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Does system fan noise drive you up the Fckin' wall?

Foliorum Viridum said:
The only downside to PC gaming is the volume of my CPU and GPU fans.

They get loud when turned on. Makes my 360 seem silent.
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You can go with a quieter/silent build if it's that much of an issue. Usually requires the right case, more expensive HSFs and case fans, etc. though.
 
I feel like im the only one that likes my pc to be loud. it lets me know comp is working sexy :P

Never have an issue with fan noise with consoles though. Probably because im used to the fan noise from my PC
 
Turning on the 360 the first time was one of my most horrible experiences ever. I think that was the moment where I stopped sypmathizing with Microsoft. From todays standpoint I should have just sold it that very moment. There were no words for it how loud the disc drive got. I heard beforehand that it was loud but this thing was...I don't know. I kept it because I wanted to play games. I build some sort of encasing so that the noise gets a bit better but it didn't help much. Microsoft really is a joke company for me for throwing such a bad product on the market. I was never really able to get into 360 gaming because of that (and the controller and the ugly dashboard).
 
No, hardly bothers me at all. My PC is really quiet, even when at max load. As for consoles, the Wii is the only one I actually notice, because it sounds like a fucking printer.
 
usually when the ps3 fan is going at full speed, death is imminent.....so my mgs4 80 bc died, had it repaired, but the fan mod they put in made it like the fan was on lvl 100 all the time now. knowing that this ps3 would die soon, i bought a slim..

The new slim is so dam silent, HOWEVER, theres a slight irritating noise that bothers the hell outta me sometimes. Theres a clicking noise that happens, like maybe 2 or 3 times the whole day if i have long ass gaming sessions. i wonder thats a sign of death also....
 
Both of the case fans on my computer are broken (one blade on each. One was already broken, and the other was broken while I was building it). I have two year books, an eight lb hand weight, and this big guitar effects box stacked on top of it to keep it from shaking constantly. Almost no noise now.
 
My 6950s without a fan profile were pretty loud. Discovered MSI Afterburner and let my cards sit at 80c under load and I can't hear anything over the games themselves.
 
My 2007 Xbox 360 Elite is rather noisy, yes. I'd crack the thing open and replace its fans with better, quieter ones were it not for my warranty and the non-trivial chance of it RRODing again.
 
You are not Alone. I drilled a hole through the wall right behind my tv, connected the ps3 in the other room and now I can game and watch movies in near silence. Changing discs is a pain in the ass but it's so worth it.
God bless wireless controllers.

Edit:
I also hate the sound of my iMac. I bought a new table because of this and put some shit underneath the iMac because the noise created by vibrations was so annoying.

I put some Damping material behind my tv because the hum of the ac-unit was so annoying.

All I hear when im at a friends house are annoying sounds from various devices. Lol.
 
sankt-Antonio said:
You are not Alone. I drilled a hole through the wall right behind my tv, connected the ps3 in the other room and now I can game and watch movies in near silence. Changing discs is a pain in the ass but it's so worth it.
God bless wireless controllers.
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God, the slim drive read sound gets pretty bad on some discs. I have it behind my TV on my desk, and it's atrociously loud sometimes.
 
Foliorum Viridum said:
The only downside to PC gaming is the volume of my CPU and GPU fans.

They get loud when turned on. Makes my 360 seem silent.
Click to expand...

I have 480s in sli and they're supposed to be pretty loud but I barely hear them, could be the case. The real problem for me used to be my CPU fans, those things made a ton of noise, but a fan controller solved that issue pretty easily.

Edit: And as mentioned, with Afterburner you can tweak your GPU fan speeds, so that shouldn't be an issue.
 
In my case the Wii has horrible drive noise. Never had a system with a loud fan yet. Even my old fat PS3 just has a mild chuk-chuk noise from the drive when reading discs.
 
Tambini said:
I game with headphones so its a little jarring to take them off after a session and hear my cpu/gpu fans, which do get pretty loud.

They quiet after a bit, i usually just play music until they shut up


edit: oh yeah, my PS3 slim buzzes. Drives me crazy. If you lift it up, it stops, so sometimes I put something small under it to lift it
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Really? I thought I was the only one that worry about fan noise.

PS3 Fat: silent until YLOD
PS3 slim 320GB: noisy cpu fan, louder than PS3 Fat. I returned the first one and the replacent has the same buzz noise.
Wii: noisy
iMac: after being mad for the PS3 I sent the iMac to a laboratory to check the fans.
DS: perfect!!!

I use headphones, but when I watch movies I don't use them and the buzz is annoying.
 
My PS3 Phat is loud all the time, so I hardly turn it on and buy all multi plats on the 360 because of that. I install all games and it's very quiet. And it's not a slim either, cause all the slim consoles are ugly.
 
SLI GTX 580s here.

On max settings on some games it looks flippin' amazing but without headphones it'd be like playing while sitting on an active airport tarmac.

Still, wouldn't change it for the world. Simply stunning and with headphones the noise is not a factor at all.

The heat, however...
 
I remember when I had my first Xbox 360, it used to make so much noise when it plays a disc after a few months...

Like that sound like you think your disc is going to get scratched up... -_-

The slim Xbox 360, no problems. But the heat... that's another story.
 
It does bother me. I went out of my way to get noise reducing parts when building my computer (nicer case, huge heatsink, etc), and it was totally worth it. PC idle noise is now quieter than an open window, and I love it.

The GPU does get a little loud when gaming, but then the sound is drowned out by in-game sound, so that's not really an issue.

I still don't sleep with my computer on, though. Quiet or not, it's still not silent.
 
The noise my PS3 slim kicks out is pretty bad, it makes a loud buzzing whether reading a disc or just on the XMB. I exchanged them a couple of times but they were just as bad as each other and just kept the most recent one. Have learned to not pay too much attention to it until someone else comments on the racket it kicks out. Still nowhere as bad as the old 360 I had, sounded like a tractor at times.
 
HyperMusic said:
The noise my PS3 slim kicks out is pretty bad, it makes a loud buzzing whether reading a disc or just on the XMB. I exchanged them a couple of times but they were just as bad as each other and just kept the most recent one. Have learned to not pay too much attention to it until someone else comments on the racket it kicks out. Still nowhere as bad as the old 360 I had, sounded like a tractor at times.
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this, i just noticed to this moment when playing Saints Row 3, this is the newer slim too, the holiday bundle one, never did this with my old slim 0_o


and i hate fan noise when i'm trying to play quiet haha, fan noise louder then the game
 
60GB EU launch PS3 - AKA the hoover

The fan noise doesn't bother me that much when I play games, but boy does it piss me off when I'm watching movies. I mostly watch horror movies, and the noise tends to ruin the atmosphere when everything should be dead quiet.

This is the sole reason I might skip on buying a launch unit the next time.
 
Most audio in Xbox360 are insanely loud but if playing off a disc you can still here that thing spining but mines a Falcon not as loud as launch units. Most the audio in most games is very loud anyways.
 
My launch PS3 sounds like it's about to blast off every time I leave it on for 5 minutes. When playing though I don't hear it. My PC also sounds like a jet engine but I'm wearing headphones so I don't hear it.
 
friskykillface said:
this, i just noticed to this moment when playing Saints Row 3, this is the newer slim too, the holiday bundle one, never did this with my old slim 0_o


and i hate fan noise when i'm trying to play quiet haha, fan noise louder then the game
Click to expand...

In the latest slims they lightened them by removing some metal plates, perhaps it also affected the console's stability and vibration dampening.
 
Yeah, it absolutely does. My Xbox 360, which functions primarily as a media centre extender, makes a ton of noise these days. Computer wasn't too bad until today. Something has started making an incredibly annoying high-pitched noise. I think it's my power supply, but I'm not entirely sure. Hope nothing breaks, want the PC to last at least another 8 months or so. (3.5 years old now)
 
Yes it bothers me considerably, I have spent hundreds over the years trying to get my PC to an acceptable pitch, I hate anything that has a 'whining' sound, currently my PC is quite audible but it's the sound of air and fan blades rather than whining motor's which is fine with me, that type of noise I can cope with.

With regards to the consoles the noise alone was one of the main reasons that kept my from enjoying my 360 initially, the optical drives were noisy, the rear fans on the system were noisy, and then on top of that the actual PSU's were noisy, even though at the time I preferred gaming on the 360 once the PS3 was out I decided to invest my time with that console instead purely because it was considerably quieter, it wasn't until the 360 Slim was released that I started enjoying playing on 360 again but that being said my PSU isn't exactly quiet even on the slim, I can hear it even though it's behind the TV but it is a lot better.

I'd say at the moment my PS3 slim and 360 slim are about equal in terms of fan noise although if they could make an fanless PSU for the 360 slim it would be practically inaudible, I used to run my old 360 Elite with the fan ripped out of the PSU, never skipped a beat, temped to rip the one out of the Slim's PSU or mod it with a 60mm running @ 5v.
 
Not on my PC, since i use quality cooling.

My PS3 Slim is silent enough to not bother me.

Xbox 360 though, DAMN I hate it. (Old LAUNCH premium model).
 
Foliorum Viridum said:
The only downside to PC gaming is the volume of my CPU and GPU fans.
Click to expand...

I should have added this to my original post but wanted to share with you exactly what i used as I can understand how horrible cpu/gpu noise can be. For a while I just stopped using my computer until all my fans and coolers arrived it was so horrible.


Here is what I used to fix the problem.


Hyper 212 CPU cooler
img_0001.JPG
35-103-065-TS



But I removed the fan it came with and installed two of these:Antec TriCool 120mm Blue LED Cooling Fan
35-209-011-02.jpg


Then I removed all the case fans and installed Antec TrueQuiet 120mm Fans (silicone grommets and Tool-less mounting screws)
ANTTRUEQUIET12.PNG


I have a rosewill destroyer case, I can slap one of these badboys on the side of the case and still hear no noise out of them.

Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro Cooler took care of my vga noise problem

Running demanding games can still get a little loud but nothing like it was before.


I have all the fans running on low to med speed and my temps are very good.
 
Kabouter said:
Something has started making an incredibly annoying high-pitched noise. I think it's my power supply, but I'm not entirely sure. Hope nothing breaks, want the PC to last at least another 8 months or so. (3.5 years old now)
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If you feel comfortable, you can stop fans with a q-tip or something for a split second and see if the noise persists. I had to do that recently to figure out which component was getting loud. I thought it was my GPU all along since 4850s are known to be loud. But when I stopped its fan, the sound continued. It wasn't my CPU fan either. So, that left my PSU.
 
Why dont they ever pick this up during the development of the consoles?

Surely when testing they must notice the loud ass fans in the 360 spinning.

Do they just dont care its noisy as long as it cools the machine?
 
My PS3 slim's fan is a slight annoyance, but it's the blu-ray drive that's loud as fuck, especially with certain games. I actually gave up on Tools of Destruction because every time I loaded a level it would make loud mechanical noises for 5 minutes straight. It's even worse at night when there's not much ambient noise in my apartment. Almost wish I had gotten a phat, because my friend's 80 gig is pretty tame in comparison.

TheVampire said:
Why dont they ever pick this up during the development of the consoles?

Surely when testing they must notice the loud ass fans in the 360 spinning.

Do they just dont care its noisy as long as it cools the machine?
Click to expand...
$$$

Especially as they make new cheaper models for the mass market. Slim PS2s and PS3s both have loud grating disc drives. The inability to install games on PS3 is such a waste of their current storage capacity, and given Sony's boner for constant firmware updates I'm not all that eager to risk bricking my console by using homebrew to aid the process.
 
Doesn't bother me. I don't even hear it now on my fat PS3 unless a loading screen pops up, otherwise I'm deep in the moment of the game.
 
The 360 before you could install games was unbearable (dvd drive noise not fan). The only way I could enjoy the games was with headphones. Of course they resolved that issue. The actual fan noise from the 360 wasn't too bad, and the PS3 was even more quiet. My PC however has some loud fans on both the CPU and GPU. If i'm playing a game that stresses the system and revs up the fans, headphones are a must.
 
silentpcreview is your friend. or just do what I do and run the cables for the PC through the wall. no can do on a laptop obviously unless you have an external monitor
 
Any recommendation to control the GPU fan speeds for a G73JW Asus Notebook?
Nvidia performance panel is locked out of fan control, presumably by the Bios or somethin'

Any overriding software out there?

I know it's not safe but wanna try it anyway to see if it mitigates some of the noise. Basically my notebook is our HTPC and as stated eariler, playing most modern games make the GPU 460m fan screaaam.
 
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