XPS 8950, i9-12900, noise level

I have an 8950 with a 12700k and the liquid cooling. The majority of the noise was from the stock AIO at idle. A PC with air cooling should be almost silent at idle. Beware though, without the 'K' series CPU, you might get a very small, inadequate cooler. The air coolers will more than likely be louder when the PC is under load.

Thank you

I will probably change out the air cooler afterwards maybe with a liquid cooler

The Dell OEM AIO liquid coolers are difficult to purchase direct from Dell. Third party AIO coolers are designed to accommodate larger cases . . . so you will have a lot of excess tubing to deal with. If you want AIO liquid cooling, you should consider getting it with your original purchase. If you are a modder . . . you may be able to get a 240mm radiator in the front of that case.

Corsair makes some AIO's that fit nicely and are quieter than the stock one and it cools a bit better. If you are getting a non "K" CPU, I would look into an aftermarket air cooler. There was a user on this forum that installed an aftermarket air cooler with a "K" series i7 or i9 in the 8950 and he posted some pretty good temps and said that it was very quiet. With a standard non "K" CPU a good tower cooler would probably provide all the cooling you would need and be quieter.

Hi thank you for your reply

Would it be violation of the warranty to change out the cooler?

It didn't used to be but I am not sure about now. If you save the old cooler you can put that back on if you needed any warranty work.

Hi,

I have a XPS 8950 with the i7-12700 (non-K). The stock cooler was not adequate to cool the cpu at 100% utilization (100 degreesC @100% utilization). I upgraded to the Dell premium air cpu cooler purchased from the big online site. Idle temps @ 23-24 degreesC. At 100% utilization max temp is 72 degreesC. My system is extremely quiet. Hoping this helps.

Thank you for your comments

Was there any concern you might violate the warranty?

You might not want to be saying that out loud

smiley face

PS can you give me some more information on the dell premium cooler

URL, part name, number

New DELL XPS 8950 CPU Cooler fan with heatsink 125W 0C253W

Dell XPS 8950 T3660 Optiplex 7000MT 125W CPU Fan and Heat Sink Assemble 0C253W | eBay

You are welcome.

As mentioned above, I have the stock cooler to reinstall in case I need to return the machine to Dell for some reason during the one-year warranty period. Just don't tell anyone. LOL

Thank you

I note that is for the 125 watt TDP CPU

ok to use on the 65 watt non k CPU?

@smokeygraypoupon Hi - sorry for digging this back up!

Is the "big online site" you refer to "eBay"?  I see the advanced cooler there, but it's hard to determine if it's a knock-off or the actual stock part.

Any insights here would be welcome.

Thanks!