Dimension 8400 CPU Fan

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 03:37:17 +0100, Michael Keeshan wrote in
<news:2s3u6qF1h5ng9U1@uni-berlin.de>:

> Recently, I bought a Dell Dimension 8400 (3GHz, Radeon X300SE Video) because
> I heard that it was quiet. However, I find the noise of the CPU fan
> annoying. It always runs at the same speed, though the speed varies up and
> down slightly and that irritates me even more..

The hotter your CPU is, the faster the fan spins. As it cools it down
some, the fan slows down a bit.

> The overall speed of the fan does not seem to change between idle and max
> CPU usage. I tried a burner program to max out the CPU to test this and it
> made no difference.

A burner program? Like a CD/DVD burner? I don't see that putting a whole
lot of strain on your CPU. Try something like Seti@Home or any of the
distributed computing projects out there. *That* will put a load on the
CPU.

> Before I bought this computer, I was under the impression that the fan was
> fairly quiet when the system was idle, and only became louder for heavy CPU
> activities such as gaming.
>
> Does anyone else have a Dimension 8400? I just want to know if the 'fixed'
> fan speed is by design, or is it a fault?

What is quiet to me might not be quiet to you. My old desktop was a
home-built MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU motherboard with an AMD Athlon XP 2100+ CPU @
1.73GHz. *That* machine was loud. So loud I could hear it in the next
room. By comparison, my 8400 is quiet. If I have the TV on in here I can
barely hear it.

Unless you modify your 8400 to use water cooling, there isn't a whole lot
you can do about the noise. It's just one of those things we have to deal
with these days with the higher powered CPU's.

Dave
--
You can talk about us, but you can't talk without us!
US Army Signal Corps!!

http://www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

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Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I have an 8400 (3GHz, Radeon X800SE Video) and it is very quiet, even when
playing Doom 3. My fan speed does vary some but it is never very loud.

"Michael Keeshan" <mk@spamdump.com> wrote in message
news:2s3u6qF1h5ng9U1@uni-berlin.de...
> Recently, I bought a Dell Dimension 8400 (3GHz, Radeon X300SE Video)
> because
> I heard that it was quiet. However, I find the noise of the CPU fan
> annoying. It always runs at the same speed, though the speed varies up
> and
> down slightly and that irritates me even more..
>
> The overall speed of the fan does not seem to change between idle and max
> CPU usage. I tried a burner program to max out the CPU to test this and
> it
> made no difference.
>
> Before I bought this computer, I was under the impression that the fan was
> fairly quiet when the system was idle, and only became louder for heavy
> CPU
> activities such as gaming.
>
> Does anyone else have a Dimension 8400? I just want to know if the
> 'fixed'
> fan speed is by design, or is it a fault?
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

My new 8400 isn't bad for noise. no worse than my old XPS.

On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 03:37:17 +0100, "Michael Keeshan" <mk@spamdump.com>
wrote:

>
>Does anyone else have a Dimension 8400? I just want to know if the 'fixed'
>fan speed is by design, or is it a fault?
>

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

David Casey wrote:

> The hotter your CPU is, the faster the fan spins. As it cools it down
> some, the fan slows down a bit.

One thing I am not clear about. Is the fan speed controlled by the
temperature of the CPU or the amount of Watts used by the processor at any
particular moment? For instance, my laptop fan only cuts in if the power
level of the CPU goes up. It doesn't wait for the CPU to heat up.

> A burner program? Like a CD/DVD burner? I don't see that putting a
> whole lot of strain on your CPU. Try something like Seti@Home or any
> of the distributed computing projects out there. *That* will put a
> load on the CPU.

Perhaps, I wasn't too clear. The 'burner' program I was referring to is of
the type used by overclockers to test cooling systems. As you know, these
sort of programs drive the CPU to it's maximum power usage.

> What is quiet to me might not be quiet to you. My old desktop was a
> home-built MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU motherboard with an AMD Athlon XP 2100+
> CPU @ 1.73GHz. *That* machine was loud. So loud I could hear it in the
next
> room. By comparison, my 8400 is quiet. If I have the TV on in here
> I can barely hear it.

That is true. My idea of a 'quiet' computer is one you can barely hear in
the dead of night if you hold your breath. My ears are that sensitive.

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

WSZsr wrote:
> I have an 8400 (3GHz, Radeon X800SE Video) and it is very quiet, even
> when playing Doom 3. My fan speed does vary some but it is never
> very loud.

I opted for the lower performance X300SE because it doesn't have a fan and
I'm not too much into games. I suppose one's idea of a 'quiet' PC can be
very subjective.

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

RonJ wrote:
> My new 8400 isn't bad for noise. no worse than my old XPS.

The computer was comparing the 8400 with was a Sony Vaio laptop, which was
dead quiet. I even changed the laptop's hard drive for one with fluid
bearings. Now it is virtually silent.

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"David Casey" <sgtcasey@IH8SPAMcableone.net> wrote in message
news:1e33aloxwdhgc$.dlg@sgtcaseycableone.net...
> On Sat, 2 Oct 2004 06:27:17 +0100, Michael Keeshan wrote in
> <news:2s6stuF19m66sU1@uni-berlin.de>:
>
>>> The hotter your CPU is, the faster the fan spins. As it cools it down
>>> some, the fan slows down a bit.
>>
>> One thing I am not clear about. Is the fan speed controlled by the
>> temperature of the CPU or the amount of Watts used by the processor at
>> any
>> particular moment? For instance, my laptop fan only cuts in if the power
>> level of the CPU goes up. It doesn't wait for the CPU to heat up.
>
> I'm not sure how the Dell system determines the fan speed. My other
> desktop computer (a home-built system) has a fan with a sensor on it. As
> the temperature around the fan gets higher the fan spins faster.
>
>>> A burner program? Like a CD/DVD burner? I don't see that putting a
>>> whole lot of strain on your CPU. Try something like Seti@Home or any
>>> of the distributed computing projects out there. *That* will put a
>>> load on the CPU.
>>
>> Perhaps, I wasn't too clear. The 'burner' program I was referring to is
>> of
>> the type used by overclockers to test cooling systems. As you know,
>> these
>> sort of programs drive the CPU to it's maximum power usage.
>
> Ah, okay. You say burner program I think CD/DVD burning program like
> Nero.
>
>>> What is quiet to me might not be quiet to you. My old desktop was a
>>> home-built MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU motherboard with an AMD Athlon XP 2100+
>>> CPU @ 1.73GHz. *That* machine was loud. So loud I could hear it in
>>> the next room. By comparison, my 8400 is quiet. If I have the TV on
>>> in here I can barely hear it.
>>
>> That is true. My idea of a 'quiet' computer is one you can barely hear
>> in
>> the dead of night if you hold your breath. My ears are that sensitive.
>
> I would turn your TV a bit louder then. ;-)
>
Might I suggest, if silence is a necessity, that rather than opt for the
DELL Dimension 8400, which I must say, subjectively runs pretyy quiet, you
consider a fanless system. There are other ways to cool processors, Peltier
pumps, heat pumps, water cooling, or if you really want to be radical, move
over to different technology, see http://www.iyonix.com admittedly this is a
very radical change and will mean learning to use a totally new operating
system. But, it is silent, and remarkably fast for all its 600 MHz Intel
XScale processor.
The only downside, is cost. But do bear in mind that the cheapest version,
although under specced from a Windows users point of view, will be more than
capable of running most available software in an effortless fashion.

73 de John

--
eMail1 : john@jcmcc1srp.freeserve.co.uk
eMail2 : john_c_mcculloch@hotmail.com
Comp1: DELL 8400 Windows XP/RISC OS
Comp2: Acorn RiscPC RISC OS

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Mr John C McCulloch wrote:
> Might I suggest, if silence is a necessity, that rather than opt for
> the DELL Dimension 8400, which I must say, subjectively runs pretyy
> quiet, you consider a fanless system. There are other ways to cool
> processors, Peltier pumps, heat pumps, water cooling, or if you
> really want to be radical, move over to different technology, see
> http://www.iyonix.com admittedly this is a very radical change and
> will mean learning to use a totally new operating system. But, it is
> silent, and remarkably fast for all its 600 MHz Intel XScale
> processor.
> The only downside, is cost. But do bear in mind that the cheapest
> version, although under specced from a Windows users point of view,
> will be more than capable of running most available software in an
> effortless fashion.

I've already bought a new Dimension 8400 so changing my PC is out of the
question. As for changing the OS, most of the apps I use and am famiilar
with are for Windows. OK, I know that devotees for Linux and other OS's
might not like it, but most of the commonly use apps *are* for Windows.

I suppose the best route to take is to do a bit of serious modding, but this
would probably invalidate my Dell warranty. As for the ultimate in silent
computing, I like Zalman's TNN 500A fanless case. There are no CPU, video
or PSU fans and all the heat is dissipated by passive radiators on the sides
of the case. But the case *is* expensive

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Michael Keeshan" <mk@spamdump.com> wrote in message news:<2s3u6qF1h5ng9U1@uni-berlin.de>...
> Recently, I bought a Dell Dimension 8400 (3GHz, Radeon X300SE Video) because
> I heard that it was quiet. However, I find the noise of the CPU fan
> annoying. It always runs at the same speed, though the speed varies up and
> down slightly and that irritates me even more..
>
> The overall speed of the fan does not seem to change between idle and max
> CPU usage. I tried a burner program to max out the CPU to test this and it
> made no difference.
>
> Before I bought this computer, I was under the impression that the fan was
> fairly quiet when the system was idle, and only became louder for heavy CPU
> activities such as gaming.
>
> Does anyone else have a Dimension 8400? I just want to know if the 'fixed'
> fan speed is by design, or is it a fault?

Hey cool, I´m not alone!
I bought two Dell Dimension 8400, with the same noise level.
They always runs at the same speed too, though the speed varies up and
down slightly.
I got two replacemant Fan´s from Dell, but no change, more badly !!
The first Fan was a Delta Electronic, the second´s a Nidec.
And now I´m waiting for Dell´s recall.

By the way - in my company we always use IBM PC´s , i heard never a
fan noise !

Piet.

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

The Dimension 8400 is not a "corporate" system. It is an enthusiasts
system. State of the art and fast. Not designed for the office. If you
want quiet, get a corporate system like the Optiplex.

"Piet" <prweb@arcor.de> wrote in message
news:888173c8.0410082033.38a4a6c1@posting.google.com...
> "Michael Keeshan" <mk@spamdump.com> wrote in message
> news:<2s3u6qF1h5ng9U1@uni-berlin.de>...
>> Recently, I bought a Dell Dimension 8400 (3GHz, Radeon X300SE Video)
>> because
>> I heard that it was quiet. However, I find the noise of the CPU fan
>> annoying. It always runs at the same speed, though the speed varies up
>> and
>> down slightly and that irritates me even more..
>>
>> The overall speed of the fan does not seem to change between idle and max
>> CPU usage. I tried a burner program to max out the CPU to test this and
>> it
>> made no difference.
>>
>> Before I bought this computer, I was under the impression that the fan
>> was
>> fairly quiet when the system was idle, and only became louder for heavy
>> CPU
>> activities such as gaming.
>>
>> Does anyone else have a Dimension 8400? I just want to know if the
>> 'fixed'
>> fan speed is by design, or is it a fault?
>
> Hey cool, I´m not alone!
> I bought two Dell Dimension 8400, with the same noise level.
> They always runs at the same speed too, though the speed varies up and
> down slightly.
> I got two replacemant Fan´s from Dell, but no change, more badly !!
> The first Fan was a Delta Electronic, the second´s a Nidec.
> And now I´m waiting for Dell´s recall.
>
> By the way - in my company we always use IBM PC´s , i heard never a
> fan noise !
>
> Piet.