Noctua NH-D14 noise question.

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Pavel Pokidaylo

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Jun 8, 2013
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Hello. I have an NH-D14 installed in my PC and I could swear that it was dead silent before, by that I mean I could not hear it at all sitting 2 feet away from it. Something happened to my PC a while back while my computer guy was working on it (won't go into detail now it's too long). Before this happened my PC sounded really very nice and silent to me but after it was noisy. Both the CPU fans and the case fans became noisy.

So for now my question is should I be able to hear my NH-D14 fans pushing air when I'm sitting 2 feet away and the CPU is idle at 26 degrees? My MSI G45 Z87 mobos CPU headers stopped controlling the CPU fans too so I connected them to the system headers and set them to lowest. They are spinning at about 600rpm. Shouldn't I not be able to hear such high quality fans at this speed at 2 feet away? Or am I imagining things.

Case- Carbide 500R
Mobo- MSI G45 Z87 Gaming
CPU- i5 4670k
GPU- MSI 780 ti Gaming
RAM- Gskill Ripjaw 1600xmp
CPU cooler - NH-D14
SSD- Samsung 840pro
HDD- WD Blue


Don't know why I even bought such a gigantic cooler, I didn't overclock my CPU so don't need that much cooling and it takes up so much space makes it impossible to get to the RAM modules and other things. I guess I mainly bought it because it was supposed to be super quiet =/
 
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The NH-D14 comes with three low noise adapters. If you use one, the fan should be all but inaudible.
I suspect what you are hearing is the graphics card cooling fans.
You normally do need a fan connected to the cpu fan header, or the bios will perhaps shut down the cpu.
To isolate fan noise, open up your case , roll up a paper tube and use it as a stethoscope. You should be able to pinpoint the noisy part.
 
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This wasn't something that he did on purpose. I started a topic about it but I don't think it's something that can be figured out without going hands on and maybe even using some special equipment. I'll give you the short version.

Guy builds my PC originally and everything was fine for a few weeks till I noticed a sound coming from the Noctua. When I opened the top of the case and saw that one of the CPU fan casings was lightly pressing up against one of the RAM modules I should have realized right there that was the problem but I'm no pro. After that I had to bring it back and forth to the store multiple times because he tried different things and none worked. Finally I told him about the RAM touching the casing and he was going to fix that. While my PC was standing there plugged in I noticed that one of the front fans was not spinning so I told him and he looked inside and saw there was a small piece of plastic stuck in the fan (clip from PSU to mobo plug). He took it out and the fan went back to normal. We turned on Unigine heaven and 10 seconds in we pressed the benchmark button and it froze. At this point it would not restart even from holding down the power button. He pulled the plug and turned it back on and the monitor just told us theres no power or nothing plugged in. He ended up hitting the mobo reset and the computer booted up after that but that is when all my problems truly began. All the fans were spinning too hard and making noise, the PSU and/or the mobo was buzzing, and the video card was making a ridiculous noise. I tried just about everything within my power to remedy the situation. I RMA'd The mobo/video card (multiple times). I put in a new Seasonic X PSU. I had Corsair send me new fans and then even the I/0 panel that has the power button and fan controller on it. Nothing ever really worked for the fans. The Video card and motherboard they sent me as replacements were faulty and had to be sent back multiple times but they did not make that noise like the original. I tried putting on those low voltage filters and it's the same result as turning the CPU fan speed down in MSI control center and the case fans on the fan controller. They still make noise with or without the filters, granted it's not very loud but if theres no sound in my room I can hear it and that was not the case before. This entire PC was truly silent before this happened, too bad that only lasted a few weeks. The video card cooler is actually one of the most quiet on the market today. I just received my 3rd RMA of it and it seems to work fine but it makes an annoying coil whine, even though my MSI rep told me he tested it this time and did not hear any coil whine. I know this card specifically is plagued with coil whine because of the Newegg reviews and because of my personal experience. It's a great card with a very good cooler that is silent but the coil whine is too annoying to put up with. I'm also on my 3rd mobo and it also has its problems.

Other things...

My old PSU (875W Dell) was making a decently loud buzzing noise after that catastrophe. I replaced it with the Seasonic which doesn't seem to be doing it.

I tried looking in the BIOS and changing the CPU fans speed but it didn't do anything at all and this was when the fans were connected to the CPU fan headers. Jack you have experience with these mobos, is there somewhere in the BIOS that I need to turn on the fan control for those CPU fan headers? I was told that many of these new Mobos don't even control the CPU fans because they have 4pins while the fans have only 3. But he had the fans plugged into the CPU fan headers originally and they were so silent I remember. And I don't think we even used the low voltage filters then. Either way, like I said even if I do use the filters now they still make the same amount of noise as setting them to the lowest system fan setting which is 50% on MSI command center and keeps them around 600-800RPM. I mean at 600RPM should they be totally silent or can they go lower than 600.

I know I said I'd make this short so sorry for the wall of text lol. The noise these fans make when set to the lowest settings like I have them on is not that loud and I guess I can deal with it but it would be nice if I could make it go back to the way it was.

I sent my MSI rep an email today telling him that I am unhappy with my $700 purchase of the MSI Video card. I said I should not be subject to unreasonable coil whine and a constantly malfunctioning card forcing me to RMA and leaving me without the use of my PC multiple times. I said I want a full refund or at the very least a card of a different line that works properly because these are obviously plagued by these issues. This is the second brand new card they sent me in sealed box and it's doing the same thing even worse than the previous one.
 
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The CPU stays cool at idle even with the fans off probably due to the huge heatsink. I tried turning down the fan speeds in the bios before but like I said it did nothing. The bios did not control the fans at all. MSI Command center on the other hand does control them but only through the system fan headers and not the CPU fan headers.
 
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The solution to coil whine is a better PSU.

Your fan stuff ....Hardware Monitor section of BIOS

This motherboard provides a fan speed control feature call “Smart Fan Mode”.
Please check the “Smart Fan Mode” to enable the Smart Fan Mode. Smart Fan Mode
automatically controls fan speed depending on the current CPU temperature and to
keep it with a specific operating speed. When the current CPU temperature is over/
under the setting temperature, the CPU/ system fan will run at the corresponding
speed. In this field, you can set the CPU/ system fan speed and the target
temperatures by moving the square.
Click to expand...
 
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So I went into the bios - hardware monitor and it I see the fans there at the bottom it shows 2 cpu fans and 3 system fans. I don't see any checkbox that says "smart fan mode" though. When I click on either of the CPU fans however, there is a checkbox with a the letter V inside it in green, I'm assuming that is it since when I uncheck it it takes the part of the graph that looks like the smart mode in Command center. I can set the CPU temp to a minimum of 40 and max of 95 and by default its set to 40 min 70 max. The fan speed bars next to it show 25% min 100% max. I have no clue how they work together though. Also, the minimum I can set the fan speed to in command center is 50% and that is the system fans maybe that's why the fans are audible? The lowest I can get them to is 600rpm with that 50%. If I could set it to 12.5% it should be much quieter. I'll try to plug one of the fans back into the CPU header and see if anything changes. The other fan is plugged into the sys fan header which is hiding behind the giant heatsink of D14 and the only way to get to it is to take out the video card. If the one fan works I'll do it but I doubt it will because like I said I've tried it all before. I really have no clue whats up with this thing. It's not just the CPU fans either, it's the case fans. They were dead silent originally even on the third setting on the controller and now they are quiet enough on the lowest setting but if turned up to the third they become too loud.
 
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Yea could be I dunno. I just know that I could not hear any noise from this computer before =/ even when I put my ear to it that's how silent it was. It's not very loud now, just audible.

About my 780 ti... A number of people who bought the card complained about coil whine on Newegg and a few even complained about the card spewing oil into their case. Thankfully I have not had the oil issue but the coil whine has been on the last two cards. The 3 previous cards have failed as well and I don't even overclock them and they don't go above 70 degrees under load. I have a good PSU so I don't think that's it. Also, my Gigabyte R9 270 doesn't make any coil whine at all. It's fans are loud and annoying unlike the MSI card but no coil whine. It's not that loud but it's loud enough to annoy me and force me to crank up the sound or wear my headset to drown it out. I don't feel like I should have to put up with that for $700. I'm going to see what my MSI guy tells tommorow. I mean I want to buy a second one for SLI but then they will both have coil whine and it will be louder. Maybe I'll just get two 970s instead I mean I can get two of them for $700 that's exactly what I paid for my 780 ti. This 780 ti is $500 now on Newegg so two 970s would only be $200 more and I can sell the 780 ti. I'll also have 4 gigs instead of 3 which may come in handy soon.
 
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Alright guys I plugged one of the Noctua fans into the CPU fan header. I can't control the fan at all now. I can make changes to smart mode in the MSI command center but it doesn't do anything, the fan just keeps spinning at over 1200 RPM and manual mode does nothing as well. I guess the only way I can control my CPU fans is plugging them into the sys fan headers. The heatsink is huge so my CPU stays cool under load with the fans only spinning at 600-800rpm but it would be nice to have the use of smart mode back. Oh well. I'm actualy thinking about getting a different case and cooler too.
 
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Yea it's not working. I spoke to my MSI guy today and he can't tell me anything. He even tried telling me the smart fan mode is a gimmick. I'm not going to RMA this mobo again, I'll just have to use the system fan headers I guess. I spoke to him about the coil whine on my 780 ti as well and he said they can replace it again but will just do the same thing which isn't true since my original one had no coil whine at all.

I'm considering ordering a second one now for SLI though since the price has dropped down even lower to under $500.
 
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There has got to be an explanation for why this is happening. These Noctua fans should not be making any noise at 600RPM. Here are a few things that I think could be causing it.

1. Maybe the guy who put my PC together did something wrong with the wires? Like plugged one into the wrong place?
2. This all started after that time the PC froze and he did mobo reset. I've changed the PSU, the Mobo (twice), and even the case fans and I/O panel.
Even after changing all these things it's still the same old story. The PC froze that time I'm assuming because of either the PSU or the Mobo. Basically my question here is could one of the old parts have damaged the new ones? Like say the old PSU messed up the new Mobo and then the new Mobo messed up the new PSU something like that.

I think the only way I'll be able to figure this out is if I test each of the parts seperately with other parts. Maybe plug this mobo into a different PSU or a different mobo into this PSU and try the fans that way. Unfortunately I don't know how to do these things so I need to find someone who does and has the other parts available.
 
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Is it possible that all this noise is happening because some wires are not plugged in properly? I mean everything is making noise that it shouldn't and the CPU fan headers are not controlling the fans. I think it's either the mobo doing all this or my computer guy did something wrong. I mean what else could it possibly be?
 
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Maybe somewhat late, but I used 2 rubbers on my Noctua NH-D14. I crossed them, putting some small force on the grills towards eachother. This stopped all my fan noise. My noise came from the resonating grills.
 
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