Aurora R7, fan noise

Question

Hi, I recently (Aug 2018) bought Alienware Aurora R7 with liquid cooling and 850W PSU and GPU GTX 1080. I have noticed that when I wake the PC, there is a noise (sounds like some fan which is not too loud but distracting) which starts 2/3 minutes after I have woken it up and then fades away after a while (5 to 10 minutes). Sometimes when I accidentally kick the table (while getting up) it starts again and then again fades away (after a while by itself or after I have kicked the table accidentally).  The noise could be from something else and not a fan, I just don't know. Just that it sounds like a fan. Do you think some fan has not been properly installed (like a chassis fan or something like that)? The desktop as such is working like a dream, no problem with any HD videos or programming or web browsing or other apps etc. The temperature sensors and the fan speeds that I see in the panel are as shown below: CPU sensor = 28 C (when I am not doing anything). Around 48 C (when I am running my machine learning Python codes in Spyder environment and simultaneously watching a 4K movie on the side) HDD sensor = 22 C PCI sensor = 24 C GPU sensor #1 = 28 C CPU Fan = 5350 - 5450 RPM Front Fan = 460 RPM Top Fan = 1140 RPM GPU Fan #1 = 27% Please help. Any suggestion as to why this noise and how to fix it. I am a computer novice so taking apart the desktop and doing ninja-like stuff with hardware is going to be difficult :-). Please let me know if I should be urgently fixing the issue or not. Also, I have purchased 'Onsite/In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis, 1 Year' and 'Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Initial Year'. So do you think someone from Dell would be able to come to my residence to have a look at it  and fix it without having me ship over my machine?   Thanks a lot for your time!

22GREEN · Answer

Hi, I would think Dell definitely could send out a tech. I have the a similar system. 1080ti w/8700k and the issue doesn't seem like a major issue with everything else working fine.

Have you spoke to a Dell tech yet? All comments here would just be speculation on what it could be w/o you opening up the case.

PentatonicSteel · Answer

You have 4 fans in there, front fan, gpu fan, top fan, psu fan.

If the noise stays consistent while under load (gaming, or video projects etc)...that would be normal.

The r7 is loud when under load. It's a small case design and needs all the cooling it can get. Mine is super loud, as I overclocked it and set fan profiles aggressively to compensate. I use headphones, and I also know it's normal, so I don't sweat it. Only way to keep the noise minimal in a mostly air cooled system would be to reduce it's clock speeds (or stay default) and replace the crappy oem fans with good ones (but it's a project).

The experience with my R7 has lead me to believe my next system HAS to be fully liquid cooled, because in 2018...dealing with computer noise should not really be an issue imo.

skudekar · Answer

Thanks so much for your reply. I haven't spoken yet to Dell tech because I have not faced any actual issue with the system. May be I should call the Dell tech and setup a meeting so that they can come to my residence and have a look at it. I am a bit nervous about opening the case and examining it myself because I am afraid I might just mess-up a perfectly working machine (which I need on daily basis for work).

Tesla1856 · Answer

@PentatonicSteel wrote:

The experience with my R7 has lead me to believe my next system HAS to be fully liquid cooled, because in 2018...dealing with computer noise should not really be an issue imo.

You will still have a LC radiator fan and a Power-Supply fan. Possibly other case fans.

skudekar · Answer

Thanks for the reply. I realize there are 4 fans but just not sure which one makes the noise. And the noise doesn't start under load or anything like that. In fact, when I run some deep neural network models on the GPU, the machine purrs along like a Ferrari (and I really happy with it). Just that when I wake it up from sleep, it makes this noise for around 5 minutes and then fades away and is silent. It sometimes makes the noise when I accidentally kick my table.

So I think I agree that I need to open the case and have a peek inside to know what is going on and perhaps the best would be to call a Dell tech at home to have a look.

Thanks a lot!

Tesla1856 · Answer

@skudekar wrote: I need to open the case and have a peek inside to know what is going on  Correct.

Alienware Desktops

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