How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

All about them.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
silenceorgtfo
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:39 pm
Location: Spain, Europe

How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by silenceorgtfo » Mon Jan 13, 2020 7:19 pm

I was told the new x570 line has annoying fans that make noise and it just adds an additional potential point of failure. How bad is it? I was considering buying the Aorus Elite x570 and finally upgrade from my old ass q6600 but right now im not sure if I should wait until next october for the new generation of Ryzens and (hopefully) the new mobos don't need active cooling, or the noise will not be noticeable? I will be using a Fraktal define r6. Im just going nuts working with this old computer, I cant believe ive resisted this long to update, but now those fans on motherboards are making me having doubts.

edh
Posts: 1621
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:49 pm
Location: UK

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by edh » Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:54 pm

Oh how history repeats itself.

In about 2002, computers were loud, covered with blue LED's and energy saving was considered witchcraft Mention the idea of slowing fans down for quietness and you would be burnt at the stake. ALL of the high end motherboards had fans on the northbridges. They were awful.

They were loud out of the box and louder still after a years worth of dust had clogged them up as they were rarely good fans and ran at 9000000rpm all of the time. Plus they were bizarre non-standard fan sizes that couldn't be replaced directly so you would end up buying a replacement passive cooler anyway, for example the Zalman ZM-NBF47. That kind of bigger heatsink then became the norm.

Possibly the fans now will be better, but there is no reason to assume that they will be in any way set up for quietness. We buy fans and heatsinks specifically for quietness in the way that the typical user won't. This onboard fan is likely to be setup for a less silence biased user. Combine this with a poorly thought out LED festooned gaming 'enthusiasts' case with a pretty loud fan setup and the extra noise probably won't be noticed. Put it in a system running 300rpm fans and you will notice it. In such an instance you will want to work out some kind of aftermarket or homemade replacement which may be easier said than done. How handy are you with an HSS drill bit and a tap set?

In terms of silence this is a massive retrograde step and should be avoided.

silenceorgtfo
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:39 pm
Location: Spain, Europe

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by silenceorgtfo » Tue Jan 14, 2020 1:51 pm

edh wrote:
Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:54 pm
Oh how history repeats itself.

In about 2002, computers were loud, covered with blue LED's and energy saving was considered witchcraft Mention the idea of slowing fans down for quietness and you would be burnt at the stake. ALL of the high end motherboards had fans on the northbridges. They were awful.

They were loud out of the box and louder still after a years worth of dust had clogged them up as they were rarely good fans and ran at 9000000rpm all of the time. Plus they were bizarre non-standard fan sizes that couldn't be replaced directly so you would end up buying a replacement passive cooler anyway, for example the Zalman ZM-NBF47. That kind of bigger heatsink then became the norm.

Possibly the fans now will be better, but there is no reason to assume that they will be in any way set up for quietness. We buy fans and heatsinks specifically for quietness in the way that the typical user won't. This onboard fan is likely to be setup for a less silence biased user. Combine this with a poorly thought out LED festooned gaming 'enthusiasts' case with a pretty loud fan setup and the extra noise probably won't be noticed. Put it in a system running 300rpm fans and you will notice it. In such an instance you will want to work out some kind of aftermarket or homemade replacement which may be easier said than done. How handy are you with an HSS drill bit and a tap set?

In terms of silence this is a massive retrograde step and should be avoided.
I can't do any DYI and dont want to end warranty so that is out of the question.

I wonder if someone here has that mobo or similar, can you comment on how audible that fan is?

Theres no guarantee if I spend 8 more months of pain working with this old ass computer, the next gen will not have active cooling.

Also chances the new built will be way more silent that my current PC. But yeah... what can you do?

SometimesWarrior
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 700
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2003 2:38 pm
Location: California, US
Contact:

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by SometimesWarrior » Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:01 pm

x470 and b450 motherboards work great with the newest Ryzen processors, are fanless, and are less expensive than x570. I have an ASRock Taichi x470 and Ryzen 3600, but you could probably use a b450 board that's half or a third of the price. Just make sure it's "Ryzen 3000 ready" or compatible with "Matisse" (code name for the Ryzen 3xxx).

Even an entry-level Ryzen 3xxx will be more than twice as fast as the processor you're using now. Next year's Ryzens may be a notch faster, but insignificant compared to the jump you could make today with an upgrade.

This is also a good time to upgrade because RAM is so cheap: I think it was twice as expensive just a couple years ago, and who knows if it'll go up again by the end of the year.

silenceorgtfo
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:39 pm
Location: Spain, Europe

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by silenceorgtfo » Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:32 pm

SometimesWarrior wrote:
Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:01 pm
x470 and b450 motherboards work great with the newest Ryzen processors, are fanless, and are less expensive than x570. I have an ASRock Taichi x470 and Ryzen 3600, but you could probably use a b450 board that's half or a third of the price. Just make sure it's "Ryzen 3000 ready" or compatible with "Matisse" (code name for the Ryzen 3xxx).

Even an entry-level Ryzen 3xxx will be more than twice as fast as the processor you're using now. Next year's Ryzens may be a notch faster, but insignificant compared to the jump you could make today with an upgrade.

This is also a good time to upgrade because RAM is so cheap: I think it was twice as expensive just a couple years ago, and who knows if it'll go up again by the end of the year.
I would make great use of the extra cores. I dont really feel confident buying an older board. No one here owns a x570? I was told this:
The chipset fans on my Asus WS-X570 and Zenith II Extreme boards hardly ever spin. When they do, I can't say I notice except when the case is open and I am literally inches away.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by Abula » Tue Jan 14, 2020 10:15 pm

silenceorgtfo wrote:
Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:32 pm
I would make great use of the extra cores. I dont really feel confident buying an older board.
Then go with GIGABYTE X570 AORUS XTREME AMD Ryzen 3000 PCIe 4.0 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.2 AMD X570 E-ATX Motherboard, the only fanless X570 (besides the AsRock aqua) or wait for B550.

silenceorgtfo
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:39 pm
Location: Spain, Europe

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by silenceorgtfo » Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:43 am

Abula wrote:
Tue Jan 14, 2020 10:15 pm
silenceorgtfo wrote:
Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:32 pm
I would make great use of the extra cores. I dont really feel confident buying an older board.
Then go with GIGABYTE X570 AORUS XTREME AMD Ryzen 3000 PCIe 4.0 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.2 AMD X570 E-ATX Motherboard, the only fanless X570 (besides the AsRock aqua) or wait for B550.


Are you fucking kidding me man? 700 for a MOBO? whats the point? Why does this one not have fans but the rest have? I also hate that it has wifi.

I've just been told it's not even noticeable, but yeah, im not too happy about a moving part. Do the at least sell official replacements in case the fan dies?

Also the B550 are suppose to be cheaper, so you would be risking it with shittier components anyway.

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Jan 15, 2020 11:25 am

570 boards have a fan just to support the power cost of PCIe 4. If you don't think you need PCIe 4 (ie: to support a high end GPU in maybe 2023 where it might make use of the extra bandwidth, or have applications that can make use of SSDs that don't exist yet), then don't go with a 570 board (saving money and worry over a chipset fan).

silenceorgtfo
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:39 pm
Location: Spain, Europe

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by silenceorgtfo » Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:31 pm

CA_Steve wrote:
Wed Jan 15, 2020 11:25 am
570 boards have a fan just to support the power cost of PCIe 4. If you don't think you need PCIe 4 (ie: to support a high end GPU in maybe 2023 where it might make use of the extra bandwidth, or have applications that can make use of SSDs that don't exist yet), then don't go with a 570 board (saving money and worry over a chipset fan).
Well, thing is, I do plan on stretching this investment into another good 10 years. Since im into VR, I may need a next GPU for the next gen VR headsets, and I doubt the CPU being 3950x will be a bottleneck, so yeah, makes sense to me to buy x570, I just want to make sure the fan isnt shit.

SometimesWarrior
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 700
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2003 2:38 pm
Location: California, US
Contact:

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by SometimesWarrior » Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:02 pm

I think you're right that x470 doesn't suit your needs after all. High-end x470 mobos have overbuilt power stages, so they would have no trouble powering a 3950x. But their BIOS updates are behind schedule compared to x570, so for example AMD's firmware that improves CPU clocks by 50-100MHz is months old but still not available for my x470 Taichi. PCI-E 4.0 doesn't affect GPU performance today, but it probably will matter a bit in 5 years (for comparison, a 2080 Ti takes a 3% hit when dropping from PCI-E 3.0 to 2.0)

Unfortunately, B550 are not confirmed to have PCI-E 4.0 support, and either way aren't expected on the market for several months.

An encouraging discussion on Reddit: mobo makers have recently updated their x570 firmwares to provide some control over the PCH fan profile, and users report that the fans never turn on anymore.

silenceorgtfo
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:39 pm
Location: Spain, Europe

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by silenceorgtfo » Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:13 am

SometimesWarrior wrote:
Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:02 pm
I think you're right that x470 doesn't suit your needs after all. High-end x470 mobos have overbuilt power stages, so they would have no trouble powering a 3950x. But their BIOS updates are behind schedule compared to x570, so for example AMD's firmware that improves CPU clocks by 50-100MHz is months old but still not available for my x470 Taichi. PCI-E 4.0 doesn't affect GPU performance today, but it probably will matter a bit in 5 years (for comparison, a 2080 Ti takes a 3% hit when dropping from PCI-E 3.0 to 2.0)

Unfortunately, B550 are not confirmed to have PCI-E 4.0 support, and either way aren't expected on the market for several months.

An encouraging discussion on Reddit: mobo makers have recently updated their x570 firmwares to provide some control over the PCH fan profile, and users report that the fans never turn on anymore.
From what i've read, MSI and GB fans are on idle unless needed. And when they do turn on, it's not even audible. Also modern cases have filters, my fraktal r4 barely gets any dust on it. So it shouldn't be a problem to last 10 years.. I've had older shittier computers full of dust that i had to manually clean all the time and they lasted a lot.

Worst case scenario, I can always buy a x670 if the mobo is shit and keep the rest.

I just don't see myself being tortured with having to work on 3d animation and music with a computer that was released in 2007. I've stretched it as much as I could. I also don't see the Noctua DH15 being too noisy unless im playing modern games + recording. So I think it's time for an update and hope for the best.

teodoro
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:40 pm

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by teodoro » Tue Jan 21, 2020 3:49 pm

silenceorgtfo wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:13 am
Worst case scenario, I can always buy a x670 if the mobo is shit and keep the rest.
if you're fine with this and don't have a need for pcie 4.0 (super fast storage) right now, you might be better off with a guaranteed quiet b450/x470 and the money saved can go to a x670/whatever if there are features you want in the future.

silenceorgtfo
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:39 pm
Location: Spain, Europe

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by silenceorgtfo » Sat Jan 25, 2020 2:57 pm

teodoro wrote:
Tue Jan 21, 2020 3:49 pm
silenceorgtfo wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:13 am
Worst case scenario, I can always buy a x670 if the mobo is shit and keep the rest.
if you're fine with this and don't have a need for pcie 4.0 (super fast storage) right now, you might be better off with a guaranteed quiet b450/x470 and the money saved can go to a x670/whatever if there are features you want in the future.
After a lot of reading, the fan on the mobo is not even audible, and MSI and GB have 0 rpm profiles and it only moves when needed. Honestly this is probably good ole paranoia. I've had fans for decades that never broke so im not concerned about that either. The extra features of the x570 will be useful in 5 years when VR finally stops sucking and I buy a GPU (I always do an intermediate upgrade after 5 years of buying a full build, then after another 5 years of that, another full build). I doubt the 3950x will be a bottleneck, only the GPU in 5 years like I said. So yeah, long term x570 makes sense. Also no guarantee that the x670 mobos will come with no fans anyway.

edh
Posts: 1621
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:49 pm
Location: UK

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by edh » Mon Jan 27, 2020 2:12 pm

Buy components for now. 'Future proofing' never works out the way you expect as you can't predict what your future needs will be and computer hardware will only get cheaper in time.

Olle P
Posts: 711
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:03 am
Location: Sweden

Re: How annoying are the fans on the new mobos?

Post by Olle P » Fri Jan 31, 2020 6:56 am

silenceorgtfo wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:13 am
From what i've read, MSI and GB fans are on idle unless needed. ...
I can confirm this. "Needed" is if you either have two PCIe 4 NVMe SSDs in SATA 0 and shift loads of data or if your computer case is really hot inside.
The chipset on my MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus stay well below 40C with the fan off.

Post Reply