Question Would undoing the overclock on an i9-14900k make it more silent?

[Unsounded]

I have a new pc that has an i9-14900k and a 4080 gaming oc with a "be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360mm" Water cooler and a "be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W" Power supply. It also has a bunch of silent wing 4 140mm case fans.

The CPU in this pc was overclocked for me but in hindsight i don't really need the overclock and this computer seems very loud under load for example even playing cyberpunk on just ultra settings with no raytracing at all is far louder than my old pc on the same settings. Obviously this is a cpu that's going to take far more power than a Ryzen 9 5900X but i am extremely sensitive to sound so alongside some other things i am looking into to try and make the pc as silent as i can anyway i have been considering undoing the overclock and just letting the turbo boost be enough for whatever i end up doing.

My question is whether this would actually make the pc more silent?

It's been recommended to switch out the water cooler to something like an DH-15 like my current pc has but i don't know if that cooler would be more silent and whether it would actually be able to cool as well as the 360mm water cooler.

So basically i want to know whether undoing the overclock is likely to make a noticeable difference in noise and if so any resources on how to actually do this as i have never done it before would be appreciated aswell.

 

[TerryLaze]

You should start with telling us what kind of temps you are currently getting.
If the fans are just turned up all the way all the time for no good reason then you could just adjust the fan curve to have less noise when not under high load.
You could also just go into bios and set PL1 and PL2 to below the amount of TDP were your cooling system starts making too much sound.

 

[Unsounded]

The temps are usually between 30-40 Celsius when i'm not doing anything demanding and the highest i've seen under decent load in cyberpunk was in the 70's so far.

 

[geofelt]

Noise comes from fans running at high rpm.
Run HWmonitor when the noise is objectionable.
Look to see what fans are running at high rpm.

The two prime suspects might be the fans on the gpu and the fans on the aio cooler.
The psu fan might not need to run at all.

14900K by default is so darn quick that little attention needs to be spent on overclocking.
Default turbo boost may be all you really need.

This article may be relevant to you:
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/intel-core-13900k-cooling-tested

 

[thestryker]

You need to figure out the source of the noise first and foremost. The temperatures you're talking about shouldn't equate to a lot of noise. It sounds a lot more like the fan curves are off on something.

I'd suggest running some sort of CPU benchmark (like OCCT/Cinebench) to rule out the video card fans. This won't necessarily isolate the AIO fans as case fans can be PWM synced to CPU temp.

 

[punkncat]

Lol, I mean no offense to Noctua coolers, I am currently using two of them and several of their case fans, but NO, do not change out that AIO for a tower cooler on a 14900K.

Go into BIOS and see if you have a fan tuning utility.

Use Afterburner to modify fan curves for the graphics card.

You should be able to make the system far quieter for idle and low load. Where it comes to gaming though, this is very powerful equipment and alongside that you should be expecting some effort to keep those parts cool. It is worth noting that at least on the CPU, the heat threshold is far higher than what you relay to us, so you could modify them some at the cost of heating your room more. Don't know if it is winter or summer where you are but certain concessions may have to be made for summertime ambient.

 

[Unsounded]

I went into the bios and set all the fans to silent mode and turned everything that seemed related to cpu speed back to auto. The idle is a lot more silent already but i'l monitor things and see how it does under load when i have the time.

Thanks for the advice so far.

 

[punkncat]

I went into the bios and set all the fans to silent mode and turned everything that seemed related to cpu speed back to auto. The idle is a lot more silent already but i'l monitor things and see how it does under load when i have the time.

Thanks for the advice so far.

Make sure that you know what header the pump is on and are setting it properly for pump. Don't let that run lower than 80% at all times and some folks would say just to leave it at 100%. Let the fans ramp, not the pump.

In some cases you may have an add on utility for that according to how the pump header and supplemental fans hook up.

 

[TerryLaze]

It is worth noting that at least on the CPU, the heat threshold is far higher than what you relay to us, so you could modify them some at the cost of heating your room more.

Unless it's auto overclocking changing the temp of the CPU by adjusting the fans will not make the CPU use more or less power so the amount of heat into the room will remain the same.

 

[punkncat]

Unless it's auto overclocking changing the temp of the CPU by adjusting the fans will not make the CPU use more or less power so the amount of heat into the room will remain the same.

I think I have seen you mention this before. It does not seem logical at all. Perhaps there is some aspect that I am not fully understanding.

I cannot see where if you had a hot plate that was 90* and a hot plate that was 50* the simple act of putting your hand in close proximity to it would prove this comment wrong. Similar situation with a radiant heater IMO, so...what am I missing here?

 

[TerryLaze]

I think I have seen you mention this before. It does not seem logical at all. Perhaps there is some aspect that I am not fully understanding.

I cannot see where if you had a hot plate that was 90* and a hot plate that was 50* the simple act of putting your hand in close proximity to it would prove this comment wrong. Similar situation with a radiant heater IMO, so...what am I missing here?

You are not cooling your hotplate though...
Your hotplate at 50* might consume 700W and at 90* 1200W
The 14900k will consume up to 253W ,or ~330W under overclock, if the fans run at 100% and give you 70* or they run at 50% and give you 100* on the CPU, it doesn't change the W the CPU uses, therefore the same amount of heat will go into your room.

 

[punkncat]

In this scenario, what role does the cooling effectiveness or inefficiency play?

This isn't just black or white in relation to heat exchange, is it? IE, if you are allowing the CPU to get hotter due to running the fans slower, the case and cooler are expelling hotter air. Admittedly there is an equation to do with the air flow and temperature as a counter to one another. Far beyond my schooling.

 

[geofelt]

To answer your question simply, yes undoing the overclock will result in a quieter system.

Run HWmonitor and look for fans running at high speed.
A pump needs to run full out, it is normally relatively quiet.
But if the pump is making lots of noise it may be on the way to failure and ineffectiveness.