My CPU fan is getting quite loud

The PC I put together a couple of years ago has developed a loud noise.  I think it might be the CPU fan.  How hard is it to replace it?  What is the quietest CPU fans?

When was the last time you cleaned the insides? Compressed air is your friend.

La Bomba said:

When was the last time you cleaned the insides? Compressed air is your friend.

I was always told that using anything that blows on the insides of a computer is a bad idea, as it'll just move the dust and quite possibly get it into connectors and mess things up even more. Vacuum only, is what I've heard.

That said, cleaning the fan is a good idea, also make sure nothing is hitting it (I once found my computer was making an awful racket and it was a power cord hanging against the CPU fan blades). If it doesn't help, replacing it is quite easy with modern fans, just follow the instructions that come with your motherboard and/or the fan. It's usually just a matter of unclasping the old fan, reapplying thermal paste, and clasping the new one into place.

It is probably the bearings in the fan going out.  Typically a CPU fan is trivial to replace (depending upon the CPU heat-sink you have installed).   A fan is held on by 4 screws and a power cord.

I find Acoustifans to be good and quiet but tend to be on the spendy side.

Sven Groot said:

La Bomba said:

*snip*

I was always told that using anything that blows on the insides of a computer is a bad idea, as it'll just move the dust and quite possibly get it into connectors and mess things up even more. Vacuum only, is what I've heard.

That said, cleaning the fan is a good idea, also make sure nothing is hitting it (I once found my computer was making an awful racket and it was a power cord hanging against the CPU fan blades). If it doesn't help, replacing it is quite easy with modern fans, just follow the instructions that come with your motherboard and/or the fan. It's usually just a matter of unclasping the old fan, reapplying thermal paste, and clasping the new one into place.

True you are dealing with electronic components so you have to be careful, but blowing the dust outwards is a good idea.

Turn up the volume of your PC, problem solved

I always buy fans that have variable speed depending on the temperature. Also, don't buy the cheap ones, buy the ones with good bearings.

You would be amazed at the amount of crud I have removed from the CPu heat sinks.

On many occasions I have been asked to look at a machine that was flaky and found the heat sinks so clogged with dust and other crud that no amount of fan waving was going to cool the thing.

Carefully removing the fan from the heat sinks sucking the dust out of the things with a vacuum and can of compressed air to free the clumps of stuff from the fins.

Put it back together and all was well on multiple different machines through the years.

I've never heard of problems related to using compressed air.  I have heard of problems with the static generated by vaccuum cleaners.  Personally, I just use my mouth to blow out the dust, as I'm too cheap to buy a $2 can of air

To answer the OP's question, it's very easy to replace the fan, but try cleaning it first.  You may want to check out the selection of CPU coolers on Newegg (www.newegg.com) if you decide to replace it, as there are many coolers that are quieter than the stock cooler.

Doctor Who:  I think a swooshing sound is normal, but if it starts going da da da dum, da da da dum, da da da dum, dum, dum, then you have got real problems and might have to take it back to the (radiophonic) workshop.

Ian2 said:

Doctor Who:  I think a swooshing sound is normal, but if it starts going da da da dum, da da da dum, da da da dum, dum, dum, then you have got real problems and might have to take it back to the (radiophonic) workshop.

That actually made me LOL (a rare event in these dark winter months). 

Herbie

For cpu air cooling I believe thermalright ultra extreme 120 is still best in the best but still affordable category. While that design has proven excellent for CPU cooling, it's not so good for northbridge. If you have integrated gpu/chipset solution from ati/nvidia and no case fans then get something that more like the standard cpu cooler design that blows towards the motherboard. There are few competitors that bundle similar cooler design and fan for same price. The thermalright one doesn't come with a fan, but could well run without fan if it's say low end core 2 duo. Other products I would look at are noctua nh-c12p, nh-u12p (perhaps better value for this design if you don't want to run passive).

If it's a stock Intel or AMD heatsink/fan that's not the easiest thing to replace but most aftermarket heatsink fans are very simple to remove. There are only a few sizes of fans and the screw holes are all the same.

If you wanted to replace the fan AND heatsink the Thermalright androidi mentioned would be nice with a slow turning 120mm fan.
I have a Scythe Ninja and a nice 120mm fan that has a speed controller connected to it (its just a tiny knob on a little box) to make it spin even slower.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/ is great for this kind of stuff.

The best soluction is wwatercooling or passive CPU cooling. But there are many cheap silent FANs.

Recently, my fan stopped moving because it was blocked by clods of dust that had built up over time; that preventing my computer from starting up. It wasn't something I could blow or vacuum out, so I ended up using the hook parts on two nail clippers to dig it out