High noise on 240mm AIO i9 9900k, how to make it more silent?

Smestn · November 24, 2020

Hi guys,

Lately i have started to annoy myself over the high noise from my PC. I have a 240mm AIO, topmounted in a bitfenix prodigy m case. The case is inverted so the graphics card is just below the radiator as well.

How can i make the i9 9900k more silent? I have a lot of suggestions for myself here.

- I could buy new silent PWM fans. I was thinking about noctua nfa12 x 25, or arctic p12 (i have a white build so white stuff are appreciated.)

- I could buy a bigger radiator, and install silent fans on that. (that means i would need to buy a new case as well since my prodigy m is smol.)

- i could buy a new cpu, but that is on the expensive side, and i bought my i9 in 2019 so its not that long ago...

- reapply thermal paste maybe? I have not applied it myself, its preapplied from corsair.

Any thoughts?

Specs:

cooler:

corsair platinum SE 240mm AIO with two ll120 pwm fans.

in silent mode it is at 1500 rpm, idle is fine... it makes a lot of noise while ingame or at load. Then it reaches 2500rpm.

CPU:

Intel core i9 9900k

aorus z390l pro wifi (mitx)

32gb corsair vengeance 3200mhz ram

GTX 1070 Gigabyte Gaming (gonna upgrade this when the world has a supply of new graphics cards )

750w Corsair rm750x white PSU

230mm bitfenix fan bottom white (intake)

140mm corsair ql140 white (intake) <--- (i understand if u are hating that i have intake from the rear mount... BUT! This is an inverted case so the rear mount is near the bottom of the case. All my intakes are filtered, so no dust is coming in. Also i am a bit of a sucker for positive airflow. My thought is that by having this as an exhaust it might just let out the cold air from the 230mm fan which is counterproductive... the hottest parts are in the top of the case anyway.)

It is not a fun case to build in so i might upgrade to the be quiet silent base 802 that is coming soon. Any thoughts and ideas would be highly appreciated.

Be gentle of me as this is a difficult case to build in (no sidepanels to hide the cables in and the reverse mounting of the motherboard.)