DELL Precision 690 - make it quiet !!! How I made it.

Question

Hi,

for all of you who have some noise issue with your dell precision 690 workstation I will provide some info what I did to make my own workstation quiet.

MY specs are

Dell Precision 690

2 x Xeon Quadro E5335 2GHz with aftermarket (Intel) heatsinks

Nvidia Quadro FX 1400

4GB of RAM

750W Dell Stock PSU

My Dell was running so loud that I can not work near without headache...so

1) I have bought Intel passive 2U heatsinks for LGA 771 socket (bought directly from click.intel shop) I choose aluminum ones

- http://click.intel.com/LGA771_F_2U_Passive_Fan_Heat_Sink_Solution-P1702.aspx

- photo jIP1P2u8ujZWtqrPj_5pwLkdK2CS85tZSrzddn-iNeHJUvyQ0Re7zGCh0ckpQ8fg1aKhqg8ufsZJl-rx7bCbrtbbYLq9QjxCaU1AjyjEYuhE9WpXpR5Fg7vSvZNYd9U3loKpoEIKyOn7_JBLbI2BmkCW4DddvmCJ000

It was 24$ (shipping in my case (Im in Poland was free)

I used ZALMAN CPU thermal grease (the one with brush) and put it on CPU and on heatsinks.

With only this heatsinks CPU was running about 82C full load (about 55C idle), so I bought 92mm case fans from AIMAXX to put onto those heatsinks (you will need to mach some screws).

- http://www.aimaxx.com/en/catalog/envicooler-9

And connected that to some cheap external FAN SPEED CONTROLLER from eBay (about 10$)

Now CPU is running 65C on full load (and about 40C idle) and those fans are very quiet ones and not so expensive.

2) I have bought other fan from Arctic Cooling this time it was F8 80mm PWM fan to replace Delta (Dell stock) Hard Drive Fan. I had to cut the original Dell PWM plug from delta fan and cut PWM plug from Arctic Cooling and use Arctic Cooling Fan with Delta plug, be careful with wires. If you need help with wires ask here.

3) My third loud fan was the one with RAM so I bought another Arctic Cooling Fan, F12 PWM and installed it as a replacement for stock fan. (again with some plug exchange)

4) I have swap plugs and now the biggest case fan (the one witch blows air on CPUs) is plugged into Cage Fan socket and cage fan (the smaller one just below FDD is plugged in the other socket (the one where the biggest fan was plugged before) So now the smaller one goes little slower (quiet) and the Big one goes a little faster (more CPU cooling) and its a big fan so its quiet as well.

5) My Graphic card (quadro fx 1400) was with stock fan (very noisy) so I bought broken Geforce 6600 (somewhere on eBay) (its a same card with different firmware, but it comes with passive heatsink) and I took original fan out and replaced it with passive heatsink (no sound at all :) )

6) I took spare cables, SATA and some other cables that where not used in my hardware configuration to make more place for air-flow, clean all cables to make as much as possible free space for air and heat.

7) My PSU fan was not loud before, but now when everything is quiet it was the only loud one (not really loud but the loudest from all) so I took another AIMAXX 92mm Fan and replaced the stock PSU fan.

Now my Dell Precision 690 is quiet.

COST:

FANS+HEATSINKS+FAN SPEED CONTROLLER+ZALMAN grease + GeForce 6600 for spares = 40$+24$+10$+8$+6$ = 88$ !!!!

If any of you would need any help please ask, I will try to help ASAP.

PS.

And now when Im running OS X 10.5.8 on my Dell I don't have to worry about CPU temperatures (There is no trustworthy software to monit CPU temps on OS X installed on Dell 690).

dagerman · Answer

Hi,I have the same noise problem as you have.my specs are:Dell Precision 6902 x Xeon Quadro 5150 2,6GHz  (heatsink name i dont know)2 x Nvidia Quadro FX 45004GB of RAM1000W Dell Stock PSUwindows xp 64I have almost no experience in exchanging the hardware components. Thats why I decided not to exchange the heatsink. I will first try to exchange all the fans in the system.I bought from BE QUITE the following  replacements:one 140x140x25mm SilentWings UCStwo 120x120x25mm SilentWings PWMone 92x92x25mm SilentWings PWMone 80x80x25mm SilentWings PWMand I will try to replace the two Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 with:one msi N4600 GTX HAWKI need help with the wires. Could you explain me please how you exchanged the plug?Thanks a lot in advanceDirk

Trumanek · Answer

Hi,

As far As I know SilentWings have red, black, blue and yellow wires. So You need to cut PWM plug from SilentWing fan and cut plug from dells fan (remember to leave some wires for conection).

and cables goeas like this

NEW FAN ---- OLD FAN

RED ---------> RED

BLACK ------> BLACK

BLUE --------> BLUE

YELLOW ---->YELLOW or WHITE

Before any work take power plug of from your PSU and wait some time .... few minutes.

Oh and as I see "one 140x140x25mm SilentWings UCS" is not a PWM fan so you will get errors during boot and then all the fans will go into emergency mode and will blow of at full speed, its gonna be Jet Plane :)

If you need to use this fan you will have to use something like Nanoxia PWMX PWM Control Module.

one 120mm PWM will go to RAM.

one 120mm PWM will go to upper front case fan

one 80mm PWM will go as a Hard drives fan

to replace the big fan (the one in front panel, the bottom one) you will need to make some effort because original fan is not really 140mm its some kind bigger .... so you will have to figure out some way to put 140mm fan in there and as I said before you will need Nanoxia PWMX PWM Control Module.

oh and the 92mm PWM ... if its for the PSU you should buy non PWM fan. You can try to use it (you will not plug blue wire, in PSU you will find 3 wire fan)

USE SOME ELECTRIC TAPE OR ANY GOOD ALTERNATIVE

RB7ate9 · Answer

Hello,

I have a Dell Precision 690 with two Intel Xeon 5130s with a 1kW power supply.

In regards to noise, I started out with only 2gb (2x1gb FB-DIMMs) and it ran pretty quietly. However, since adding just two more FB-DIMMS (2x2gb), the fans are running much louder than normal and pretty much on full blast.

This has only happened with the addition of these new memory modules, even when I've been running multiple design analysis programs the fan hasn't been this loud.

Is there a software fix or upgrade? Or an issue with the memory itself? Or do I have to invest in replacing the fans? Or is this what happens with the increase in memory capacity for a Precision Workstation?

Any help in the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Nam

theryster · Answer

Nam,

You are correct in your experience, as I have noticed also..the more sticks of FB-DIMMs you install, the higher the fan's RPM.

My observations

My fan rpm did NOT CHANGE when:

I changed from a dual core to quad core

I changed from a quad core to 2 quad cores

I changed from 4 sticks on memory risers (2x4 and 2x1) to 4 stick on the mobo

I changed from 4 sticks on mobo to 8 sticks on memory riser (8x2)

when the fan rps DID CHANGE:

I changed from 4 sticks on mobo (2x4 and 2x1) to 8 sticks on mobo (8x2)

My solution, obviously was to reinstall the memory risers and run (8x2 and 2x4) 24GB total

..I ditched the 2x1a as they were slower pc-4200 (533), installed by the prev owner :(

So basically I went from a 4stick (10GB) dual core 5150 to a Dual Quad Core (2x5355) w/ 24GB of RAM with no fan speed increase. I can hear it,but it's quieter than my old Pentium ATX cases....

Temp statistics? Ambient temp in my room is about 20-21F

With the mobo dimms full w/ 8 sticks dual quad cores, my cores were idle at 15-17C but lots of fan noise

With the riser and 10 sticks with dual quad cores, my cores are idle at 20-24C

I'm using the OEM passive heatsinks you can buy all day long off auction websites

----------------

Strictly sticking to a stock setup, there is no way to control the 690s fan speed. I would suggest, as money permits, to use the largest FB-DIMMS in the least number configuration. Ditch the 2GB(2x1) and live with 4GB total, or replace your 4 DIMMS with 2x4's giving you 8GB of RAM..that will get you back down to 2 DIMMS and lower fan speeds.

Another option is to purchase new/used memory risers off a website. The riser only takes up the first 4 slots, but allows you to use up to 16 FB-DIMMS...

If you want to install a hack, you can buy voltage/fan speed regulators and install them inline between the mobo connections and the fans....forcing a constant speed. But This won't regulate your vid card fan. However, if you're not gaming for hours..you can install a decent video card with a passive heatsink resulting in no additional fan noise.

speedstep · Answer

You cant replace any of the stock fans or you will get fan failure and shutdown. They have more than just an RPM sensor they have PTC thermal sensors.

Archifan · Answer

Wondering if you can help with wiring? I want to do the same with a Dell Precision 490. I want to replace all the stock fans and possibly add one additional fan to exhaust the case over the RAM.

Archifan · Answer

Would you recommend adding an additional fan with a controller to help exhaust the case?

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DELL Precision 690 - make it quiet !!! How I made it.

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