H100 fan noise: Is there a quieter way to overclock?

[puppydust]

Hi everyone. I'm running a system that I had built for me about 4 years ago, 3930K overclocked to 4.2 GHz and cooled with a Corsair H100. I'm using a Silverstone TJ09S case.

Performance wise it's been serving me well, however I find the fans super noisy and whenever I start it up it sounds like a jet engine taking off! I've isolated the source of the noise to the H100's fans.

I'm not very in touch with these things, but some research makes me think the H100 is a fairly common model and considered reliable. Is there a quieter solution to maintaining an overclocked system that a similarly priced model would offer, or is it always going to be necessary to have very powerful fans to cool the liquid in the cooler?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

liquid coolers can be very differnt.
the Corsair's (as well as NZXT, TT and many others CLC AiO) is on the low end.
it has very weak pump to move the liquid and radiator mostly made of aluminum. to compensate the thickness (those rads are usually thin) and aluminum, they have a very high FPI (fins density on rad) that requires a lot of airflow at high static pressure and that results in noise.
In addition to the above, corsair's H series coolers are equipped with mediocre fans.
If you take for example Swiftech's H220 X2 AiO - it will do much better cooling at much lower noise in the same price range.
And there is a custom loop option that is completelly tailored to your needs.
For example, fans in my liquid loop are idling at 400RPM and at 800-900 while gaming - it is not audible. under extreme load they allowed to go up to 1200-1300RPM. still very quiet.

 

[The_Staplergun]

So another way to do it while still keeping your cooler is just replace the stock fans with quieter fans. It will still work. Some fans may actually increase performance.

It's what I did with my h115i.

 

[puppydust]

n0ns3ns3 - thanks, had a look at the Swiftech and that looks promising

Staplergun - I considered this but the build company told me it could mess with the overclock (but I reckon they are just not down with messing with the stock parts as it voids the warranty etc.) can I just put any similarly sized fan in? If you know of a decent model let me know

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Good fans can be Noctua NF-F, but they are expensive. it will cost 30-50$ for a pair depending on the model. but nothing that i'm aware of can beat them in noise to performance.

 

[The_Staplergun]

Yes just get the same sized fans. They're telling you that because they have some train of thought otherwise. Most people actually do replace the stock fans if they're crap. The cooling system works, but I wanted LED fans on mine so I replaced them. Just do it after the fact.

The stock fans have to be manually installed the same way you'd install a different fan. There should be zero voiding of the warranty unless you just do something stupid like take the system apart (the clc) or just don't install any fans.

 

[puppydust]

They don't seem too expensive to me, at least if they reduce noise they're worth it!

Thanks both for the helpful advice

 

[n0ns3ns3]

well, considering that H220 X2 is about 120-130$ and comes with decent fans and much better performance, spending 50$ on just fans is not really good idea in my book.

 

[The_Staplergun]

The problem at hand is he already has it and wants help reducing its sound, not suggestions for another cooler.