What fan speeds do you guys generally run for balancing gaming noise/performance ?

[Nyt Ryda]

Hi everyone

Was a bit curious, what fan speeds do you guys generally run these days ? Specifically idle/load on your case fans and on any fans cooling the CPU heatsink or radiator.

These days at idle I have all my 120s at around 850-900 rpm, with the lone 140mm exhaust at around 950rpm (and it's the quietest of the bunch somehow).
While gaming they're all on a curve so I have the 140mm exhaust at around 1200-1250rpm, the bottom two 120s pushing cool air to the card at around 1200rpm with the rest around 1000-1100rpm.

 

[SILTECH786]

@Valheru

 

[AinsleyHarriott]

Silent preset.

 

[goldfritter]

Hi everyone

Was a bit curious, what fan speeds do you guys generally run these days ? Specifically idle/load on your case fans and on any fans cooling the CPU heatsink or radiator.

These days at idle I have all my 120s at around 850-900 rpm, with the lone 140mm exhaust at around 950rpm (and it's the quietest of the bunch somehow).
While gaming they're all on a curve so I have the 140mm exhaust at around 1200-1250rpm, the bottom two 120s pushing cool air to the card at around 1200rpm with the rest around 1000-1100rpm.

This is a bit more effort. But what I usually do is:
1. Go into BIOS and set all fans to minimum
2. Starting with intake fans, increase the speed incrementally until I can noticeably hear them
3. Set a curve which is basically a straight line from the speed in step 2 up to my desired max temp for that component (say 80C) EDIT: so basically the fan curve is a straight line from say 55deg/[lowest audible fan percentage] to 80deg/100%
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with exhaust fan, CPU cooler fan, and GPU fan
5. Tweak the curve if the fans keep spinning up and slowing down during light workloads (I don't mind if they do this during gaming as I'll have my headphones on and game noise, but it irritates me when I'm just doing office tasks or browsing and the fans keep spooling up).

I only have 140s in my rig and idle RPM is around 900 for all of them.

 

[Valheru]

Replaced my fans with some proper Corsair fans, so the RAD runs at 100% and fan curve set to run the radiator fans at MAX from 70 (30/30, 40/40, 50/50, 70/MAX @ 2400). There is an additional 120mm at the top for exhaust paired with 2x140mm that run a similar curve. They are anti-vibration and are fairly quiet at gaming loads but do get very loud when I give it the beans.

 

[Nyt Ryda]

This is a bit more effort. But what I usually do is:
1. Go into BIOS and set all fans to minimum
2. Starting with intake fans, increase the speed incrementally until I can noticeably hear them
3. Set a curve which is basically a straight line from the speed in step 2 up to my desired max temp for that component (say 80C) EDIT: so basically the fan curve is a straight line from say 55deg/[lowest audible fan percentage] to 80deg/100%
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with exhaust fan, CPU cooler fan, and GPU fan
5. Tweak the curve if the fans keep spinning up and slowing down during light workloads (I don't mind if they do this during gaming as I'll have my headphones on and game noise, but it irritates me when I'm just doing office tasks or browsing and the fans keep spooling up).

I only have 140s in my rig and idle RPM is around 900 for all of them.

I do something similar in ASUS AI Suite.
100% at around 85C CPU temp for me but it never gets close to that except for super hot summer stress Realbench/Cinebench tests where I purposefully leave the AC off to see the absolute max.

 

[Nerd101]

I have 5 fans running around 900rpm.... dead silent

 

[WiZard]

I have 5 fans running around 900rpm.... dead silent

This - Use more fans...

 

[∀Z‾soʇɐuɐɥ┴]

For my 9 fan setup I run them at 1200-1500rpm for anything under 70c.
Every now and then they ramp up to 1800rpm when temps go over 70c but never stay there for more than a few seconds.
This is quiet enough for me to barely hear it so no distraction while gaming either.
Only reason for this rather than quiet preset is because dual 360mm radiators and if fans are too slow then not enough air is pushed through the radiators to dissipate heat.

 

[JollyJamma]

with the lone 140mm exhaust at around 950rpm (and it's the quietest of the bunch somehow).

Always get 140mm fans if you can. They are a much better balance of air flow and noise. I'm looking to get teh Arctic 280mm RAD because it comes with 2 times 140mm fans, instead of the 240mm which comes with 2 times 120mm.

I can't remember the specifics but basically, smaller fans are noisier for the same RPM because physics.

 

[rinners]

I can't remember the specifics but basically, smaller fans are noisier for the same RPM because physics.

I think you mean because they have to turn faster for the same volume of airflow? If you set them to the same RPM the small fan won't always be noisier, it depends on the shape of the fan blade, back pressure etc. Like shaping the trailing edge of a blade with V's, sort of like a owl's wing, can reduce turbulence and therefore noise.

 

[JollyJamma]

I think you mean because they have to turn faster for the same volume of airflow? If you set them to the same RPM the small fan won't always be noisier, it depends on the shape of the fan blade, back pressure etc. Like shaping the trailing edge of a blade with V's, sort of like a owl's wing, can reduce turbulence and therefore noise.

Not sure if answering truthfully or being a troll again

 

[rinners]

Not sure if answering truthfully or being a troll again

This aint smack talk.

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/12xq2n

 

[Presler]

I have 7 x 120's(R29 red LED el cheapo's), 3 inlet that runs air through the RAD, 3 out on top and one exhaust at the back. I haven't set anything in the bios, and can hardly hear them when gaming. Keep in mind I have 2 RX580 Radeon's in there, so I agree with @Wizard, gooi more fans.

Should be an interesting exercise to actually monitor them and see what happens.

 

[orange_jo0se]

no custom fan curves just run it at stock.....

always use my headset so noise is not something i factor in, when my pc is just running basic day to day tasks (this is the only time i use speakers) it generates no noise

 

[SCHUMI4EVER]

Custom fan curves to try and avoid the "hunting" effect where it constantly ramps up and down as it frequently drops above and below a tempo window. Other than that though I don't care about noise, my PC can chuck as many DB as it wants at me it still won't be able to compete with my aircon-less room which is instead cooled by a bunch of bigger fans.