Loud Fan on new HTPC Build

sal25lbc

Distinguished
Dec 4, 2011
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18,510
I put this build together today:

-G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
-Cooler Master BladeMaster 120mm PWM High Air Flow Silent Case Fan
-ASRock H67M-ITX Socket 1155/ Intel H67/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&V&GbE/ Mini-ITX Motherboard
-Intel Core i3-2100T Processor 2.50 GHz 3 MB Cache Socket LGA1155
-APEX MI-008 Tower Black P4 Chassis with 250W Itx Psu+sata Power Supply
-Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack
-Samsung Spinpoint F4EG 2 TB SATA2 5400rpm 32 MB Hard Drive HD204UI/Z4 (not installed yet)
-Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s
-Samsung Blu-Ray Combo Internal 12XReadable and DVD-Writable Drive

The fan that came with the CPU is super loud . Is this normal and is there a way to slow it down or shut it the hell up (hahaha)? I hope I don't have to replace the fan w/ an aftermarket one but if that's the only solution, so be it....this HTPC will be replacing my DTV soon and the loud fan just won't cut it.

Thanks in advance!
 

sal25lbc

Distinguished
Dec 4, 2011
4
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18,510
Thanks for the replies guys! I went into Bios and lowered the CPU fan speed. Now I have a follow up question. The fan speed can be set from 1 - 10, how low can I run this thing? I guess my real question is, what should be my target temperature? I currently have the CPU fan running at "Speed 5" and these are my temp reading from an app called Core Temp 1.0:

Tj. Max 85c (no idea what this means)
Core #0: 34c
Core #1: 38c

of course these are varying by a couple degrees as I'm typing. Like I said before, this will by my HTPC and I will not be playing any PC games in the foreseeable future, only downloading and streaming videos for now.
 

Since you will only be downloading and streaming movies, you won't be doing anything cpu intensive, so try something like 3-4 and then check the temps. If they are above 45C while idle then you will have a problem and switch back to 5. Another option could be switching all the fans in the case to something like an antec truequiet fan to reduce OR try soundproofing your case with some sound proof foam.......