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Dell XPS 8100 Fan Replacement?

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  • Dell Studio Xps
  • Fan
  • Components
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December 7, 2013 8:53:49 AM

Hi guys,

I bought an XPS 8100 with an i7 processor back in 2010 and was looking to upgrade parts. I bumped up the PSU from the stock 350W to a Corsair HX 750W and am receiving the Sapphire R9 290X GPU in the mail by Monday.

Primarily, I wanted to replace the PSU because the 8100's fans (I am not sure which one) seem to be blowing extremely loud when playing games or videos etc. This issue has been going on for years and I am finally fed up with it.

I am not sure if it is the GPU installed as of right now (Radeon 5770) that is making the noise but if it is the Case Fan, or the Heatsink Fan, can I replace these items? And if so, which do I pick from?

Please keep in mind that the case fan and heatsink fan are the stock ones.

More about : dell xps 8100 fan replacement

December 7, 2013 9:08:01 AM

Bardock518 said:
Hi guys,

I bought an XPS 8100 with an i7 processor back in 2010 and was looking to upgrade parts. I bumped up the PSU from the stock 350W to a Corsair HX 750W and am receiving the Sapphire R9 290X GPU in the mail by Monday.

Primarily, I wanted to replace the PSU because the 8100's fans (I am not sure which one) seem to be blowing extremely loud when playing games or videos etc. This issue has been going on for years and I am finally fed up with it.

I am not sure if it is the GPU installed as of right now (Radeon 5770) that is making the noise but if it is the Case Fan, or the Heatsink Fan, can I replace these items? And if so, which do I pick from?

Please keep in mind that the case fan and heatsink fan are the stock ones.


if you want your computer to be quiet the 290x is a bad option right now it is a very hot and loud card and i don't think that case has enough fan slots to cool it. how many fans are in your case now and can any more be added? I would run a cooler GPU in a case like that if you don't have many options for fans. if you want to run that 209X I would fill all of the fan spots up. (if you want quiet case fans get noctuas or corsair AF series)
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December 7, 2013 10:12:35 AM

frank the tank said:
Bardock518 said:
Hi guys,

I bought an XPS 8100 with an i7 processor back in 2010 and was looking to upgrade parts. I bumped up the PSU from the stock 350W to a Corsair HX 750W and am receiving the Sapphire R9 290X GPU in the mail by Monday.

Primarily, I wanted to replace the PSU because the 8100's fans (I am not sure which one) seem to be blowing extremely loud when playing games or videos etc. This issue has been going on for years and I am finally fed up with it.

I am not sure if it is the GPU installed as of right now (Radeon 5770) that is making the noise but if it is the Case Fan, or the Heatsink Fan, can I replace these items? And if so, which do I pick from?

Please keep in mind that the case fan and heatsink fan are the stock ones.


if you want your computer to be quiet the 290x is a bad option right now it is a very hot and loud card and i don't think that case has enough fan slots to cool it. how many fans are in your case now and can any more be added? I would run a cooler GPU in a case like that if you don't have many options for fans. if you want to run that 209X I would fill all of the fan spots up. (if you want quiet case fans get noctuas or corsair AF series)


Hmm I am definitely going for the 290x, regardless of the noise, as it is already coming in the mail and I plan to use it for mining. Was just wondering what fans I could replace? if there are any recommendations for replacing the case fan, heatsink, etc. I just replaced the PSU but that did not help in terms of noise.
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December 7, 2013 12:53:07 PM

290X is a card for gaming at high resolution. are you also using this as a gaming machine?
it appears you only have a 92mm fan to work with (im pretty sure your CPU heatsink fan is the same size)
just so you know this machine will be loud and id recommend you get a fast case fan because of your 290X (nothing ridiculous though you should'nt need a Delta server fan). only 2 fans is going to have an effect on cooling. if you think your case fan or CPU fan is going bad just Google them (Dell xps 8100 case fan/heatsink)
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December 7, 2013 12:56:55 PM

frank the tank said:
290X is a card for gaming at high resolution. are you also using this as a gaming machine?
it appears you only have a 92mm fan to work with (im pretty sure your CPU heatsink fan is the same size)
just so you know this machine will be loud and id recommend you get a fast case fan because of your 290X (nothing ridiculous though you should'nt need a Delta server fan). only 2 fans is going to have an effect on cooling. if you think your case fan or CPU fan is going bad just Google them (Dell xps 8100 case fan/heatsink)


So this means that a "Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan" would be too big for my dimensions? Yes I will be using my computer for gaming as well.
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December 8, 2013 10:39:56 AM

looks like a 212 should fit although it would be a bit of a tight squeeze. I don't think you will be able to overclock anyway because Dell locks down their bios. the stock heat sink should suffice. if you want something with more cooling power that will for sure fit in your case maybe look into a Noctua UB9. (its a tower cooler with 92mm fans)
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Best solution

December 8, 2013 10:39:57 AM

looks like a 212 should fit although it would be a bit of a tight squeeze. I don't think you will be able to overclock anyway because Dell locks down their bios. the stock heat sink should suffice. if you want something with more cooling power that will for sure fit in your case maybe look into a Noctua UB9. (its a tower cooler with 92mm fans)
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December 8, 2013 11:42:57 AM

frank the tank said:
looks like a 212 should fit although it would be a bit of a tight squeeze. I don't think you will be able to overclock anyway because Dell locks down their bios. the stock heat sink should suffice. if you want something with more cooling power that will for sure fit in your case maybe look into a Noctua UB9. (its a tower cooler with 92mm fans)


Thank you for the great answers! Turns out last night I went and bought this Zalman cooler which is also a tower cooler with a 92 mm fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
If I would have seen this sooner I might have went for it but it seems pretty heavy being 2 99 mm fans. I also went with this 80mm rear fan as a replacement as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Hopefully everything goes smoothly in terms of cooling for the new graphics card I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.
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December 9, 2013 7:50:40 AM

if you have any other problems with overheating just post on this
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April 15, 2014 11:40:33 AM

frank the tank said:
looks like a 212 should fit although it would be a bit of a tight squeeze. I don't think you will be able to overclock anyway because Dell locks down their bios. the stock heat sink should suffice. if you want something with more cooling power that will for sure fit in your case maybe look into a Noctua UB9. (its a tower cooler with 92mm fans)



I just bought a 212 EVO fan for my Dell XPS 8100, only to find out that a mounting plate must be installed from the back of the motherboard. This is a big problem, because the cover on the motherboard side is riveted on. Is there a reasonable solution for this, or am I just screwed?


I didn't realize the stock CPU fan was so crappy until my pc kept shutting down while trying to do a restore from system image to a new hard drive after the original Seagate hard drive crapped out on me. But I always knew it seemed to rev up an awful lot for no apparent reason.
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April 15, 2014 8:42:43 PM

DougOrama said:
frank the tank said:
looks like a 212 should fit although it would be a bit of a tight squeeze. I don't think you will be able to overclock anyway because Dell locks down their bios. the stock heat sink should suffice. if you want something with more cooling power that will for sure fit in your case maybe look into a Noctua UB9. (its a tower cooler with 92mm fans)



I just bought a 212 EVO fan for my Dell XPS 8100, only to find out that a mounting plate must be installed from the back of the motherboard. This is a big problem, because the cover on the motherboard side is riveted on. Is there a reasonable solution for this, or am I just screwed?


I didn't realize the stock CPU fan was so crappy until my pc kept shutting down while trying to do a restore from system image to a new hard drive after the original Seagate hard drive crapped out on me. But I always knew it seemed to rev up an awful lot for no apparent reason.


you will have to take the whole motherboard out and mount the heatsink on the processor (clean off all of the old thermal paste with rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth and repast (put a dot of thermal paste in the middle of the processor the size of a BB) then mount the new heatsink as described in the manual. this will have to be done with the board outside of the case then just remount the mainboard with the new heatsink on
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April 15, 2014 10:58:36 PM

Thanks. That's what I was afraid of. I'm not sure I want to go that far for risk of screwing something up that wasn't broken.
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April 16, 2014 12:30:10 AM

DougOrama said:


I just bought a 212 EVO fan for my Dell XPS 8100, only to find out that a mounting plate must be installed from the back of the motherboard. This is a big problem, because the cover on the motherboard side is riveted on. Is there a reasonable solution for this, or am I just screwed?





Motherboard is removable, I know what you are talking about, it is a big job.

What concerns me is EVO 212 - it is 120 mm cooler, would it fit under cover, it seems to be too tall, check it first, or you are risking not to be able to close your PC side panel!

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April 16, 2014 9:47:19 AM

It's definitely a space hog. Even if I could get it in, you couldn't do much of anything else around it without removing it every time you want to check a cable or something. I'm going to look for something different that is a good bit smaller and easier to install.
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April 16, 2014 10:31:52 AM

please create new thread and drop link here for my convenience.

I have my resources and will look for good and cheap substitute.

Please do one thing before sending 212 back - take back plates from the package and measure you motherboard holes and compare to 212 back plates. Dell is known to use Universal size, like one fits all, for all CPU coolers.
I have AMD based Inspiron, however it uses LGA 775 sized holes for CPU cooler, and most Inspirons have the same, no matter which CPU socket they have. XPS can be the same.
If you would know exact and correct LGA size, you would be able to find easy solution, if not you would have to remove motherboard anyway!
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April 16, 2014 10:49:29 AM

my sugesstion is to get a Noctua UB9

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

its much shorter and it can cool a 125 watt processor without issues. and its compatable with all recent sockets (intel 775, 1156/5/0, 1366, and AMD AM2/3(+)). it still has a backplate though so you will have to remove the board to mount it but its a well made heatsink and should serve you well.
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April 16, 2014 4:01:14 PM

This thing is definitely too big for the Studio XPS 8100 case I have. I put a ruler between two of the outside edges of the case and put it up against the cooler, holding it in as if it were installed (give or take a mm or two). It would be close, but the brass nipples over the copper pipes put it way over the top. I guess it would work if you don't want to put the side panel back on, or if you want to cut a hole in it.


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April 16, 2014 4:16:16 PM

Kisianik said:
please create new thread and drop link here for my convenience.

I have my resources and will look for good and cheap substitute.

Please do one thing before sending 212 back - take back plates from the package and measure you motherboard holes and compare to 212 back plates. Dell is known to use Universal size, like one fits all, for all CPU coolers.
I have AMD based Inspiron, however it uses LGA 775 sized holes for CPU cooler, and most Inspirons have the same, no matter which CPU socket they have. XPS can be the same.
If you would know exact and correct LGA size, you would be able to find easy solution, if not you would have to remove motherboard anyway!



I don't know if this helps or not I took a photo of the plate over the CPU where you can see the holes. Kinda tight for taking any measurements with my big hands.


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April 16, 2014 6:34:42 PM

Good photo, now go and download EVO 212 manual, or check yours http://www.coolermaster.com/xresserver01-DLFILE-P130218...
Take a look at section describing Intel Socket 1366/1156/1155/775, next take a close look at picture 2 you can see circle with screw locations related to specific socket. It seems to me, that according to your picture, Dell is using LGA775 (the closest to metal square frame part of back plate) screw hole locations, am I right? If I am right, it means that Dell is using LGA775 setup on all platforms (almost all Inspirons have LGA775 mounting socket), funny.

How original heatsink was connected to motherboard, did Dell used removable back plate, similar to EVO, or something else?

Thanks a lot for your input.
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April 16, 2014 7:06:40 PM

Just found a good huge picture of your original CPU cooler



How is it connected to motherboard, does it has attached screws, if yes, does Dell motherboard back plate attached from behind the motherboard by glue, or I am missing something? Or you already removed original backplate?
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April 16, 2014 8:50:03 PM

It has those crappy plastic pins. I can't access the back of the motherboard without removing it, which I really don't want to do. Can't take off the mobo side panel because it's riveted on.

I cleaned off the old crud off the CPU and original cooler surfaces and applied some of the cool master heatsink stuff and it's actually running hotter then before. I checked thoroughly to make sure the fan is secure. Very frustrating. I still have my little bathroom utility fan blowing into the case.
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April 16, 2014 9:13:43 PM

I believe you're right about the LGA775 holes, but it's hard to see for absolute certain. It almost seems like they're a little in between. It's hard for me to see inside the case with the naked eye while holding a flashlight holding wires back and stuff with the other hand, and I don't want to take the fan off again until I need to. But looking at Dell exact replacement coolers online that seems to be the case.

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April 17, 2014 10:32:23 AM

DougOrama said:
It has those crappy plastic pins. I can't access the back of the motherboard without removing it, which I really don't want to do. Can't take off the mobo side panel because it's riveted on.

I cleaned off the old crud off the CPU and original cooler surfaces and applied some of the cool master heatsink stuff and it's actually running hotter then before. I checked thoroughly to make sure the fan is secure. Very frustrating. I still have my little bathroom utility fan blowing into the case.


Overheat.
Have you cleaned up both surfaces prior to applying thermal paste?
Those are the ones I am always using, you can also find them in local store like Fry's or RadioShack Arctic Silver 5 including cleaning solution http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-Ar...

And proper application method http://www.arcticsilver.com/intel_application_method.ht... I don't know what your CPU is so you have to check and choose the most appropriate one.

Since you are not overclocking, but need just a better cooler, than what you have now, you can just simply get anything LGA775 with plastic pin downs.

Here are some examples http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=P.... First remember that 120 MM cooler would not fit, so you are looking for 90mm-110mm at most, mostly 90mm, 92mm, 95mm (that one could be flat.

This is what you must avoid for 2 reasons, first it has implanted screws, so unless you want to remove motherboard, no go, and second, you can not change fan on those
Picture, avoid that one and similar



Below is the most preferable type, you can use any fan, since it is not proprietary http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...



You can see use of pins, so you don't have to remove motherboard.

Those are just examples. Which one is good for you, well take a look around. The list I got is not everything good, there is Cooler Master Hyper TX3
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-TX3-RR-910-HT...



Look at mounting possibilities



And as you can see, it can use any 92 mm fan, which is very good.

Now a little bit about PWM - software fan control. I know for fact that Dell Inspirons do not have user fan contorl, only BIOS preset. XPS can be the same, so I would buy that CM TX3, take away that fan and install 92 mm fan with dual connectors,
Like this one http://www.amazon.com/CityNet-CFS-92-SB-92MM-Case-Fan/d...
So total cost would be $8 for extra fan + $26 and shipping, I think it is most reasonable in your case, combining with Arctic Silver 5 you should sleep well.



Here you can see 2 connectors, smaller for motherboard, and larger directly to power supply, this way you will override BIOS settings, your fan will work at 100% speed, a bit noisy, but very efficient, I had this exact setup a few years back, I survived, and I was cooling down 125 watt CPU.



Anything else I can help you with?
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April 17, 2014 10:54:22 AM

I did clean the surfaces with denatured alcohol before applying the new paste, the same stuff that came with the 212. Maybe it's not a good match. It's all I had.

I actually had that same T3 cooler in my cart but was still weighing options and making sure it would work, so I'll try it.

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April 17, 2014 11:36:33 AM

Save me some time - how many pins are on your motherboard for CPU fan connector, is it 4 pin? If yes, 4th pin is PWM wire, so if you use fan with small 3 pin connector, you will override PWM settings and your fan will run at 100%.
TX3 has 4 pin connector, no good, so you will need another fan most likely.

Edit: Where do you buy hardware?
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April 17, 2014 11:47:07 AM

Four pin. I would rather it did the job without running full blast all the time if it's anything like the current fan. It sounds like a tornado when it's really ramping up.

Small town here, so not any good local options. I usually order stuff from Amazon or Newegg.

Do you think a better case fan would make any difference, or are they pretty much the same?
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April 17, 2014 12:00:32 PM

Case fan, not really, CPU fan for sure, and it is not that loud, CityNet, I mean. I had three 92mm fans at full blast, plus 2 80mm fans at full blast in Inspiron case, with case on the floor, the sound was not high pitch, but low hmmm like. 1 fan not suppose to make things worse.
Anyway, you can always buy that fan later, this is the beauty of TX3 - you can attach any 92 mm fan to it, just make sure that new fan has only 3 pin connector, or dual setup like CityNet so you can connect Molex (larger connector) directly to PSU.
And follow Arctic Silver recommendations, and use Arctic Silver 5 paste, CM paste is junk.

If you want to use different paste, this is something interesting to follow.

I found this list of tested thermal compounds, it is from 2007, but it still provides the idea of different brands.

I think temperatures provided in Celsius.
|results|


|*** thermal interface|
Tital Nano Blue 59
Panasonic 58.5
KPT-8 (reference) 56.6

|decent thermal interface|
Data Cooler 57
Titan TTG S-104 , S-103 56.7
Pasta Siliconowa 56.6
Zalman CSL 850 56.5
Noctua 56.5
Stars Silver 56.5
Stars 700/Aero 700 56
GeIL GL-TCP1b 55.6
Thermopox 55.6
КПТ-8(BeO) 55.5
Sil more 55.5
Shin-Etsu(white) 55.5
W.P. 55.5
STARS (white, soft pack) 55.5
AKT-842 55
Fanner 420 55
Koolance 55

|good thermal interface|
Arctic Alumina 55.5
Arctic Silver-3 54.6
AOS 54.5
DC-340 54.5
Asetek 54.5
Arctic Silver-5 53.5
Arctic Ceramique 53.5

|great thermal interface|
Apus TMG 301 52.5
Gigabyte 52.5
Titan Nano Grease TTG-G30010 52.5
GFC-M1 D90T8-010 52.5
Shin-Etsu MicroSi G-751 52

|outstanding thermal interface|
Arctic Cooling MX-1 51.5
Shin-Etsu MicroSi MPU-3.7 50.5
Coollaboratory Liquid Pro 50

P.S. Coollaboratory Liquid Pro can only be used with copper or silver though because it will damage aluminum.

Also, Arctic Silver 5 takes about 5 days to reach it full potential.

Anything else I can help you with?
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April 17, 2014 12:28:10 PM

Thanks for all the time and info. I'm good for now until the next phase. I'll let you know how it works out.
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April 18, 2014 8:30:07 PM

I went to Radio Shack earlier today and got some of that Arctic Ceramique and decided to try it on my old fan. I followed the instructions that you linked, "tinting" and using the one-line application. It already made a dramatic difference, about 20 degrees from where it was, and at least 10 cooler than it was running before I jacked with it. I'll get the new cooler in a few days and see how that works.
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April 24, 2014 8:54:49 AM

sometimes the simplest solution is the best way to go :) 

if you still want to upgrade this is what i recommended

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

it uses a back plate but it will fit any recent socket (including 775) its also considerably shorter than the 212 since it uses 92mm fans
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May 20, 2014 9:10:47 PM

Finally installed my new fan, the Hyper TX3. I've been running a lot cooler with my old fan and the new heatsink, but the new fan knocked it down about another 12 degrees. With streaming video running it went from about 56c with the old fan to 44c with the new fan. When I started having problems I would sometimes get up near 100, so that's a huge difference.

Now I probably should upgrade to a cooler and better graphics card from the crappy GeForce GTS 240 that came with it, but I'm pretty cash strapped right now after car repairs and computer junk. It gets in the mid 80s when it's good and warmed up.
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July 21, 2014 7:53:08 PM


Finally opened up my graphics card and I think I may have figured out why it runs just a tad hot.



Cleaned it all out and it runs 30 c cooler. Duh...
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