Its so noisy! (AMD X2 w/ Asus A8N SLI)

[dennispublic]

This system is SO loud:

AMD 64 X2 4200 w/ standard fan
Asus A8N Premium
Geforce 7800 GTX x 2 (SLI)
2 Case fans

I have the AMD cool 'n quiet drivers installed. But this thing is SO
loud and I know for a fact that right now my CPU and/or GPU fans are
throttling way faster then they need to.

When I boot this system it is nearly silent (the PSU and case fans are
innocent), but after playing a game or something the CPU and/or GPU
fans throttle up to 100% and it sounds like I'm in a wind tunnel. Then
30 min later, when the machine is idle, the stupid fans are still at
100% throttle, it doesnt go back down.


Questions:

1) Is it possible for me to manually throttle the CPU and GPU fans?
Is there any utility that allows? Id like to try messing around with
the speeds and watching my temps & noise levels.

2) I thought I read somewhere that the Asus A8N Premium doesnt need a
GPU fan... or was it a heat sink... it was one of the advantages over
the A8N Deluxe... maybe I misread it though, can anyone refresh me?

3) Any other suggestions for making this system shut the hell up?
(without replacing hardware)


Thanks!

 

[Clint]

I SUSPECT your noise is coming from the video cards. If so, try this:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html to adjust the fan speed.
Or this one: http://www.techspot.com/download165.html

Your motherboard doesn't have any impact on whether you need a GPU fan, as
far as I can see. The selection of motherboard might make the difference of
whether you need a chipset fan.

You can also look at third party coolers for both your video cards as well
as the CPU. I'm using a Scythe Ninja on my Intel D 830 processor, and an
Arctic Cooling Accellero X2 on my ATI X1800GTO card. Before adding those
two items, my system was very noisy, and not much fun to be around. Since
adding them, my system runs quieter than I thought possible, all the time
(idling, running graphics intensive games, etc). I swapped out the graphics
cooler first, since I'd run the system before with the onboard graphics, so
I knew about how much noise was added by that. That was the big culprit for
noise. The CPU one was gravy.

Keep in mind, however, that changing your cooling on the graphics card may
void your warranty, if you get caught.

Clint

 

[SteveH]

This system is SO loud:

AMD 64 X2 4200 w/ standard fan
Asus A8N Premium
Geforce 7800 GTX x 2 (SLI)
2 Case fans

I have the AMD cool 'n quiet drivers installed. But this thing is SO
loud and I know for a fact that right now my CPU and/or GPU fans are
throttling way faster then they need to.

When I boot this system it is nearly silent (the PSU and case fans are
innocent), but after playing a game or something the CPU and/or GPU
fans throttle up to 100% and it sounds like I'm in a wind tunnel. Then
30 min later, when the machine is idle, the stupid fans are still at
100% throttle, it doesnt go back down.


Questions:

1) Is it possible for me to manually throttle the CPU and GPU fans?
Is there any utility that allows? Id like to try messing around with
the speeds and watching my temps & noise levels.

2) I thought I read somewhere that the Asus A8N Premium doesnt need a
GPU fan... or was it a heat sink... it was one of the advantages over
the A8N Deluxe... maybe I misread it though, can anyone refresh me?

3) Any other suggestions for making this system shut the hell up?
(without replacing hardware)

Just installing the cool 'n quiet drivers doesn't make C&Q work. Have you
enabled minimal power management in Windows (I'm assuming XP here)? Coz that
needs to be enabled for C&Q to work. Just bear in mind not all games like
C&Q and it does make some games crash, so you may have to turn it off when
gaming.
As to you video cards, all I can suggest is looking at some aftermarket
coolers, like these:
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=40 Bear in mind though, fitting
these will almost certainly invalidate the warranty on your video cards.
They will however be a LOT quieter.

HTH
SteveH

 

[Johanna]

Hi Dennis,
I have the AMD Cool & Quiet for CPU and GPU as well.
(They were available in a shop and were sort of an impulse buy. Normally
I read reviews of any hardware before I buy it. The fan I really wanted
the Arctic Cooler fans, but they were difficult to find online. )

I felt reasonably confident changing the CPU cooler and there was a
small improvement in noise level.
But I think there is a bit of manual tweaking to be done though
(software settings) before this fan works to perfection?? Did you do that?
Also, the fan came with some kind of external speed control gadget that
is supposed to be mounted on the case. I haven't done that yet.

I am not particularly impressed with the Cool and Quiet so far.
From the way it looks you'd think it'd be super-effiicient (it is
enormous and looks very peculiar).

As for the GPU cooler - I got a bit intimidated on having to uninstall
the existing cooler on my Nvidia card, so I haven't got around to
installingthe cool&quiet for this yet. I am not sure if it is worth
the trouble, and I am worried about damaging the card when I change fans.

It is really diifficult to tell what is noisy in the system! Mine is
noisier than I want it to be.

But is it the CPU cooler.... or the Case fans... or the GPU...? I
don't know how to tell, other than changing them to see if there is an
improvement. My case is a 'Silverstone Media Centre", an aluminium case
with two fans which I bought purely based on looks!

I use my PC as a stereo and a dvd player as well as a computer, so I
really want it to be silent.
I'll be following this thread to see if there are any tips that are
useful for me. Good luck with the problem and let us know if you achieve
an improvemennt.
Best
Jo

 

[johns]

Most of that noise will be the video cards. Their fans
are a joke. I use the Z-cooler VF900 on my 7900
video card. I don't know if you can use 2 of them
in an SLI setup. The cards may be too close. I
use that fan in manual mode, set to a low rpm,
and very silent. I tested the temp of the video card
in CoD2 ( a real card pusher ) and I never even got
into the 50s with it. I idle at 33 C, and max I've
seen is 47 C in that game.
As for the CPU, I also use Artic Cooling ACS 64
Silencer. It too has manual speed setting, and I
have it set to 300 rpm ( totally silent ). Idle temp
of the CPU is again 33 C, and game temp in
CoD2 is 43. Most PCs idle higher than my in-
game temp. So these products really work.
Right now, the only fan I hear is the chipset
fan. It is pretty quiet, but high pitched because
it is small. As for warranty ... they can stick it
where the sun .... My PC is going to be quiet,
and in the future, if they want to stay in business,
they need to reallize that.

johns

 

[dennispublic]

I SUSPECT your noise is coming from the video cards. If so, try this:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html to adjust the fan speed.
Or this one: http://www.techspot.com/download165.html

Thanks for the replies guys... yes I have the "minimal power" setting
on, with the AMD cool and quiet drivers & it enabled in bios. And yes I
also suspect the video cards are mostly to blamel, and I'm starting to
think theres no solution for me via software.

I downloaded the Nvidia sysutility and RMClock (thanks for the links!)
and tried manually slowing the fans down, and even turning them off.
But it had no effect, nothing I've seen has been able to control the
fans at all.


New questions:

1) How do I even check the speed Geforce 7800 GTX's fans are spinning
at? (so I can confirm the nvidia sysutility didnt do anything). I
assume that if the nvidia tool doesnt show GPU fan RPM's that nothing
will...? I also tried the RMClock utility and a few others, havent seen
anything that can detect GPU RPM's, never mind adjust them.. help!

2) Why didnt the Nvidia sysutil work... perhaps particular brand of
geforce that I have refuses software attempts to adjust fan speeds?

3) Why did I buy an SLI system?