Need to upgrade fans in my Dell Studio XPS 9100.

[xybernauts]

I have a Dell Studio XPS 9100 (Mid 2010) desktop system. I primarily use this PC for gaming. My problem is my CPU keeps on getting really hot. The CPU cores are about between 50 degrees c and 55 degrees c when idle and reach up to 75 degrees when I'm actively using the PC. When gaming, the entire PC gets very hot as well. The internal temp reaches up to 70C and this i turn raises the GPU temp. From what I've read this seems to be a common problem for this PC. I need help purchasing fans that will help keep my PC and the CPU quieter and cooler.

I've gathered some info from this and other website, forum threads etc. I know the Studio XPS 9100 uses an Intel X58 Chipset which supports a LGA 1366 Socket according to Wikipedia. (Although you can double check just to be sure.) And I read that my PCs case is around 197mm wide.

Height: 19.4" (49.3 cm)
Width: 7.8" (19.8 cm)
Depth: 20.7" (52.8cm)

I was thinking of using the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heat Pipes (http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-Plus-RR-B10-212P-G1/dp/B002G1YPH0/ref=pd_cp_pc_2?tag=donations09-20) for the CPU although I've read posters recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-RR-212E-20PK-R2/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=lp_11036281_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1421684062&sr=1-1) in other forums. The thing is I'm not sure if the Cool Master Hyper 212 Plus or Evo can fit in my system? From what I read it shouldn't. Please tell me I'm wrong. This YouTuber succeeded in fitting a Coolmaster into his 9100 XPS case, but not sure if it's the evo. He recommended the Evo in the comments section to a poster having problems similar to mine. If he did put the evo into his PC, not sure if he did other mods to make it work, or if it fit inside the PC naturally. Tried to contact him, but no response yet.

Also I read a poster on another thread recommend the Noctua NF-F12 PWM Cooling Fan (http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-F12-PWM-Cooling-Fan/dp/B00650P2ZC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421686399&sr=8-1&keywords=Noctua+NF-F12&tag=donations09-20) for case fan upgrade. Would this work for front and back fans and is this the best option?

 

[32starview]

I made these modifications:

Rear Fan: 92mm Noctua FLX
Front Fan: 120mm Noctua Industrual PPC-2000
CPU Fan: Artic Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2

Problem still exists. The Noctuas are barely pushing any air. I noticed however much I stress my CPU, the case fans just stay below 1000rpm and never turn faster (600rpm, 900rpm.) I do not believe the motherboard is correctly controlling the speed of all the fans. Dell's BIOS update tool shows that I'm running the most up-to-date version.

Ran the diagnostic tools in BIOS. There were only 3 fans listed that I could run tests on: PSU, CPU and I don't remember the name of the third. I started with the PSU, I could hear the fan speed up and speed down. CPU fan did not speed up. Third fan did not speed up.

Not sure what else to do and why these fans won't speed up.

Very odd.... download and install speedfan as 1) it tell you temp, 2) it tells you rpm and 3) you can program it which I did. After gaming (stressing cpu), I can tell rpm has jumped to 100 % for all fans. I also uploaded this video at youtube showing the fan flow pattern/strength based on a rpm % 25-31% at a case temp of 37degrees. Try the speedfan option and let me know what you get.

 

[sibble]

Hey I played around with SpeedFan the other day and again just now. On the readings tab, there are 3 controllers listed (Pwm1, Pwm2, Pwm3) and I can see the fan speeds above (Fan1, Fan2, Fan3.) When I start the program it lists all the controllers running at around 30%-ish, if I bump them up to 100% the RPMs stay the same (they don't increase.) If I move it down to 0% they still stay the same. When I say stay the same, they do fluctuate very little, say +-30RPM.

Basically no change is made to RMP when I adjust the power.

(FYI: The temps listed are while I have my huge floor fan cooling my PC.)

I also messed with Fan Control under Configuration and set a fan to be at 100% for all temperatures. Still no change in RPMs.

One more thing... It lists the fans as PWM. I thought PWM was 4pin, the two chassis fans are 3pin.

 

[32starview]

Hey I played around with SpeedFan the other day and again just now. On the readings tab, there are 3 controllers listed (Pwm1, Pwm2, Pwm3) and I can see the fan speeds above (Fan1, Fan2, Fan3.) When I start the program it lists all the controllers running at around 30%-ish, if I bump them up to 100% the RPMs stay the same (they don't increase.) If I move it down to 0% they still stay the same. When I say stay the same, they do fluctuate very little, say +-30RPM.

Basically no change is made to RMP when I adjust the power.

(FYI: The temps listed are while I have my huge floor fan cooling my PC.)

I also messed with Fan Control under Configuration and set a fan to be at 100% for all temperatures. Still no change in RPMs.

One more thing... It lists the fans as PWM. I thought PWM was 4pin, the two chassis fans are 3pin.

For Speedfan, you should watch [video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VjdQStihsE"]this video[/video] which tell you how to program it. Specifically at 7.18 mins in the video is the fan control portion which is the most useful. I tinkered with it for months not realizing that I was NOT controlling the fan before I followed this tutorial , and wow, complete control over the fans as well as accurate temp reading. Good luck 🙂

 

[sibble]

Hope this is readable...

https://youtu.be/zGs-yR3bVp0

no control

 

[32starview]

Hope this is readable...

https://youtu.be/zGs-yR3bVp0

no control

Was a bit blurry, as far as I can tell, you configured speedfan properly, your temps are fine since are in blue text and when you put them at 100%, showed the fans at 100%.

In either case, as long as the temps are in blue or fine, then you should be ok.... ofcourse, other option is a new case or another pc which would be a lot of work 🙂

 

[sibble]

The temps are blue because the case is open with a huge floor fan pointing in it...

In the beginning of the video the fans were 30% ish, after they turned to 100% the RPM did not change at all.

 

[sibble]

This is why the temps are blue:

My computer won't stay on without it.

The fans will not speed up or down. They stay at one speed.

 

[32starview]

The temps are blue because the case is open with a huge floor fan pointing in it...

In the beginning of the video the fans were 30% ish, after they turned to 100% the RPM did not change at all.

OMG....LOL... Not sure what to say after that....Nice pic btw

New case ? New pc ?

 

[sibble]

I think the motherboard is shot, so I'm going new CPU + motherboard, memory, case, cooling.

 

[dg27]

I think the motherboard is shot, so I'm going new CPU + motherboard, memory, case, cooling.

I definitely feel your pain.

My first 9100 (12/10/10-02/15/16) died a slow death (I think it was "multiple organ failure, but mainly the motherboard.) It ran really really really hot (close to 100C) and would take either forever to shut down or not shut down at all. I'd have to turn it off with the power button and then about half the time it would run a chkdsk on C: and never find anything (I'm sure my SSD is fine).

What I did was buy a newer (circa 01/12) 9100 with a better CPU (i7 960 instead of 930) on eBay. I then salvaged the better parts from old machine (24 GB Crucial RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB SSD, blu-ray drive), and replaced the GPU (I had a crappy AMD; got an EVGA GTX 960). I replaced the front and rear fans with Antecs.

Luckily I was even able to restore my Win 7 Pro 64X installation using Acronis. (I run a system backup every day.) The new machine had Win 7 Pro installed already, but I did not want to go through the hassle of installing all of my programs and reconfiguring everything. I use Creative Suite and Pro Tools and just setting all of the preferences, permissions, plugins, etc., can take a few hours. The system accepted my old installation with the new Win 7 serial number. My total investment was about $700 with the new GPU. Compared to a system I spec'd out on pcpartpicker (about $1800) I think I got off easy. If this lasts a year I can repurpose a lot of the hardware in a new i7 6700 machine.

So far so good. I have a slightly faster version of my old machine with none of the issues.

Good luck with taking care of yours.

 

[32starview]

I think the motherboard is shot, so I'm going new CPU + motherboard, memory, case, cooling.

I definitely feel your pain.

My first 9100 (12/10/10-02/15/16) died a slow death (I think it was "multiple organ failure, but mainly the motherboard.) It ran really really really hot (close to 100C) and would take either forever to shut down or not shut down at all. I'd have to turn it off with the power button and then about half the time it would run a chkdsk on C: and never find anything (I'm sure my SSD is fine).

What I did was buy a newer (circa 01/12) 9100 with a better CPU (i7 960 instead of 930) on eBay. I then salvaged the better parts from old machine (24 GB Crucial RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB SSD, blu-ray drive), and replaced the GPU (I had a crappy AMD; got an EVGA GTX 960). I replaced the front and rear fans with Antecs.

Luckily I was even able to restore my Win 7 Pro 64X installation using Acronis. (I run a system backup every day.) The new machine had Win 7 Pro installed already, but I did not want to go through the hassle of installing all of my programs and reconfiguring everything. I use Creative Suite and Pro Tools and just setting all of the preferences, permissions, plugins, etc., can take a few hours. The system accepted my old installation with the new Win 7 serial number. My total investment was about $700 with the new GPU. Compared to a system I spec'd out on pcpartpicker (about $1800) I think I got off easy. If this lasts a year I can repurpose a lot of the hardware in a new i7 6700 machine.

So far so good. I have a slightly faster version of my old machine with none of the issues.

Good luck with taking care of yours.

very creative, and helped you save some money while salvaging the best pieces of your old pc. I'm hoping mine lasts a bit as the latest equivalent I could find was a newer version of the XPS at $1.3K, which i would rather not spend 🙂

 

[dg27]

very creative, and helped you save some money while salvaging the best pieces of your old pc. I'm hoping mine lasts a bit as the latest equivalent I could find was a newer version of the XPS at $1.3K, which i would rather not spend 🙂

Thanks, I really had no choice since I couldn't afford a new machine and needed to be back up and running quickly. I've seen 9100s and 8900s on eBay for pretty decent prices...

 

[sibble]

Just finished a 4hr transplant. Went with a Thermaltake Core V71 case.

There's now 2x200mm fans in the front (intake), 1x200mm fan on the top (exhaust), 1x140mm in the rear (exhaust), 1x120mm on the bottom (intake).

Working on first boot really happy about that...

Running noticeably colder.

Will follow-up with results on if it fixed problem.

 

[dg27]

Just finished a 4hr transplant. Went with a Thermaltake Core V71 case.

Wow-- 4 hours seems pretty quick. That's a really nice case (too wide for my cabinet though). I would consider doing this as well, but I have a major fear of transplanting the motherboard.

Let us know how it works out.

 

[32starview]

Just finished a 4hr transplant. Went with a Thermaltake Core V71 case.

There's now 2x200mm fans in the front (intake), 1x200mm fan on the top (exhaust), 1x140mm in the rear (exhaust), 1x120mm on the bottom (intake).

Working on first boot really happy about that...

Running noticeably colder.

Will follow-up with results on if it fixed problem.

Sounds like a great move. Post pics or even better a video so we can see components. 🙂

 

[32starview]

Just finished a 4hr transplant. Went with a Thermaltake Core V71 case.

There's now 2x200mm fans in the front (intake), 1x200mm fan on the top (exhaust), 1x140mm in the rear (exhaust), 1x120mm on the bottom (intake).

Working on first boot really happy about that...

Running noticeably colder.

Will follow-up with results on if it fixed problem.

Did you replace motherboard as well ? If yes, with what ? I shorted out the header (I think) on my exhaust case fan so it only runs at 100% full speed ...sigh

 

[sibble]

Just finished a 4hr transplant. Went with a Thermaltake Core V71 case.

There's now 2x200mm fans in the front (intake), 1x200mm fan on the top (exhaust), 1x140mm in the rear (exhaust), 1x120mm on the bottom (intake).

Working on first boot really happy about that...

Running noticeably colder.

Will follow-up with results on if it fixed problem.

Did you replace motherboard as well ? If yes, with what ? I shorted out the header (I think) on my exhaust case fan so it only runs at 100% full speed ...sigh

Same motherboard i just basically moved it into a new case. For about two weeks i had no problems then it came back. I then replaced the heatsink on the northbridge with a new one plus a mini fan. Problem persists. The southbridge doesnt have a heatsink but i dont think it gets that hot.

At this point i moved everything back to the original case to prepare the new case for a new system im building. Will be donating this PC to charity.

 

[32starview]

LOL..hope charity appreciates it.

What will you do next ?

I added 2 82mm add'l fans, one in back and one in front hoping to cool case. Not sure how much I can keep it going before I give up and either buy a new pc or build my own.

 

[sibble]

Well I already have the new case, new psu and storage. The rest totals to $1200: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/swH6hq

The motherboard is ASUS TUF - 5 year warranty on the motherboard. The design of the motherboard restricts how I can fit the cooler that I want onto it: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Motherboards/ASUS-Sabertooth-Z170-Mark-1-Motherboard-Review/CPU-Cooler-Fit-Included-Accessor

It fits fine in the horizontal orientation which is fine with me since there is a huge 200mm exhaust fan at the top of the case. I posted the build to reddit for criticism and someone mentioned that I could try the NH-D15S (more compatible version of the D15) so that the heatpipes won't cover the first dimm slot. I'm actually OK with it blocking that dimm slot because I'm only using two sticks of memory and I really don't see myself needing over 16GB of memory for a gaming PC. The two slots the memory will fit in are the proper slots for two sticks. I feel safer going with the D15 over the D15S because someone has actually fit the D15 on this specific motherboard.

For a time I was considering an AIO cooler, it would be my first crack at liquid cooling. I'd rather go with traditional air cooling if the cooler is good enough. From reading reviews, the D15 competes well with the AIO coolers.

for reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/4oh5jo/any_suggestions_before_i_build_this_gaming_pc/

I was going to get a M.2 SSD for the operating system but I was trying to keep the budget low and this part was breaking the bank. Someone suggested I don't get it and save up for a bigger one later on, so I'm going to do that

Are you still having problems with your xps 9100? I put everything back in the old case and I have that huge fan sitting on top of it like I showed in the picture above. Believe it or not, it has crashed several times. This didn't happen before. My only thought is that whatever part is overheating has continued to degrade over the past few months requiring more and more cooling to the point where having this huge floor fan sitting on top of the PC isn't enough anymore.