Noisy Dell: CPU fan, Seagate 7200.10

lowtek · Post by **lowtek** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 9:47 pm

I just got a Dell Inspiron 530 which is fairly silent except for two parts:

CPU fan
The motor on the 80mm or 92mm CPU fan makes a fast mechanical sound, even though it's only running at 1500 RPM. It's blowing air directly onto the aluminum heatsink. I tried disconnecting this fan entirely, and that caused temps to go up, causing the rear case fan to increase RPMs (and thus noise).

Suggestions? Is there a quieter replacement fan I can just drop in? Or maybe buy a known-quiet fan, and zip-tie the bastard in? The fan has a 4-pin connector, presumably for PWM.
Seagate 7200.10 SATA ST3250820AS
At idle, this makes a metallic sound like drives used to make 10 years ago. Seeks are loud, too.

Suggestions? Perhaps a 7200.11 or a WD? I've read a variety of suggestions, but there doesn't seem to be consensus (i.e. it seems like there is no quality control wrt noise). My 120GB/160GB PATA WDs were never this noisy.

Thanks,

LowTek

sgtsmith · Post by **sgtsmith** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 1:16 am

Here's a 92mm PWM fan from Scythe. It shouldn't be too noisy if it doesn't ramp up too much.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835185048 As for the drives, my WD has proven i ... rly quiet.

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 4:09 am

Have you tried using SpeedFan to reduce the CPU fan speed further? No fan is going to be inaudible until you get below 1000 RPM. Is the motherboard an ATX layout or a BTX layout? If it is ATX, do you have room to put in a bigger heatsink?

I think WD are generally quieter than Seagate, but Samsung seems to be 3.5" champ these days.