Again, I chose my new components with low noise in mind, and re-used my Fractal Design R5 case with its stock fans, as I've always been happy with it. Like with my Skylake build I rely on Asus FanXpert to control the 2 case fans and CPU fan based on the CPU temperature. Because the Scythe Mugen Max (140mm fan) has become a bit dated and doesn't support the AM4 socket, I went for the Scythe Mugen 5 PCGH Edition, which should be quite silent according to several reviews although it has 2 120mm fans.
Performance wise I'm very happy with my new build. Acoustically however... it's a step back from what I've grown accustomed to for the past 4 years.
At idle it's still OK, but because a Zen 2 processor auto-overclocks, I do hear the fans spinning up for a short while even at light loads like webbrowsing. It's not extremely load of course, but once you're used to hardly ever noticing fan noise, it does get noticeable quite quickly again.
I'm looking for a bit of guidance how to improve things, while not sacrificing CPU performance by turning off the PBO feature.
I'm thinking there may be ways to better set the FanXpert profiles, using better thermal paste (my tube of Arctic Silver 5 is already a couple of years old), replacing the Fractal Design case fans with something quieter, perhaps replace the heatsink with something even quieter.
I haven't looked at new case fans yet, as the official specs can't be trusted anyway. And unfortunately SPCR hasn't done any reviews the past few years anymore. Luckily there's still this forum for some good hands-on user experience.
So let's have it
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
edit, I see I should update my signature. It still has the specs from my Haswell build. My previous Skylake build is listed here. And my Ryzen 3600 build is listed here (sorry, Dutch site).