Question Droning whine from CPU cooler?

[HopefulToad]

Just today I noticed a sort of droning whine sound emanating from my PC off and on at fairly regular intervals, and now I can't un-notice it. At first I thought it was GPU coil whine, but now I don't think it is. I went into the BIOS and started messing with the fan curves to see if one of the fans was responsible, and when I turned off the CPU fan curve, as the fan spun up to 100% I heard the whine. It's a mid-to-high pitch but not excessively high, and is distinctly separate from the expected white noise generated by the fan. It's a sound that kind of pierces through other sounds but is more in the background than them.

Is it normal for a CPU cooler to make that sound? I recently upgraded from my 5600X's stock cooler to the Thermalright Assassin X120 Refined SE, and while I'm very happy with its cooling ability, I'm not thrilled about the whine. It appears to only happen at higher RPMs, so I adjusted the fan curve and that seems to have reduced its rate of occurrence. Is there anything I could do to make the whine go away at higher RPMs?

 

[ilukey77]

maybe just change the fans on the cooler Noctua 120s not always cheap but always quiet and great for tower coolers The Noctua A12x25 PWM 120mm Fan Chromax Black Swap expensive but hella worth it !!

 

[thestryker]

On my Peerless Assassin this happened when I had the fans in a pull configuration, but went away when I put them into push.

If you're not particularly sensitive to pitch then you also may have just gotten a bad fan. One of my Arctic P12 Max fans had something similar to this intermittently, but it went away so I didn't worry about it though if it had stuck around I would have replaced the fan. If you are more sensitive to pitch then my suggestion would be to replace the fan with something better.

 

[HopefulToad]

maybe just change the fans on the cooler Noctua 120s not always cheap but always quiet and great for tower coolers The Noctua A12x25 PWM 120mm Fan Chromax Black Swap expensive but hella worth it !!

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll look into it if the whine ends up bothering me enough. I often have headphones on when at my computer, so I might not notice it with those on.

On my Peerless Assassin this happened when I had the fans in a pull configuration, but went away when I put them into push.

If you're not particularly sensitive to pitch then you also may have just gotten a bad fan. One of my Arctic P12 Max fans had something similar to this intermittently, but it went away so I didn't worry about it though if it had stuck around I would have replaced the fan. If you are more sensitive to pitch then my suggestion would be to replace the fan with something better.

Huh, interesting. I'm pretty sure I have mine in a push configuration. I could try the pull instead and see if it's any different. Is pull less effective for cooling, or does it not make much difference?

I'll try changing the fan around to the other side and see if that does anything, but if not, I'll just have to wait to see if I get annoyed enough to merit buying a different fan.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[thestryker]

Huh, interesting. I'm pretty sure I have mine in a push configuration.

Most people do push, but I'd tried it pull as I wanted one of the fans out of the way and then that annoying sound popped up under load so I switched it back.

I could try the pull instead and see if it's any different. Is pull less effective for cooling, or does it not make much difference?

Pull is less effective than push, but how much of a difference it makes has way too many variables to say whether or not it would matter enough in your specific use case.

 

[HopefulToad]

Most people do push, but I'd tried it pull as I wanted one of the fans out of the way and then that annoying sound popped up under load so I switched it back.

Pull is less effective than push, but how much of a difference it makes has way too many variables to say whether or not it would matter enough in your specific use case.

Good to know. If it solves the whine, it might be worth a bit higher thermals. I have plenty of headroom to work with now with the new cooler.

 

[HopefulToad]

So, I tried changing to a pull configuration, but the droning sound remained, so I put it back. I'm guessing that vibrations from the fan are causing some kind of resonance with the metal radiator tower. I wouldn't want to spend $30 on a Noctua fan only to have it not solve the problem, so I guess I'm just stuck with the drone.

I tested using an online tone generator and the droning sound is around 500 Hz.

 

[thestryker]

So, I tried changing to a pull configuration, but the droning sound remained, so I put it back. I'm guessing that vibrations from the fan are causing some kind of resonance with the metal radiator tower. I wouldn't want to spend $30 on a Noctua fan only to have it not solve the problem, so I guess I'm just stuck with the drone.

I tested using an online tone generator and the droning sound is around 500 Hz.

Take the fan off and change the fan speeds with it not touching the tower. That should tell you if it's vibration or a bad fan and if it does turn out to be resonance you could see if there was any thin dampening material you could get. I know that's how Cooler Master did it back with the old Hyper 212 though it really shouldn't be necessary here.

 

[HopefulToad]

Take the fan off and change the fan speeds with it not touching the tower. That should tell you if it's vibration or a bad fan and if it does turn out to be resonance you could see if there was any thin dampening material you could get. I know that's how Cooler Master did it back with the old Hyper 212 though it really shouldn't be necessary here.

Good idea, I'll give that a try soon.

Edit: Well, I separated the fan from the heatsink, and held the fan aloft with my hand and ran it at full speed in the BIOS. I can confirm that the droning sound comes from the fan and not from an interaction with the tower. Looks like I'm in the market for a new fan. Interestingly, the drone went away when the fan was held at certain angles, but I'd like to keep my PC tower upright.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[HopefulToad]

maybe just change the fans on the cooler Noctua 120s not always cheap but always quiet and great for tower coolers The Noctua A12x25 PWM 120mm Fan Chromax Black Swap expensive but hella worth it !!

I ended up buying the brown Noctua A12x25. No more droning sound, so yay! But it cost more than my Thermaltake heatsink + fan combined... At least the packaging was premium, and I have an extra fan splitter now if I ever need it.

 

[ilukey77]

I ended up buying the brown Noctua A12x25. No more droning sound, so yay! But it cost more than my Thermaltake heatsink + fan combined... At least the packaging was premium, and I have an extra fan splitter now if I ever need it.

glad you have sorted it .. sadly they aint cheap but like i said hella worth it for there price