Cooling Performance vs Acoustics: What's More Important?

[neogunhero]

When it comes to your gaming rig, what is more important to you, cooling performance or acoustics?

Personally, I have never been bothered by my PC being noisy unless if it starts to sound like a jet engine firing up. I tend to push my fans harder and faster than normal, all fans in my rig hit 100% when temps get around 65c. I typically have headphones on, so I never hear my PC, but if I do have them off, there is usually a fan or AC running in my home that drowns out the noise coming from my PC.

 

[Lutfij]

Both.

 

[neogunhero]

Both.

I guess you could technically achieve both, but if you had to prioritize one over the other, loud fans with good cooling performance or quieter fans with lesser cooling performance, which would you choose?

 

[Zed Clampet]

I guess you could technically achieve both, but if you had to prioritize one over the other, loud fans with good cooling performance or quieter fans with lesser cooling performance, which would you choose?

I take it you mean that the quieter fans won't sufficiently cool the PC in all situations, in which case I'm definitely taking the louder fans.

 

[Charagma]

Acoustics definitely.

I need silence in my work area. Any fan noise will disruptive. Can test my problem if you want. Put a song on your phone with the volume about halfway. Now start up the hairdryer and try to hear your music.

 

[Pifanjr]

When I got our new, second-hand PC the previous owner said he optimised it to run silently. Which it indeed did very well, but I undid all of his work anyway because I care more about performance than I do about a slightly noisy fan. I'm pretty sure they're still less noisy than the spinning HDDs used to be..

 

[Charagma]

When I got our new, second-hand PC the previous owner said he optimised it to run silently. Which it indeed did very well, but I undid all of his work anyway because I care more about performance than I do about a slightly noisy fan. I'm pretty sure they're still less noisy than the spinning HDDs used to be..

Do not bash the old HDD's . Sometimes it was our only sign that the thing is still working or doing something.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Do not bash the old HDD's . Sometimes it was our only sign that the thing is still working or doing something.

I could write a little program that plays a Milli Vanilli song every time your CPU hits 30 percent usage!

 

[Charagma]

I could write a little program that plays a Milli Vanilli song every time your CPU hits 30 percent usage!

LMAO, yeah can actually hear that in my head. "Blame it on the rain"? Worst ever was when your HDD started sounding like a Stiffy drive reading. Think that is why we never worried about Fan noise. Everything else was louder than the fans anyway.

 

[Frindis]

I'm using mesh for better airflow, but you hear a bit more, so I tend to use closed headphones with active noise control (ANC) if I want a little more quiet.

 

[Lutfij]

I guess you could technically achieve both, but if you had to prioritize one over the other, loud fans with good cooling performance or quieter fans with lesser cooling performance, which would you choose?

In all honesty, if two options are all I have to pick, I'd pick neither. LOL. I've tried passively cooling platforms but that resulted in high temps. I've also tried running fans at full blast since that era of fans weren't voltage controlled, merely molex powered(this is back in the 2000's) and I said goodbye to my eardrums. I kissed said eardrums when I managed to get a hold of a fan controller and later 3pin fans and subsequently PWM fans.

I've worked with Scythe GT AP-15's, Noiseblocker M12-P's, Noctua NF-P12(the original fans from 2008~2009), Swiftech Helix's and now Thermaltake ToughFan 12 Turbo's on a Coolermaster ML240L V2. I set the fan's RPM to a point where I'm not sacrificing thermals for a silent operation.

You need to also understand that acoustics and design are subjective. I've found and seen people who are oblivious to the ticking of the fan's motor, while seeing another end of the spectrum who need to eliminate said ticking of the fan's motor. So like everything in life, your mileage can and will vary with regards to external factors.

 

[Zuruchon]

In my situation, both of them are important to me. I want my fan to perform optimally, so it should be fast to do its work effectively. The noise is not really a problem for me. But my wife sometimes complains that the children are distracted because of the noise. So I would have to stop playing because of the children.

I wouldn't trade off effectiveness for discomfort caused by noise, but I would be happy to have a good option with less noise, at least for the family.

 

[Colif]

I use bigger fans but slower... get same cooling
140mm fans don't need to run fast to push out plenty of air. I run mine at about 500 it seems... I hadn't looked for a while.

CPU fan speed is an average as there is a 140 and 120 in it. GPU cooling fans are 120mm but run at their slowest speeds.


I was only one so far to go for quiet... I have had loud fans... I run 3x180mm fans in a system and it was only in the last year I thought to run them slower.

I seemingly ran an experiment in my last PC to find the best fans. It wasn't intentional. I can tell you some to avoid lol.

Ever since I have wanted quiet. I replaced the intake fans in my case to three Bequiet fans because they were making a noise. I want my fans to be quiet... (no pun intended).

If Noctua made white fans (they have no plans to do so) I would have bought them. Instead, I got next best. I can't hear my fans, though I can hear the PC. Not sure what source of noise is, its more electrical.

while seeing another end of the spectrum who need to eliminate said ticking of the fan's motor.

sounds like me, it can be a curse. I went through too many fans last build. Started with 2nd best this time... if they fail. I just accept noctua fans. They were what I ended up with in last PC.

 

[neogunhero]

So like everything in life, your mileage can and will vary with regards to external factors.

This is really the main point, environmental and other factors vary from set up to set up. If my set up was in an enclosed bedroom or similar where ambient noise would be lesser than out in my living room, I would perhaps focus more on the noise. Also, if I didn't always use closed back headphones, I would notice it more.

Another major thing as Frindis stated, using a mesh case could have an effect on noise as well. My front panel is all mesh with two intake fans, and the metal side panel has an open mesh on it as well. My case is old and not built with acoustics in mind as well, but none of this bothers me due to how my set up is configured.

If I had to choose one, it would always be cooling performance at the cost of louder fans mainly because I think I will always use headphones whenever I game, it would be hard for me to switch to using a speaker system.

 

[Colif]

Another major thing as Frindis stated, using a mesh case could have an effect on noise as well. My front panel is all mesh with two intake fans, and the metal side panel has an open mesh on it as well. My case is old and not built with acoustics in mind as well, but none of this bothers me due to how my set up is configured.

Steve sort of answers that here, both can be as silent as each other if you mess with fan curves. My case is almost all mesh and its not loud. Mine has mesh under the Glass area, and also a mesh cutout in backplate (behind motherboard) ... if anyone hear noise here, its me... 11 fans in PC.

The only time I hear my fans is when I run them fast. Below a certain speed I can't hear any of them and PC is not running warm at all.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yea as others said its a balance. There's no way I'm letting my hardware bounce off thermal limits to keep noise down, but also there's no way Im going to run the fans at 100% rather than 70% just because it drops full load temps by 3C when its nowhere near the thermal limit.

Its not just about turning fans up and down either, a better paste job on a GPU will sometimes drop temps by a lot even straight out of the factory, as well setting a custom fan curve. A better heatsink on the CPU and better quality case fans help as well. Even putting your whole rig in a different postion where the air circulates better can make a massive diference.

Basically you can have a quiet rig that cools well, its not a zero sum thing.

 

[Colif]

I used Afterburner on my last build to keep GPU fans running all time and help cool nvme and PC.
My PC had preferential positioning in my room when it comes to cooling for over 10 years now. Its why I always saw the rear of my last PC as it was facing towards the window. Now it faces the doorway
Put it on a box to get clearance from clutter on floor and fresh air. If you can't do that, put it on a raised surface just to avoid dust

My fan curves set to be quiet when I idle and wake up when CPU temps rise. I can't set any to the GPU as it doesn't show as a sensor in motherboard. The slot does but its not exactly the same thing. The GPU fans are actually set to monitor the VRM temps. Mainly as they the two fans I need to replace before Summer.

Need to set up a curve in BIOS as the fans are the loudest at start up. Not overly loud, just noticeable. I use Gigabyte Command Centre to control fans in windows. So as soon as it loads they go quiet.

helps to have two fan profiles, one for summer and one for winter as fans don't have to run full speed all year, or at least, the same speed. I will need to adjust mine for summer.

 

[Charagma]

I used Afterburner on my last build to keep GPU fans running all time and help cool nvme and PC.
My PC had preferential positioning in my room when it comes to cooling for over 10 years now. Its why I always saw the rear of my last PC as it was facing towards the window. Now it faces the doorway
Put it on a box to get clearance from clutter on floor and fresh air. If you can't do that, put it on a raised surface just to avoid dust

My fan curves set to be quiet when I idle and wake up when CPU temps rise. I can't set any to the GPU as it doesn't show as a sensor in motherboard. The slot does but its not exactly the same thing. The GPU fans are actually set to monitor the VRM temps. Mainly as they the two fans I need to replace before Summer.

Need to set up a curve in BIOS as the fans are the loudest at start up. Not overly loud, just noticeable. I use Gigabyte Command Centre to control fans in windows. So as soon as it loads they go quiet.

helps to have two fan profiles, one for summer and one for winter as fans don't have to run full speed all year, or at least, the same speed. I will need to adjust mine for summer.

I see you talk about the curve a lot. Is it a special blade or adjustable blade? In my mind's eye I imagine you adjusting blade tilts. Have seen some odd-looking fan blades but do not understand them. Just asking to get clarity for myself on the "curve" part

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I see you talk about the curve a lot. Is it a special blade or adjustable blade? In my mind's eye I imagine you adjusting blade tilts. Have seen some odd-looking fan blades but do not understand them. Just asking to get clarity for myself on the "curve" part

Its just a software fan curve, so the fans are running for example at 50% at 50 degrees C CPU temperature and 100% at 90 C steadily ramping up as temps increase.

https://imgur.com/a/XTHWqPh

View: https://imgur.com/a/XTHWqPh


There are different softwares that do it for CPU and GPU. I think all the motherboard manufacturers have their own versions and there are others, not sure what is good at the moment I'm just using the Gigabyte version which is fine for me.

 

[Colif]

You can use something like this and see if it recognises all your fans

Fan Control - A highly focused fan controlling software for Windows

Fan Control is a free software that allows the user to control their CPU, GPU and case fans using temperatures.

getfancontrol.com

it lets you control speeds of some fans.

there are two types of fans
3 pin DC
4 pin pwm

you can't directly control the speed of 3 pin fans but you can set speeds for 4 pin. Provided they are attached to motherboard.
That program can control most of them.

its probably the best general purpose one now. It has its downsides, like windows might just block it working at some stage. But its okay for now. I use the same program as Kaamos does

 

[Zed Clampet]

This is really the main point, environmental and other factors vary from set up to set up. If my set up was in an enclosed bedroom or similar where ambient noise would be lesser than out in my living room, I would perhaps focus more on the noise. Also, if I didn't always use closed back headphones, I would notice it more.

Another major thing as Frindis stated, using a mesh case could have an effect on noise as well. My front panel is all mesh with two intake fans, and the metal side panel has an open mesh on it as well. My case is old and not built with acoustics in mind as well, but none of this bothers me due to how my set up is configured.

If I had to choose one, it would always be cooling performance at the cost of louder fans mainly because I think I will always use headphones whenever I game, it would be hard for me to switch to using a speaker system.

I just set the fan curves, and so my fans run silently, but if the temps were to rise (which they haven't) then the fans would pick up speed for extra cooling. That would be the only time you could hear them. I haven't heard my fans since I set the curve a couple of months ago. I've got almost 200 hours in Dune Awakening and haven't heard them yet. 100+ hours in BG3...

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

You can use something like this and see if it recognises all your fans

Fan Control - A highly focused fan controlling software for Windows

Fan Control is a free software that allows the user to control their CPU, GPU and case fans using temperatures.

getfancontrol.com

it lets you control speeds of some fans.

there are two types of fans
3 pin DC
4 pin pwm

you can't directly control the speed of 3 pin fans but you can set speeds for 4 pin. Provided they are attached to motherboard.
That program can control most of them.

its probably the best general purpose one now. It has its downsides, like windows might just block it working at some stage. But its okay for now. I use the same program as Kaamos does

You can control the range of 3 pin fans by reducing the voltage, the range just doesnt go as low as PWM.

Might vary by motherboard but on my last three you can set the fan slots to DC or PWM in BIOS.

 

[Colif]

I was simplyfying it. You can do that but its not as easy as PWM.

Most motherboards let you change the way it talks to fans for every fan header.
'
Fan control can't see DC fans. BIOS might be able to but I don't think fan control can.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Been a while since I used Fan Control because when I moved from Intel to Ryzen in 2020 it just wouldnt work with AMD for some reason. I have a mix of DC and PWM fans because I used to use a hardware fan controller like this that was voltage controlled. I thought it recognized voltage controlled fans back then but could be remembering wrong.

Edit; I'm pretty sure Fan Control works with Ryzen last time I checked and its really good when its working, its just a small team (person?) so used to take a while for updates to come out.

 

[Colif]

Sure you don't mean Speedfan? I used to use it on Intel 10 years ago but it hasn't been updated in years and has no idea what Ryzen was

SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer

Jay when he was younger

I stopped using Fan Control last year as one of its drivers has ring0 access and it also conflicts with HWINFO with regard to sensor temps. It kept reading my CPU as cooler than it really was.