[SOLVED] I need replacement fans for my PC

[Jargus12]

They're starting to sound like chainsaws and the prospect of the bearing breaking and the fan ripping around in there isn't very ideal to me

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 970 @ 3.20GHz 24 °C
Gulftown 32nm Technology
RAM
24.0GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 667MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. Rampage III Formula (LGA1366) 33 °C
Graphics
SyncMaster (1680x1050@60Hz)
3072MB ATI AMD Radeon R9 200 / HD 7900 Series (Gigabyte) 67 °C
Storage
1863GB Western Digital WDC WD2003FZEX-00SRLA0 ATA Device (SATA ) 25 °C
223GB ADATA SP550 SCSI Disk Device (SATA (SSD)) 33 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24LS70 ATA Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

These are my specs, what type of fans do I need? New to all this sorry if this is an obvious question.

 

[Darkbreeze]

The first thing you need to do is identify WHICH fans are making noise.

It could be case fans, CPU cooler, graphics card, power supply. All of which have fans in most builds.

Also, it would be helpful to know what your case model is, in order to detemine what size fans and how many are supported.

 

[Jargus12]

I'm not sure how to check what size my fan is or anything like that. I bought this PC off an enthusiast years ago and am deciding whether I should just replace it or fix it up. The case is Cooler Master brand and it says HX580 on the back. I think the issue is the GPU fans.

I'd love to post some pictures but they keep getting marked as spam.

 

[Jargus12]

The first thing you need to do is identify WHICH fans are making noise.

It could be case fans, CPU cooler, graphics card, power supply. All of which have fans in most builds.

Also, it would be helpful to know what your case model is, in order to detemine what size fans and how many are supported.

There. That's the main problem fans, so far as I can tell. I think that's the GPU.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, you can't replace those fans with quieter or larger ones, so if those are the cause of the noise, you're out of luck as far as those two solutions are concerned. It just can't be done realistically.

What you CAN do, is make sure you don't have a cooling problem that is CAUSING those fans to roar because they are trying to unsuccessfully cool the GPU.

Given the age of the graphics card there's a very real probability that the GPU heatsink may be in need of having the thermal paste replaced. It gets dry after a while, and some five or more years is definitely " a while".

There are lots of online video tutorials on how to change the thermal paste on graphics cards for most models so I won't go into that here, but that's one thing to look at. I'd start by downloading HWinfo, no other, ONLY HWinfo, and install it. Then choose the "sensors only" option and uncheck the "summary" option when you run the HWinfo monitoring program. Scroll down and find the graphics card thermal sensor readings and see what it is showing when you are hearing the GPU fans roar.

Another thing to look at is that it MIGHT be strictly due to a driver problem that is causing that. Not uncommon at all. I'd do a clean install of the AMD drivers for your graphics card. And I'd do THAT, FIRST.

How To - How to perform a CLEAN install of your video card drivers.

Updated 9-19-19 How to do a CLEAN install of your graphics card drivers using the Wagnard tools Display Driver Uninstaller A major issue on many systems is the presence of multiple graphics card drivers or drivers that have been incompletely uninstalled followed by the installation of...

forums.tomshardware.com

Also, if the case fans are not bringing enough air into the case for the graphics card to be able to keep itself cool, or are not getting enough heat OUT of the case to allow enough cool ambient air to GET in, then that could be causing or contributing to your problem.

Make sure all of the case fans are working. That model you listed doesn't correlate to any known Cooler Master case I know of. If you could post some images of the front, side and rear of the case, that would be helpful. Also, pictures of any case fans that are installed. Using slightly larger images than what you posted before would be helpful as well. My recommendation would be to use imgur.com to host images and then link to the images here using the "for direct layouts" code that it generates.

 

[Jargus12]

My concern wasn't specifically the noise, it was what I found from investigating the noise. The fans are very loose and wobbly. I'm concerned that's part of the heating issue since I figured that might cause them to spin sub-optimally. On top of that, I've checked temperatures with speccy whenever it's getting loud and laggy and more often than not the GPU in specific is overheating (as well as other components running a bit hotter than usual, but I just chalk that up to the increased workload).

I'm near positive that it's not the drivers, as I've reinstalled those drivers in specific a few times over the last year or so as well as doing a fresh install on all of my drivers not too long ago (OS hard drive failed, had to replace it and do a fresh restart on the PC).

Case/Fan picture(s)

 

[Jargus12]

I will look into the thermal paste solution, I was just wondering if replacing the fans was at all possible/savvy

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, you SHOULD be able to replace them with exact replacement parts. We'd need to know the exact brand and specific model, not just the series, of the card. You can look on the card itself for a sticker that has the exact model, sometimes found on the backplate or backside of the card, or you can run GPU-Z and possibly get the brand and exact model that way.

 

[Jargus12]

Well, you SHOULD be able to replace them with exact replacement parts. We'd need to know the exact brand and specific model, not just the series, of the card. You can look on the card itself for a sticker that has the exact model, sometimes found on the backplate or backside of the card, or you can run GPU-Z and possibly get the brand and exact model that way.

https://imgur.com/LHNUK0l

View: https://imgur.com/LHNUK0l


I have no idea what I'm looking at here, if this doesn't list the necessary stuff let me know and I'll pop the case off to get a look at the sticker

 

[Jargus12]

But I definitely think the fans could use replacing, the noise they make when they aren't running full speed is concerning to me

 

[Darkbreeze]

On that screenshot, if you look where it says "lookup", you need to click there to get the model.

 

[Jargus12]

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/gigabyte-hd-7970-windforce-3x-oc.b663

I don't see the fan specs listed, do I just look up the graphics card by name for fans?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Now, since there are multiple fan sizes that could have been used on that same model, take a measurment in inches as close as possible from the end of one fan blade across the fan to the other. We need to know the diameter of the cooling fans.