[SOLVED] Loud Radiator Fans

coneil3822

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Hello my three radiator fans are extremely loud and I don't think they need to be spinning so fast. I have adjusted the fan curve but I just want some advice on the fan levels. They are currently set at

0+ degrees = 30% Speed
60+ degrees = 45% Speed
65+ degrees = 75% Speed
70+ degrees = 100% Speed

Is this overkill? Can someone suggest a better, quieter fan curve? My CPU is a Ryzen 3800x and temps never go over 75 with this curve but it just sounds like a jet engine. Thank you for your help.
 
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My CPU does not go over 75C and i only get to that temp when running Cinebench. Other than that it does not go over 70C. When im just on the internet temps stay around 50C and drop to 35-40C when on desktop. I will be doing some testing of my own. You have helped me so much honestly dude thank you!

That is absolutely fine. Noise should not be too much with your fan speed settings at those temperatures. Then you might want to consider exchanging the fans.
At 60% I cant hear my fans at all, above I can hear it slightly but mainly I start to hear the air flow rushing through the Meshes of my casing.

Sorry i think I've confused everyone. I have NZXT Cam installed which controls the pump speed, but I can also set a pump curve in...

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
What cooler? What fans are used? If an AIO, packaged fans?

By 60-65C, I would think you would easily want to be at 80-90% fan speeds and certainly 100% over 65C.

Likewise, the lower end seems mild by comparison - at 35-40C, I would think you'd be closer to 40-50%.

However, fan curves are dependent on the person, so it is your choice. Might help knowing what cooler is being used and fans.
 

coneil3822

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What cooler? What fans are used? If an AIO, packaged fans?

By 60-65C, I would think you would easily want to be at 80-90% fan speeds and certainly 100% over 65C.

Likewise, the lower end seems mild by comparison - at 35-40C, I would think you'd be closer to 40-50%.

However, fan curves are dependent on the person, so it is your choice. Might help knowing what cooler is being used and fans.
NZXT Kraken X73 AiO with 3 NZXT AER fans
Like a said my CPU doesn't go over 75 degrees. At 100 percent fan speed it sounds crazy loud
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
I covered that cooler here on Tom;'s as well as the new version, the Z73.

Here is what I would do, especially since NZXT uses their CAM software which can be adjusted for fan control while you are on your desktop.

  1. Download and run Prime95
  2. With the CPU fully utilized, adjust your fans to a volume you can tolerate while the CPU is at load while also accounting for CPU temps within the range you want to maintain. This represents the highest utilization scenario you'll likely encounter.
  3. Terminate Prime95, keep an eye on CPU % in Performance Monitor and watch the temps drop back down. Make adjustment at near-idle to acceptable fan speeds and temps at idle.
  4. Adjust fan curve between idle and full load as desired for noise level and temperatures.
 

coneil3822

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Nov 1, 2019
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I covered that cooler here on Tom;'s as well as the new version, the Z73.

Here is what I would do, especially since NZXT uses their CAM software which can be adjusted for fan control while you are on your desktop.

  1. Download and run Prime95
  2. With the CPU fully utilized, adjust your fans to a volume you can tolerate while the CPU is at load while also accounting for CPU temps within the range you want to maintain. This represents the highest utilization scenario you'll likely encounter.
  3. Terminate Prime95, keep an eye on CPU % in Performance Monitor and watch the temps drop back down. Make adjustment at near-idle to acceptable fan speeds and temps at idle.
  4. Adjust fan curve between idle and full load as desired for noise level and temperatures.
I cant control the fans in NZXT Cams i dont know why.
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
There should be a connector which allows you to link the fans to the center pump unit/controller for this control. Otherwise, if you are connecting these to motherboard headers, those are managing those items, not CAM. This then connects to your motherboard via a 9-pin USB motherboard header.
 

coneil3822

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There should be a connector which allows you to link the fans to the center pump unit/controller for this control. Otherwise, if you are connecting these to motherboard headers, those are managing those items, not CAM. This then connects to your motherboard via a 9-pin USB motherboard header.
Yes the nzxt connector that is suppose to go into the nzxt fan controller but i dont have one
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
It should have come with the NZXT AIO cooler. This wasn't included?

This is from the documentation - the wide, multi-component cable? One of the PWM headers is meant to control the fans using a 3-way fan cable. The USB cable connects to the motherboard so CAM can be used.

AB0UUgc.png
 

coneil3822

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It should have come with the NZXT AIO cooler. This wasn't included?

This is from the documentation - the wide, multi-component cable? One of the PWM headers is meant to control the fans using a 3-way fan cable. The USB cable connects to the motherboard so CAM can be used.

AB0UUgc.png
No it didnt include it, I think you maybe be looking the the wring manual. https://www.nzxt.com/products/kraken-x73
This is the AiO I have. I connected the fans to the mother board, the pump to the pump header, I plugged the usb in to the usb header and connected sata, the other connector is for the nzxt fan controller.
 

Herr B

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What is the issue exactly?
  • Are the fans too noisy in general, or just when the temperatures run too hot?
  • what is your general temperature or when does the setup start to be very loud?
  • is it the airflow which is noisy, the fan rotation or do you have mechanical noise (eg. cable smashing fan/defective fan)?
  • Do the fans "pump" (noisy-silent-noisy-silent-noisy-silent...)?
I would go trial and error a little.
Generally the components can be used hotter than one might think. The main downside is the life of the components gets reduced.
This induces that the PC does not have to run as cool as possible.
If the temperature gets too high (100°c) however, the Components will throttle in order to prevent damage.
I normally set the fans to minimum at around 35-40 gradually increasing, maxing out at 65-70. A Cpu running at 50-60 Permanently should still make it at least 5 Years.
Which is rughly the time in Professional IT environments for Exchanging Servers. This is also the reason why many Companies are not running their Server-rooms like a Freezer anymore.

One experience that I had specifically with AMD cpus is that the fans start pumping terribly depending on the load. (especially the wraith prism air cooler)

You can try setting a fixed, comfortable fan speed, eg, 45% and only when the temperature rises above, lets say, 50 gradually crank up the fan. This helps by having excess cooling power in the first place so the temperature spike will not build up so much.

What also helped a lot in my case was to set down the fan reaction speed to a longer timeframe. this makes the Fan not go jet engine if there is a short spike in load.

Depending on your issue there can be many solutions. You can also have great success switching fans from noname to brand ones. I personally only buy Noctua and never was able to hear one of my computers under full load but yeah, they are quite expensive... Other Brands will work as well.

---
Edit:
NZXT Kraken X73 AiO with 3 NZXT AER fan

Why does everybody go nzxt. I really don't like them anymore. Did I miss out something on them?
 
Last edited:
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coneil3822

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What is the issue exactly?
  • Are the fans too noisy in general, or just when the temperatures run too hot?
  • what is your general temperature or when does the setup start to be very loud?
  • is it the airflow which is noisy, the fan rotation or do you have mechanical noise (eg. cable smashing fan/defective fan)?
  • Do the fans "pump" (noisy-silent-noisy-silent-noisy-silent...)?
I would go trial and error a little.
Generally the components can be used hotter than one might think. The main downside is the life of the components gets reduced.
This induces that the PC does not have to run as cool as possible.
If the temperature gets too high (100°c) however, the Components will throttle in order to prevent damage.
I normally set the fans to minimum at around 35-40 gradually increasing, maxing out at 65-70. A Cpu running at 50-60 Permanently should still make it at least 5 Years.
Which is rughly the time in Professional IT environments for Exchanging Servers. This is also the reason why many Companies are not running their Server-rooms like a Freezer anymore.

One experience that I had specifically with AMD cpus is that the fans start pumping terribly depending on the load. (especially the wraith prism air cooler)

You can try setting a fixed, comfortable fan speed, eg, 45% and only when the temperature rises above, lets say, 50 gradually crank up the fan. This helps by having excess cooling power in the first place so the temperature spike will not build up so much.

What also helped a lot in my case was to set down the fan reaction speed to a longer timeframe. this makes the Fan not go jet engine if there is a short spike in load.

Depending on your issue there can be many solutions. You can also have great success switching fans from noname to brand ones. I personally only buy Noctua and never was able to hear one of my computers under full load but yeah, they are quite expensive... Other Brands will work as well.

---
Edit:


Why does everybody go nzxt. I really don't like them anymore. Did I miss out something on them?
Thank you for your amazing reply. The fans are only loud when the cpu get hot because I have them set to 100% speed when over 70 degrees, im guessing they dont have to be at 100% when at that temp, maybe I will try 75% and follow some of the other advice given to me here. My cpu temps are 35-40 degrees when idle and 75 degrees under load. The radiator fans start to be crazy loud when the CPU gets over 70 degrees because like I said before they are at 100%. I believe it is just the sound of the fans spinning that is creating the noise. The fans do not pump as i changed the fan curve to stop this.
 
Last edited:

Herr B

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75 is quite hot though.

You can set it to 75% and see what happens. I'd guess pareto's law applies here as well.
fan-affinity-laws.png

Basically meaning that you get diminishing returns while the noise gets significantly louder when running the fan at 100% vs 80%
 

coneil3822

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75 is quite hot though.

You can set it to 75% and see what happens. I'd guess pareto's law applies here as well.
fan-affinity-laws.png

Basically meaning that you get diminishing returns while the noise gets significantly louder when running the fan at 100% vs 80%
I thought that 75 degrees is a good temp? Am i wrong and should i be worried then. I am running a 3800x
 

Herr B

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75 Should still be fine. I just did not expect those temperatures from a Ryzen 3 with 360 radiator.
But according to Hardware times, this is totally to be expected.
image-154-1024x492.png

Question is what temp levels you reach when setting down the CPU fan. Though don't be afraid to experiment with it.

Just when you see its running too hot in your tests (>80-85°c), stop the test, increase fan speed and let it cool down a little.

Also I would not cap it at 75% (after your tests) but rather set the max temperature in the fan control higher. So that it sits at a more comfortable speed at 75 but still has some buffer.
 
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coneil3822

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75 Should still be fine. I just did not expect those temperatures from a Ryzen 3 with 360 radiator.
But according to Hardware times, this is totally to be expected.
image-154-1024x492.png

Question is what temp levels you reach when setting down the CPU fan. Though don't be afraid to experiment with it.

Just when you see its running too hot in your tests, let it cool down a little.

Also I would not cap it at 75% (after your tests) but rather set the max temperature in the fan control higher. So that it sits at a more comfortable speed at 75 but still has some buffer.
Can I ask what fan curve you would recommend for the radiator fan speeds? Also I have the Pump plugged into the pump header on the motherboard but ive set the curve for this header to the same as the cpu fans. Should I change this to be 100% all the time?
 

Herr B

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Can I ask what fan curve you would recommend for the radiator fan speeds

There is no answer to that. Some persons try to keep the Computer as cool as possible, some as silent as possible. Also it totally depends from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some optimize their fans to be effective at low speeds, some for low noise in general.
I tend to try keeping it on the silent side. I rather pick large fan diameters as they tend to have a lot less noise.

As long as you are below 80-85°c under full load, There should be no issue. I would consider 85°c on the very edge already for my personal feeling.
This also depends again on how your usage is. Are you rendering videos or similar often where you reach 100% load on the CPU for a long time? Then 85 is a no-go for me. The average person will never utilize the cpu 100% for a long time.

Try to see what your normal daily live temps are. When doing full screen applications such as gaming you can let a temperature monitor run in background. Don't just test 10 minutes, the best would be to use your computer a day and see what happens, where your spikes are, how long.

Try to keep the average temperatures which are running for a long time below 45°c and you should be very well good to go.

I hope you see there is not a simple answer, mainly as we do not know your exact setup, your workload, your preferences and it is a totally different thing to have a system at hands and test it's behavior. I am very sure that you can find a suitable setup when experimenting a bit.

--- Edit:
For the pump I cannot tell you so much as I am coming from air cooled environment. I am just transitioning to Liquid cooled as well.
Still I would go so far as to say that the pump speed is nearly irrelevant due to the fact that the water has the same temperature in the loop at any position (eg, in front of the radiator, after the radiator) anyways.. but again, testing might proof me wrong.
 
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coneil3822

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There is no answer to that. Some persons try to keep the Computer as cool as possible, some as silent as possible. Also it totally depends from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some optimize their fans to be effective at low speeds, some for low noise in general.
I tend to try keeping it on the silent side. I rather pick large fan diameters as they tend to have a lot less noise.

As long as you are below 80-85°c under full load, There should be no issue. I would consider 85°c on the very edge already for my personal feeling.
This also depends again on how your usage is. Are you rendering videos or similar often where you reach 100% load on the CPU for a long time? Then 85 is a no-go for me. The average person will never utilize the cpu 100% for a long time.

Try to see what your normal daily live temps are. When doing full screen applications such as gaming you can let a temperature monitor run in background. Don't just test 10 minutes, the best would be to use your computer a day and see what happens, where your spikes are, how long.

Try to keep the average temperatures which are running for a long time below 45°c and you should be very well good to go.

I hope you see there is not a simple answer, mainly as we do not know your exact setup, your workload, your preferences and it is a totally different thing to have a system at hands and test it's behavior. I am very sure that you can find a suitable setup when experimenting a bit.

--- Edit:
For the pump I cannot tell you so much as I am coming from air cooled environment. I am just transitioning to Liquid cooled as well.
Still I would go so far as to say that the pump speed is nearly irrelevant due to the fact that the water has the same temperature in the loop at any position (eg, in front of the radiator, after the radiator) anyways.. but again, testing might proof me wrong.
My CPU does not go over 75C and i only get to that temp when running Cinebench. Other than that it does not go over 70C. When im just on the internet temps stay around 50C and drop to 35-40C when on desktop. I will be doing some testing of my own. You have helped me so much honestly dude thank you!
 

Herr B

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So just to clarify i will set the pump to 100 % all the time in the bios yes?

1. Set/test your fan speeds, leave pump at 100%. Start at 100%, lowering the fan speed in steps of let's say 10%

2. Only once you are satisfied with your fans, set/test the pump speed. Do not change the fan setup at this stage. Lower the pump speed in steps of let's say 10%. Stop when you are satisfied with the volume. When you notice a significant Temperature increase, stop testing, go back one step and test again.

Running the pump at 100% all the time might reduce its life span.
 

coneil3822

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1. Set/test your fan speeds, leave pump at 100%. Start at 100%, lowering the fan speed in steps of let's say 10%

2. Only once you are satisfied with your fans, set/test the pump speed. Do not change the fan setup at this stage. Lower the pump speed in steps of let's say 10%. Stop when you are satisfied with the volume. When you notice a significant Temperature increase, stop testing, go back one step and test again.

Running the pump at 100% all the time might reduce its life span.
Sorry i think I've confused everyone. I have NZXT Cam installed which controls the pump speed, but I can also set a pump curve in the bios. Because im controlling the pump through cams does the bios curve not matter? Or should set that to 100%?
 

Herr B

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May 29, 2020
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My CPU does not go over 75C and i only get to that temp when running Cinebench. Other than that it does not go over 70C. When im just on the internet temps stay around 50C and drop to 35-40C when on desktop. I will be doing some testing of my own. You have helped me so much honestly dude thank you!

That is absolutely fine. Noise should not be too much with your fan speed settings at those temperatures. Then you might want to consider exchanging the fans.
At 60% I cant hear my fans at all, above I can hear it slightly but mainly I start to hear the air flow rushing through the Meshes of my casing.

Sorry i think I've confused everyone. I have NZXT Cam installed which controls the pump speed, but I can also set a pump curve in the bios. Because im controlling the pump through cams does the bios curve not matter? Or should set that to 100%?

I would suspect the software should overwirte motherboard settings (In theory). I have never had great success with such software (eg changing the motherboard led coloring) so I dont trust those. I set such stuff directly in the motherboard and dont have such software installed wasting resources on my system...
 
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