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What is your cpu idle fan speed and is it audible?

post #1 of 34
2/28/12 at 6:47am
Thread Starter 
Ok my asrock mobo is controlling my fan speed from a lowest speed of 2200 rpm to 3500 rpm if you manually turn it all the way up. At 2200 rpm the fan is very audible in a silent room, if a movie or TV show is playing it isn't really noticable unless in a very silent scene. I'm curious what everyone's cpu fan speeds are and whether they are audible. Since my cpu temp isn't getting anywhere neer hot I would really like to solve this problem at the fan level. So are there fans that don't make a lot of noise at 2200 rpm? Also another fan might not run at the same rpm at the same voltage from the mobo right? Another thing I was thinking is to maybe solder in a resister in between the mobo and fan to drop it 500rpm at all mobo setting, the mobo would still be able to kick up the rpm right? just always 500 rpm less then now.

PS its a stock llano A6 cpu fan, 70mm I think.
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post #2 of 34
2/28/12 at 7:29am
Thread Starter 
Just thought of something, I have a SB corei5 heatsink and fan sitting around. I wonder it i can use the fan off that.
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post #3 of 34
2/28/12 at 7:31am
I ended up going with an Antec 620. The sound level from my HTPC dropped significantly.
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post #4 of 34
2/28/12 at 10:08am
I have the stock Athlon II X4 heatsink, but I took the stock fan off, and layed a 120 mm fan across the heatsink, memory and northbridge (used a screw in one corner to connect to the stock heatsink). It is super quiet, and CPU does not even get warm.
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post #5 of 34
2/28/12 at 10:55am
Wow is your llano particularly hot or is that fairly normal? I have inserted resistors inline for speed controlled case fans with good success, I have not tried that with a CPU fan.

The idle fan speed on my Core i3/H55 is 700rpm, at heavy load (multiple recordings and h.264 playback) it peaks around 1100RPM. This is inaudible from the couch (~10') even when the TV is muted. It sits directly above the TV at eye level, I can hear it if I walk up to it (~1') while it is under load.

That is using a fan mounted to the top of the case above a CPU cooler that I cut down in height to <1" so it would fit in the low profile coolermaster elite 100.

CPU temperature is 10c over room temperature.


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post #6 of 34
2/28/12 at 11:05am
Stock AMD heatsink.

Nothing audible as the computer is sitting downstairs in the basement.

-Suntan
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post #7 of 34
2/28/12 at 11:18am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by user4avsforum View Post

Wow is your llano particularly hot or is that fairly normal? I have inserted resistors inline for speed controlled case fans with good success, I have not tried that with a CPU fan.

The idle fan speed on my Core i3/H55 is 700rpm, at heavy load (multiple recordings and h.264 playback) it peaks around 1100RPM. This is inaudible from the couch (~10') even when the TV is muted. It sits directly above the TV at eye level, I can hear it if I walk up to it (~1') while it is under load.

That is using a fan mounted to the top of the case above a CPU cooler that I cut down in height to <1" so it would fit in the low profile coolermaster elite 100.

CPU temperature is 10c over room temperature.



If that case mounted fan works for you great, but you have to know that it wont force air through the fins like a heatsink mounted fan. But like I said the cpu is only hitting 33c during HD video playback.

What rating resistors did you use and what drop in rpm did you get. I was thinking I would have to do a bit of searching to figure out what resistor would give me 500 rpm drop on a 3500 rpm max fan.
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post #8 of 34
2/28/12 at 11:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueiedgod View Post

I have the stock Athlon II X4 heatsink, but I took the stock fan off, and layed a 120 mm fan across the heatsink, memory and northbridge (used a screw in one corner to connect to the stock heatsink). It is super quiet, and CPU does not even get warm.

You know now that you mention it my athlon II heatsink/fan was basically unnoticeable. Maybe I just got the bad luck of getting an iffy fan.
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post #9 of 34
2/28/12 at 11:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by suntan View Post

nothing audible as the computer is sitting downstairs in the basement.

duh.
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post #10 of 34
2/28/12 at 11:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

What is your cpu idle fan speed and is it audible?

Fan speed is just one variable. Other: Fan size, blades shape, fan build/bearing, heatsink shape, components around it, blow-down or blow-up, case size.

So yes, wo changing fan, slow it down with a resistor see what happens. Watch temp.
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post #11 of 34
2/28/12 at 11:31am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBobb View Post

duh.

My computer is down in the basement to with the rest of my HTPC setup.
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post #12 of 34
2/28/12 at 11:33am
Thread Starter 
I'm really kicking myself for buying an ASrock mobo at this point.
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post #13 of 34
2/28/12 at 11:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

...What rating resistors did you use and what drop in rpm did you get. I was thinking I would have to do a bit of searching to figure out what resistor would give me 500 rpm drop on a 3500 rpm max fan.

There are a few ohm calculators out there that will help you calculate the resistance needed to drop 12v to something lower based on amp draw. Typlically the amp or watts is posted on the fan. However I found that was only useful as a basic starting point since it is difficult to predict how the voltage drop will impact fan speed. Since resistors are cheap I bought several sizes between 10-100, it took a little trail and error to find a voltage/speed I was happy with.

This site looks pretty relevant.
http://www.blackfiveservices.co.uk/fanspeed.shtml
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post #14 of 34
2/28/12 at 1:20pm
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118217

Not cheap; but it's plug & play.

I have an MSI board and, in the bios, set the fan to come on at 50c.
The fan does not run when cpu is idle.
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post #15 of 34
2/28/12 at 1:28pm
I have a core i3 in a Silverstone GB04 case with a Scythe SCSK-1100 Shuriken heat sink/fan. I use SpeedFan to vary the speed of the case and CPU fans. It's a bit of a trade off between heat and noise, but at "idle" (that is nothing going on but XBMC running) the CPU temp is around 46C, the CPU fan runs about 1100RPM, and the three case fans run about 700RPM. With those settings, a cabinet with a somewhat open front, and a quiet room, I can just barely hear the fans running. If the CPU starts warming up, SpeedFan adjusts accordingly. At full out the fans run at 2200RPM (CPU) and 1200RPM (three case fans). That can be loud, but it generally only happens when we watch a Bluray movie, and that usually has enough noise to cover the fan sounds up.
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post #16 of 34
2/29/12 at 11:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

My computer is down in the basement to with the rest of my HTPC setup.

So the noise is really bothering the mouse, is that what you are saying?
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post #17 of 34
2/29/12 at 12:11pm
Here is mine in my tiny Frankenstein (i3 2100, two 2TB hard drives, 1 SATAIII SSD, Mini-ITX)

Barely audible.

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post #18 of 34
2/29/12 at 1:06pm
My i5 2405 is running at 1580rpm at 38c and the fan is quite
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post #19 of 34
2/29/12 at 1:59pm
My bedroom HTPC build runs pretty cool, and I've been able to keep the CPU and case fans at Level 1 in the Asrock utility. Fan noise is pretty quiet indeed. I'm finding hard disc noise isn't so quiet, though. Seems like I'm getting a mid-bass hum (probably makes sense - 5400 RPM hard drive would equate to a 90Hz fundamental). Anyone have remedies to suggest? This build is in an IN-WIN BP671 case, if that helps.
If I could have my live TV buffer/recorded TV go straight to a hard drive on a networked PC, I'd do that... but light research has suggested this isn't possible.
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post #20 of 34
2/29/12 at 2:09pm
I had a stock AMD Phenom fan and it was absurdly loud, the loudest fan Ive ever owned. Im not a fan snob and have always used stock fans in the past but that thing was insane, it was like having a swivel fan set to high in the room. I replaced it and now the only fan I hear is the PSU fan which is a little louder than a 360.
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post #21 of 34
2/29/12 at 6:14pm
I have a Cougar 120mm fan with PWM control so my motherboard can automatically speed up the rpms if it needs to. Even when I'm maxing out all 4 cores + 4 ht cores, it is virtually silent at 800 to 900 rpms. I'm not using a stock heatsink.
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post #22 of 34
2/29/12 at 8:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

Ok my asrock mobo is controlling my fan speed from a lowest speed of 2200 rpm to 3500 rpm if you manually turn it all the way up. At 2200 rpm the fan is very audible in a silent room, if a movie or TV show is playing it isn't really noticable unless in a very silent scene. I'm curious what everyone's cpu fan speeds are and whether they are audible. Since my cpu temp isn't getting anywhere neer hot I would really like to solve this problem at the fan level. So are there fans that don't make a lot of noise at 2200 rpm? Also another fan might not run at the same rpm at the same voltage from the mobo right? Another thing I was thinking is to maybe solder in a resister in between the mobo and fan to drop it 500rpm at all mobo setting, the mobo would still be able to kick up the rpm right? just always 500 rpm less then now.

PS its a stock llano A6 cpu fan, 70mm I think.

The included/"free" stock fans that come with cpu's (either AMD or Intel) are invariably noisy due to their small size and high rpm rates.

Aftermarket heat-sink/fan combo have *larger* fans of up to 120/140mm size, and these large fans run at much slower rpm speeds.

Slow fan speed = low noise.

Even given their low speed/noise, they still move more air than the cpu's *smaller* stock fan. Hence these larger after-market sink/fan combos are noticeably cooler as well as quieter.
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post #23 of 34
3/1/12 at 7:42am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Here is mine in my tiny Frankenstein (i3 2100, two 2TB hard drives, 1 SATAIII SSD, Mini-ITX)

Barely audible.



Thats strange your asrock board is doing a lot better at controlling fan speed. I wonder why mine doesnt.
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post #24 of 34
3/3/12 at 2:16pm
Thread Starter 
Intel fan on my A6-3650, is this sacriledge? PS the intel fan(.6amp) on my llano board spins at 1400 rpm so is much quieter. Ran a stress test on the cpu for ten minutes and it held it at 61c but the found became very noticeable one over 2000rpm.

I tried an old athlon X2 fan(.30amp) that ran just under 2000rpm and was a pretty big improvement over the llano fan(.45amp). PS the X2 fan was able to hold temp down on the cpu stress test.


Also under volted the cpu by .2v supposedly drops max wattage usage by 25% and looks like idle consumption went down 1-2 watts. So it turns llano quad core to TDP 75W. Oh ran the stress test and messed around with media center at the same time and the system was still 100% stable.


Anyone try this low power cooler?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835233103

http://www.3000rpm.com/acatalog/Xigm...Intel-AMD.html
LL
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post #25 of 34
3/3/12 at 3:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pkscout View Post

I have a core i3 in a Silverstone GB04 case with a Scythe SCSK-1100 Shuriken heat sink/fan. I use SpeedFan to vary the speed of the case and CPU fans. It's a bit of a trade off between heat and noise, but at "idle" (that is nothing going on but XBMC running) the CPU temp is around 46C, the CPU fan runs about 1100RPM, and the three case fans run about 700RPM. With those settings, a cabinet with a somewhat open front, and a quiet room, I can just barely hear the fans running. If the CPU starts warming up, SpeedFan adjusts accordingly. At full out the fans run at 2200RPM (CPU) and 1200RPM (three case fans). That can be loud, but it generally only happens when we watch a Bluray movie, and that usually has enough noise to cover the fan sounds up.

I'd also suggest giving Speedfan a try. It's sensor support is very good, and if it picks up all your fans, disks and your GPU, you will have very precise control over fan speeds based on temp thresholds. Download from almico dot com.
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post #26 of 34
3/3/12 at 3:53pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by t-c View Post

I'd also suggest giving Speedfan a try. It's sensor support is very good, and if it picks up all your fans, disks and your GPU, you will have very precise control over fan speeds based on temp thresholds. Download from almico dot com.

Solved my problem, I just remembered my antec 300 desktop case had a case with a three speed fan. Did the case fan swap out along with the intel fan and now my HTPC is inaudible sitting from my lazyboy.

Anyways I should have just got the 65W AMD A6-3500, I'm sure it comes with a slower rpm fan.
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post #27 of 34
3/3/12 at 5:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

Solved my problem, I just remembered my antec 300 desktop case had a case with a three speed fan. Did the case fan swap out along with the intel fan and now my HTPC is inaudible sitting from my lazyboy.

Anyways I should have just got the 65W AMD A6-3500, I'm sure it comes with a slower rpm fan.

So how is this Intel's fault?

I have 3 ASRock motherboards. Not even a minor complaint of fan speed/noise. This seems to echo others' experience as well.

And I definitely wouldn't ever buy 1 vendor over another because of a $10 fan.
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post #28 of 34
3/4/12 at 6:49am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

So how is this Intel's fault?

I have 3 ASRock motherboards. Not even a minor complaint of fan speed/noise. This seems to echo others' experience as well.

And I definitely wouldn't ever buy 1 vendor over another because of a $10 fan.

I did some internet research and there seems to be some consistency that asrock doesn't have as much adjustments for fan speed control that other boards have. I was able to control the same case fan just fine on my MSI zacate board and my msi h61 board also seems to do a better job. My point on cpu fans was that the one that comes with the 100W llano cpu's makes to much noise at its lowest speed, the 65W llano fans and the intel fan's are noticable quieter but still audible. So anyone wanting to go llano should probably avoid the 100W versions unless they want to spend the extra for an aftermarket cooler.
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post #29 of 34
3/4/12 at 6:52am
Have you tried a different version of the AXTU utility?
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post #30 of 34
3/4/12 at 7:31am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Have you tried a different version of the AXTU utility?

I downloaded the newest one on the page for my mobo. Is this utility mobo specific because I noticed there is a newer versions out.
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