PC noise.

[Aerocube]

Hello all you great people,

 

 

As of circa six months ago, I purchased a new computer, and as much as I was excited about the new specs, in terms of gaming improvement, I was even more so excited about the reduction of noise, since my PC at the time was very, very, loud.

 

However my excitement was for naught, as it turns out this PC, albeit not as noisy as the old one, is still too loud, and often after having run for 8-10 hours, starts making "surging" noises, and vibrates my desk. This can sometimes be fixed by reaffirming the side panel of my case, or simply moving the case an inch, but it occurs quite often, at least once a day.

 

Specs:

Case: Corsair Graphite Series 600T

Motherboard: ASUS Z87-A

GPU: GeForce GTX 770, factory OC'd

CPU: Intel i5 4670K, running at stock speed

RAM: 8GB comprised of two sticks, running at 1600MHz

Cooling: Corsair H80i, with stock fans

HDD: 1x Kingston 120GB SSD for OS and 1x game, 2xSATA HDD 450GB/320GB, old, as in really old, 7200RPM

The case also contains 2x140mm fans

PSU: Corsair TX650W

 

 

Preface: My PSU is about 4-6 years old, so it could be the culprit all along, but I have no way of making sure, and my SATA HDDs are even older.

 

 

I have CorsairLINK, a software program, which lets you control your component/fan speeds, and the fans on my H80i are on "quiet mode", same with my GTX 770.

The dial on top of the case, that controls the 140mm fans, is turned all the way down, so they too are running at lowest speeds.

 

Speculations and eliminations:

 

I've tried blocking the blades simultaneously on both the 140mm fans, and there is no change in sound.

My brother has the same GPU as me, and you need a stethoscope to know his PC is running at all, so that can't be it.

I (suspect), that there must be two culprits. Either it is my PSU, or it is my stock fans on the H80i.

I don't know how much noise HDDs can make, but I suppose it could be them, they are after all, very old.

 

I would appreciate if people who's systems also include an H80i could comment, pertaining to the noise of the stock fans.

To mention my brother again, he has in his system, the H100i, but he uses Corsair AF120mm Quiet Edition High Airflow fans on his, and not the stock ones, so perhaps exchanging my stock fans will do the trick.

 

Thank you for your time.

Edited September 13, 2014 by Aerocube

[EMENCII]

I have a WD caviar black, and when not gaming, is pratically the only thing u can hear, then the 200mm NZXT fan, that's obviously noisy... So i would say the hdd are possibly one of the things that make most of the noise...

[Aerocube]

I can assert that it is not my 140s, and it's not my HDDs either, I just unplugged them individually, and it's still the same noise.

I'm going to try my GPU now.

 

Also, another "issue" just popped up.

After I just unplugged my HDDs, my PC won't reboot when I tell it to, it just shuts Windows down and goes to black screen, and keeps running...

[LemonSpice]

the stock h80 fans are really loud this is from my own experience i would replace them with some static pressure fans with lower noise. Whats your budget for upgrades because i would either replace them with sp120's low noise edition or nocutua nff12's

[LemonSpice]

i had an h100i for a bit which as the same fans and when they ramp up you can hear them a couple of rooms over

[Aerocube]

Just unplugged my GPU as well, it doesn't seem to be the culprit either, I'm now closing in on the possible conclusion, which is the stock fans on the H80i.

 

If by budget you mean budget for new fans, then it's a quite comfortable budget. I do have 1x AF120 quiet edition from Corsair available, and I can get the second one from my brother, if you think those would suffice? Or do you have some entirely different fans in mind, that are way better than AF120s?

[LemonSpice]

Just unplugged my GPU as well, it doesn't seem to be the culprit either, I'm now closing in on the possible conclusion, which is the stock fans on the H80i.

 

If by budget you mean budget for new fans, then it's a quite comfortable budget. I do have 1x AF120 quiet edition from Corsair available, and I can get the second one from my brother, if you think those would suffice? Or do you have some entirely different fans in mind, that are way better than AF120s?

for 27 bucks i would buy two corsair sp120 quiet editions because those fans are very quiet but if you have a larger budget about 40$ and aesthetics aren't as big of a problem i would buy two n-ff12

[Aerocube]

I have 1x SP120 in my drawer, and my brother has three spares, so I could exchange stocks for those I suppose.

 

I know this is unrelated, but after I unplugged my HDDs to see if they were noisy, then plugged them back in, my system won't restart properly any longer, and the "Shutdown" appears to only work half the time.

When I hit "Restart" the screen just goes black, and nothing happens, same deal when I hit the power button on my case, screen goes black half the time.

I know that unplugging your harddrives can mess something up, but I don't know what, or how to fix it, I've checked the BIOS, and they appear to be in the right boot order.

Besides, I didn't unplug my SSD, which is where my OS is, so the booting and rebooting shouldn't be influenced right?

[LemonSpice]

I have 1x SP120 in my drawer, and my brother has three spares, so I could exchange stocks for those I suppose.

 

I know this is unrelated, but after I unplugged my HDDs to see if they were noisy, then plugged them back in, my system won't restart properly any longer, and the "Shutdown" appears to only work half the time.

When I hit "Restart" the screen just goes black, and nothing happens, same deal when I hit the power button on my case, screen goes black half the time.

I know that unplugging your harddrives can mess something up, but I don't know what, or how to fix it, I've checked the BIOS, and they appear to be in the right boot order.

Besides, I didn't unplug my SSD, which is where my OS is, so the booting and rebooting shouldn't be influenced right?

no unless there are some mission critical applications on your hdd and as long as you are using sata which supports hot-swap you should be good

[Aerocube]

sata which supports hot-swap

SATA HDDs that support hotswap? Or a motherboard? As I mentioned, the SATAs in my case are 5-6 years old, I doubt they support anything.

There are no critical applications on them, everything is on the SSD.

[LemonSpice]

SATA HDDs that support hotswap? Or a motherboard? As I mentioned, the SATAs in my case are 5-6 years old, I doubt they support anything.

There are no critical applications on them, everything is on the SSD.

so after you reattached the hdd while the computer was shutoff and restarted does it still have the same issue

[Aerocube]

Odd, it seems to have fixed itself after 10 manual shutdowns and 10 manual reboots on the case, now it boots just fine...

No idea what it could've been, probably a mixup on the mobo?

 

Anyway, I will contact my brother, and see if I can get one more SP120, and I hope that will do the trick, because the stock H80i fans are really really loud, it's unbearable! Especially during bootup, when the GPU fans ramp up to full speed to stir dust, and the H80i fans do the same thing, it sounds louder than a vacuum!

 

Thank you for your help

[LemonSpice]

Odd, it seems to have fixed itself after 10 manual shutdowns and 10 manual reboots on the case, now it boots just fine...

No idea what it could've been, probably a mixup on the mobo?

 

Anyway, I will contact my brother, and see if I can get one more SP120, and I hope that will do the trick, because the stock H80i fans are really really loud, it's unbearable! Especially during bootup, when the GPU fans ramp up to full speed to stir dust, and the H80i fans do the same thing, it sounds louder than a vacuum!

 

Thank you for your help

your welcome and does he have the sp120 quit edition or performance because the performance edition are almost just as loud

[Aerocube]

It's the quiet edition. The only downside to the ones I have, is that they are not PWM, so I can't control them through CorsairLINK, so they'll be running at whatever speed is set by the fan control on my case, but I still think they'll be quieter than the stock ones

 

Another question rises from the fan exchange, and it's this: The SP120 fans have a normal three prone header, will that connect to the pump on my H80i without a problem?

[LemonSpice]

It's the quiet edition. The only downside to the ones I have, is that they are not PWM, so I can't control them through CorsairLINK, so they'll be running at whatever speed is set by the fan control on my case, but I still think they'll be quieter than the stock ones

 

Another question rises from the fan exchange, and it's this: The SP120 fans have a normal three prone header, will that connect to the pump on my H80i without a problem?

yes they should that is just because they don't require as much power and aren't using pwm you should still be able to use corsair link with them. Have you tried them in you pc btw if so is there a huge noise improvment

[Aerocube]

I have not yet installed the other fans, it's almost 10PM here, and I don't want to mess with it this late.

If you are interested, I'll update the thread tomorrow after I've installed them, and inform about the noise reduction/increase.

[LemonSpice]

I have not yet installed the other fans, it's almost 10PM here, and I don't want to mess with it this late.

If you are interested, I'll update the thread tomorrow after I've installed them, and inform about the noise reduction/increase.

alright wish you good luck on your upgrade