phipster said:
My kids are complaining that the system is getting too slow. That's why I was considering upgrading the hardware. Maybe it just needs a reinstall of the OS? I've heard that can speed things up, but I'm a bit dubious.
As far as the fan goes, yes, it is the same one depicted in the photo, just screwed into the radiator fins. I'm pretty sure the CPU fan is the culprit. When I take the side off and listen really closely to both fans, it's definitely the CPU fan that makes the lovely whooshing noise. According to a software fan control utility I put on the system at one point, it runs at about 5400 rpm, just the right pitch to irritate me.
The last time I tried to deal with this, I didn't take the PC into a local repair shop. I sent close-up photos to an online fan supplier, who didn't think it was replaceable.
So if I'm going to put in a new fan, would it mount the same way as the existing one, i.e. 4 screws into the radiator fins, as long as its the same diameter as the existing fan? Or do I have to replace the radiator along with the fan?
This
seems such a dead-simple fix, that shouldn't be harder than replacing a light bulb
Thanks for your help,
Philip
OK, first, has the CPU fan always been running that fast? 5400 rpm sounds pretty high to me. If it's only been doing that recently, it could mean it's not a problem with the CPU fan at all -- you could be having a general heat problem and the machine is trying to compensate by blowing the fan faster. I'd check for obstructed airflow inside the case, excessive dust, etc., and see if that helps. Also, putting in a more powerful case fan to increase the airflow may cool things down sufficiently to take the load off the CPU fan.
What's more, if it is a general heat issue, a new CPU fan might not help with the noise -- if it's still hot inside the case, the new CPU fan will still be blowing hard. So definitely look at that first.
Replacing the CPU fan is a bit more tricky than a case fan: As long as you can find a fan that's the same size with the right power connectors, you shouldn't have to replace the heatsink. But you'll want to make sure to buy a fan that was either intended for use as a CPU fan -- or if you do use a regular case fan, make sure it supports having its speed adjusted either by the motherboard directly, or by software. Case fans can be used as CPU fans, but you'll just need to do a little research first to find something that will work (
this thread provides a couple of good starting points).
And yes ... reinstalling the OS will often make a computer run faster all by itself. If you've had a machine for 2-3 years, you can expect a good amount of "Windows rot" to build up for the simple reason that programs often don't install and uninstall themselves perfectly cleanly, and all the leftover garbage can make your system chug and churn unnecessarily.
Another couple of issues that can slow your machine down are a full (or nearly full) hard drive, and hard drive fragmentation. If your hard drive gets above maybe 75-80 percent of capacity, searching/loading/writing times can start to increase, and same thing if you haven't defragmented your disk in a long time. I mean, this machine is not going to be breaking any speed records to begin with, but if any/all of these methods help improve the performance, you can probably get a little more life out of it.