XPS 8930 Extreme Fan Noise

I have had exactly the same issue. (My 8930 has an i7-8700 CPU - the non-K version. The k version uses more power and has a different CPU cooler.)

For me the best solution for now is to turn down the maximum CPU clock frequency. Longer term I will be looking to upgrade the CPU cooler to something like the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 which looks to be the most powerful CPU cooler that will fit in the rather cramped Dell case.

More details here:

en.community.dell.com/.../20026836

Thanks for the reply. At least I'm nor the only one with the problem. Turning down the clock frequency seems a crazy thing to have to do to reduce the noise on a new expensive PC. Surely Dell must have tested this 8930 configuration before releasing it on the market. I have raised a technical support ticket with Dell as the problem is unacceptable.

In my testing at least you can turn the clock speed down to 3900 mhz without impacting CPU performance but it reduces power usage by the CPU by around 10W which reduces the temperature just enough to reduce the fan noise somewhat.

The underlying issue is the design decision to have the PSU on a swing out arm that sits above the CPU - this massively reduces the space and options for cooling the CPU under load. The result is that with the stock CPU cooler the fans have to run fast and loud to keep the system cool enough - even then the CPU runs hotter than i would want if you don't turn down the CPU clock frequency.

To be honest I don't see that there is anything that a Dell support ticket could do - it is down to the physical design of the case. Although it will be interesting to see how they respond.

If you turn it down to 3600 mhz then the system will pretty quiet but you will lose about 10% of the CPU performance.

I am still looking at fitting an after market fan to reduce CPU temperature so that the fans do not have to spin up as much.

What CPU do you have in your Dell XPS 8930? If you have an i7-8700 then it may be worth asking Dell if they can supply the more powerful CPU cooler that they fit to the i7-8700k CPU.

Thanks. I'll try the 3900 MHz setting and see how I get on. I have the stock i7-8700 cpu. Yes I don't hold up much hope with Dell but I will suggest that they supply the more powerful cpu cooler. I knew from reviews that the 8930 had noise issues but I never dreamt they would be as bad as they are.