RGB fan noise + possible fan replacement?

[dtp23]

My new Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition is noisier than I'd like. It seems to be intermittently making annoying whining noises at idle, but not all the time. The weird thing is when I put my ear to the case it doesn't really sound like it's coming from the fan itself but from slightly infront of it, and when I open the side panel and put my ear right next to it I don't hear it. In fact with the side panel removed the noise is gone completely or at least I don't hear it. Maybe some sort of vibration against the glass? Can anything be done to pinpoint the exact issue?

 

Failing that, is it possible to even replace the fan with a different one? This cooler comes with plastic clips that are not really traditional metal ones. Also which fans would be good? I've been looking at a Noctua Chromax NF-F12, it goes up to 1500RPM and is supposedly good for static pressure, is that a good choice? It's a lower RPM than what the current fan gets to.

[Vishera]

Sounds like an issue of vibration against something,a rubber pad will absorb the vibrations as long as it's placed in the right place.

 

If the plastic clips are the same as the 212 EVO then you can replace the fan with a standard 120 mm one,

The clips on the 212 EVO are screwed to the fan.

[dtp23]

1 minute ago, Vishera said:

Sounds like an issue of vibration against something,a rubber pad will absorb the vibrations as long as it's placed in the right place.

 

If the plastic clips are the same as the 212 EVO then you can replace the fan with a standard 120 mm one,

The clips on the 212 EVO are screwed to the fan.

And how does one go about pinpointing where the vibration is? Do you mean put a rubber pad somewhere on the fan? I'm struggling because when I open the side panel I don't hear this sound signature anywhere when putting my ear to stuff.

[Vishera]

Just now, dtp23 said:

And how does one go about pinpointing where the vibration is? Do you mean put a rubber pad somewhere on the fan? I'm struggling because when I open the side panel I don't hear this sound signature anywhere when putting my ear to stuff.

Are the fan or cooler contacting the case when closed?

[dtp23]

6 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Are the fan or cooler contacting the case when closed?

Nope, there's sufficient clearance. The cooler is 158mm and the case (NZXT H510) has 165mm clearance. I'm wondering if it has to do with the pattern of airflow. I didn't get this sound when I had a Pure Rock Slim installed, but it was installed with the fan facing downwards whereas this one is installed horizontally (i.e the regular way).

 

Is it safe to say that if I put my ear to the fan and can't hear this sound, it's not the fan making this noise however? Just want to rule that out cause a good static pressure fan is expensive and I'd also lose the RGB.

[Vishera]

Maybe it's from a different fan,

Those cooler master fans are pretty good and it doesn't sound like it's coming from it

29 minutes ago, dtp23 said:

it doesn't really sound like it's coming from the fan itself but from slightly infront of it

This should be a good start,investigating in front of the 212 fan.

[dtp23]

I tried putting an Arctic P12 (non PWM, non PST) fan that I had lying around on the cooler to see what the results would be. It sounds a bit better. I think it is the fan making the noise and honestly it is unbearable and I have no idea how reviewers ignore or don't notice these things. The noise drives me insane, it's similar to the noise made by the stock AMD Wraith Stealth.

 

Maybe the fan is faulty but I doubt the retailer I bought the cooler from will care as long as it's spinning. So the only course of action now is to replace the fan. Can anyone shed light on the NF-F12 noise levels? Not flat decibel numbers cause that is clearly meaningless, but what is the sound signature? What does it sound like when used as a heatsink fan in pull config? And how would it stack up to the Arctic P12 PWM PST in terms of performance and acoustics?

[WoodenMarker]

6 hours ago, dtp23 said:

Maybe the fan is faulty but I doubt the retailer I bought the cooler from will care as long as it's spinning. So the only course of action now is to replace the fan. Can anyone shed light on the NF-F12 noise levels? Not flat decibel numbers cause that is clearly meaningless, but what is the sound signature? What does it sound like when used as a heatsink fan in pull config? And how would it stack up to the Arctic P12 PWM PST in terms of performance and acoustics?

Besides being DOA, warranty is usually handled by the manufacturer. 

The NF-F12 can be astonishingly quiet on a heatsink as long as the motherboard's pwm is good. It's optimized for push and pretty hard to go wrong with if you aim for low noise and are running it at low rpm. Why did you want to use it in pull?

I'm not sure about how the Arctic P12 PST's compare but user reviews seem to indicate that they aren't any better than Noctuas.  

 

Have you tried stopping the fan with your hand to see if the sound persists? You can press lightly on the hub to slow it down before stopping it. 

[dtp23]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

Besides being DOA, warranty is usually handled by the manufacturer. 

The NF-F12 can be astonishingly quiet on a heatsink as long as the motherboard's pwm is good. It's optimized for push and pretty hard to go wrong with if you aim for low noise and are running it at low rpm. Why did you want to use it in pull?

I'm not sure about how the Arctic P12 PST's compare but user reviews seem to indicate that they aren't any better than Noctuas.  

 

Have you tried stopping the fan with your hand to see if the sound persists? You can press lightly on the hub to slow it down before stopping it. 

I don't even know that it's faulty - maybe this is just how it sounds? A lot of people said the AMD Wraith Stealth is not loud either but I found that it made the exact same whining noise that drove me insane, so maybe my sensibilities are just a bit special and I need a certain sound signature.

 

I guess what I meant was push config, sorry. I mean just using the fan as a standard heatsink fan, pushing air through it towards the rear of the case. Is this considered push? My concern is I've seen some people saying they aren't particularly quiet, and since I'd be using it for the cooler it'll naturally hit higher RPM's. Another concern is thermal performance as in almost every comparison I've seen they perform notably worse than the default fans. I'm willing to sacrifice a little performance for silence (or more specifically, a more neutral and acceptable sound signature) but not that much.

 

Stopping the fan with my hand isn't helpful because I don't hear the sound when the side panel is open anyway. All I hear is air moving and some standard coil whine etc. But I disconnected the fan and closed the panel (it whines in light workloads too so this was an easy test to do, just let it run on passive cooling in some light tasks like Chrome) and the sound was gone. So idk, I'm at a complete loss, but one way or another it has something to do with the fan.

[WoodenMarker]

51 minutes ago, dtp23 said:

I don't even know that it's faulty - maybe this is just how it sounds? A lot of people said the AMD Wraith Stealth is not loud either but I found that it made the exact same whining noise that drove me insane, so maybe my sensibilities are just a bit special and I need a certain sound signature.

 

I guess what I meant was push config, sorry. I mean just using the fan as a standard heatsink fan, blowing hot air out the rear of the case. My concern is I've seen some people saying they aren't particularly quiet, and since I'd be using it for the cooler it'll naturally hit higher RPM's. Another concern is thermal performance as in almost every comparison I've seen they perform notably worse than the default fans. I'm willing to sacrifice a little performance for silence (or more specifically, a more neutral and acceptable sound signature) but not that much.

 

Stopping the fan with my hand isn't helpful because I don't hear the sound when the side panel is open anyway. All I hear is air moving and some standard coil whine etc. But I disconnected the fan and closed the panel (it whines in idle too so this was an easy test to do, just let it run on passive cooling in some light tasks like Chrome) and the sound was gone. So idk, I'm at a complete loss, but one way or another it has something to do with the fan.

Everyone has different hearing so you might just be more sensitive to noise. I wouldn't say that the Wraith Stealth is quiet but it isn't particularly loud.

 

The NF-F12's tonality is a deeper rumble and less smooth than some other Noctua's other offerings but it's still a great option as long as you don't expect it to be as quiet at high rpm. It's more of a droning noise and doesn't whine. It's still significantly quieter than the stock Hyper 212 RGB BE fan and delivers relatively good low rpm performance.

So the sound disappears with the panel open? Why? Are you removing and replacing the side panel with the system already on?

[dtp23]

I'm not that concerned about noise at high RPM since if it the RPM is high, chances are it's because I'm gaming and headphones are on. What I want is that even with high RPM it just sounds like... a fan running? I don't really know how to explain. Air moving. No whining or humming. And silence in idle and light tasks like browsing and watching videos, even when the RPM changes since Ryzen 3000 has these temperature spikes. Or at least a noise that kind of disappears in typical PC and room noise and doesn't stand out and bother me.

 

I don't know why the sound disappears (or at least, I can't hear it) with the side panel open. This is why I say I'm at a loss and don't understand the real source of the noise. It's definitely got something to do with the fan, but that's as far as I can get. Obviously I'm testing with the system running.

[WoodenMarker]

2 hours ago, dtp23 said:

I'm not that concerned about noise at high RPM since if it the RPM is high, chances are it's because I'm gaming and headphones are on. What I want is that even with high RPM it just sounds like... a fan running? I don't really know how to explain. Air moving. No whining or humming. And silence in idle and light tasks like browsing and watching videos, even when the RPM changes since Ryzen 3000 has these temperature spikes. Or at least a noise that kind of disappears in typical PC and room noise and doesn't stand out and bother me.

 

I don't know why the sound disappears (or at least, I can't hear it) with the side panel open. This is why I say I'm at a loss and don't understand the real source of the noise. It's definitely got something to do with the fan, but that's as far as I can get. Obviously I'm testing with the system running.

Every fan makes noise. Some are quieter than others but most quiet fans tend to go higher rpm just because it's better to have the headroom than not and just run the fan at lower rpm. Noctuas are particularly quiet.

 

I just did a few informal tests on the NH-U12S for reference to make sure. From my results, I'd recommend a 140mm fan like the NF-P14 or NF-A15 if your case can fit it. It should be a bit better than a NF-F12 and be quieter. If you want a smoother sounding 120mm fan, a Silent Wings 3, NF-P12 or NF-A12x25 would be better. 

Noise from fan ramping can be addressed with a better fan curve. 

Have you tried testing load temps with the side panel open?

 

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[dtp23]

Thank you. I thought about this and before I go and splash out over 20$ on a fan, I really want to get to the bottom of this issue since money is tight and it might be unfair to blame the fan for the noise when it disappears with the side panel open, indicating something is vibrating and creating this humming noise. Blaming the case seems more fair, or something about how I built it.

 

Where would be the right place to ask for help with solving this issue? I intend to post pictures of the PC and see if people have any ideas as to what the source of the noise might be because I'm clueless.

[WoodenMarker]

9 hours ago, dtp23 said:

Where would be the right place to ask for help with solving this issue? I intend to post pictures of the PC and see if people have any ideas as to what the source of the noise might be because I'm clueless.

The Troubleshooting subforum would be the place.

The most common culprit from my experience for resonating is from hdd's being hard mounted. 

 

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