Why is my computer fan so loud?
Recently my home desktop computer has been reacting a lot more to heat levels. The fan starts maxing out just about any time the CPU is used, and it's very loud. It didn't use to do this - only in the last year or so (it's about 3 or 4 years old). I've removed all the dust I can find, but Speedfan shows it's running at about 130 degrees, and when it goes a tick above that the fan goes crazy.
Any ideas? Can the heat sink fail over time? Do I need to get better/quieter fans?
I'm not looking to put a lot of money into this system, so I'm hoping for any low cost ideas.
It sounds like the bearings on your fan have worn. The cheapest solution is to buy a new fan.
Remove the old one and take it down to your nearest computer parts shop and get one the same size and rating and with the same plugs to replace it.
I recently purchased a non-stock fan/heatsink for my CPU and I have to tell you, it's made a lot of difference. The construction of the heatsink is very unique, and the fan is ridiciulously quiet. I can't even tell my computer is on a lot of the time.
And the cost wasn't too bad, I think I spent maybe $40 on it or something. Definitely a good investment.
You might want to try the following in order of increasing cost
- Get some heak sink paste and removing the fan, cleaning any old paste off and applying a thin layer of new paste, put everything back together ($1-2)
- Replace the fan on the heatsink, the fan bearings will get old and noisy over time ($10)
- If you're ok to spend $30-40 then I'd just replace the heatsink/fan with a large 1200RPM one.
Replacing the stock fan is useful.
But, I have often found that replacing the stock-fan thermal-pad
with new thermal grease (like Artic Silver 5) helps a lot.
You should also use tools like RealTemp to follow temperatures around your CPU.
A hot CPU does not just push the fan, it also reduces processing speed.
Real Temp is a temperature monitoring program designed for all Intel single Core, Dual Core, Quad Core and Core i7 processors. Each core on these processors has a digital thermal sensor (DTS) that reports temperature data relative to TJMax which is the safe maximum operating core temperature for the CPU. As your CPU heats up, your Distance to TJMax will decrease. If it reaches zero, your processor will start to thermal throttle or slow down so maximizing your distance away from TJMax will help your computer run at full speed and more reliably too.
Such tools will usually allow you to sample temperatures over time
which helps you figure out when the next hardware cleanup cycle is due.
While we are at this, it would be useful to track other temperatures like
the Harddisk, Graphics processor and the Chassis ambient temperatures.
All except the last are tracked by software; the last one uses a few strategically placed thermistors.
Tracking ratios of these temperatures over time gives you good clues on where heat is building up (or, whats about to blow up).