HP Z600 Noise Reduction

[Samtastico]

So, my HP Z600 workstation is quite noisy to sit next to all day with its constant drown. I am sure most people who have one know what I am talking about. 

What I am looking to do is put some noise reducers to help which should slow it down small mobo fan to reduce the any noise that comes from that.

However to be honest to pretty difficult to tell where the noise is coming from. 

Do you think it is just the case excentuating the accustics causing the drowning noise? 

[DGroves]

this forum has a SEARCH FEATURE (look up towards the top right)

enter z600 or z800 fan noise

you will get many previous posts /replys on this question as it is asked over and over

[Samtastico]

I have been through all these threads including checking the bios etc. Many times there has been no conclusive solution for quieter fans only to replace with stock fans. What I'm looking for is peoples experience and ideas for reducing fan noise or vibration through aftermarket options, speed reducers etc.

It might just be the simple fact that the workstation has 10 or 11 fans including the dual cpu setup and two on my graphics card.

Any suggestions that would help reduce this droning sound would be most grateful received.

[DGroves]

if you read the previous posts you already know trying to replace the fans/using speed reducers is generally

a bad thing to do as you will not be able to use/have the resources HP spent when designing the z600/8xx cases and cooling solutions.  do yourself a favor, simply move the z800 case 3/4 ft away from you and be done with it

last, the z600 has 6 fans (for a single cpu system) this includes the small 40mm chipset fan

please do not exagerate/spread mis-information by telling people who do not have this system that it has a dozen fans

edit: corrected  line from dual to "single cpu system" 

[Samtastico]

Thank you for your reply but let me be a little clearer in regards to the amount of fans.

2x CPU fans
2x rear case fan
1x ram cooling fan
1x front case fan

1x motherboard chip fan 
2x power supply fans
2x graphics card fans.(these are the only additional fans added) 

There are a large number of fans in the system and I assure you I wasn't misleading in my first post.

[Samtastico]

. 

[Jetz1]

I had the similar problem too. My z600 rear fans works very loud, but I found cheap deside for this. I used anti-noise tape (it used in car noise repair) and sissors. You need to pull the rear fans out of the socket, then glue with the anti-noise tape the points that join panel and fans and put the fans back in place.  My z600 noise level down to 40-50% 

[SDH]

Droning is the term.

I have posted in here on the value of using Noctua fan speed reducers.  These come in 3-wire and 4-wire versions, and have a small resistor built in to the 3" device.  You plug one end into the motherboard and the fan into the other end.  They come with different value of resistors.

The HP fans come with a variety of plug ends.  The two I change on a Z600 are the chipset fan and the front PCI fan.  The chipset fan has a regualr white PWM plug end with the usual 3 ridges.  This can work easily with the Noctua NA-RC6 which has a higher value resistor, and you might also want to use that plus a NA-RC7 in-line also.  For some reason HP over-RPMd that little fan.  You can see the temps and they don't go up with this trick.  At least put in a NA-RC6 on that one, and it is basically a 2 minute job.

Use the new HP Performance Advisor to best see the RPMs when the OS is running, and you can also see those from BIOS in the ZX00 series of workstations.

For the PCI fan, which blows into the case from the front I use a NA-RC7 to slow that down some too.  You have to shave the little ridges on that one a bit to make it fit onto the motherboard header.   I leave the rest of the fans alone.

The fan wiring is standard:  ground, 12VDC, rotor speed info back to motherboard, PWM control from motherboard out to motor.  You can look at the motherboard header with the original fan plug in place to figure out how you'd shave the ridges off to make a standard white PWM fan plug at the end of the adapter fit the same way. 

The NA-RC6 has been hard to find.... I ordered a stash from Austria, but there is a seller on Amazon who has them (3 for cheap).  I'd get some of those.  Google NA-RC6 and you'll see that.

[OlegR]

> simply move the case away from you

I entirely agree! Many years I had headache because of the noise from my PCs. Not "headache", but real headache. Changed several models of PCs, did huge investigation job on silent fans and considered fan-less PC (actually not a solution).

Then I found another solution. I discovered that USB-2 can be extended with no special equipment, just plain cable, at a distance of 10-15 feet. The same with HDMI 1.3 for 1080p monitor. I just put my PC to storage room so my desk was behind the wall and run cables under the storage room door to my desk. Wireless keyboard/mouse does not work well through the wall and I just put Logitech Unifying USB Receiver to the end of 15 feet USB-2 cable.

No slightest noise at all!

[BambiBoomZ]

Samsastico,

The source of the  a higher sound level may be the system responding to demanding applications that are raising the CPU temperatures.  If you're doing CPU rendering, or substantial compute applications such as simulation, the temperatures are simply raising the fans' RPM to protect the hardware.

Consider adding HWMonitor (free) and run it on top- always visible, watching the CPU temperatures and noting the fan RPM. Check the GPU temperatures also.

Check the Temperature rating of the CPU's at Intel ARK.  For example, here are the specifications for the X5680:

https://ark.intel.com/products/47916/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5680-12M-Cache-3-33-GHz-6-40-GT-s-Intel-Q...

> and it's possible to see the rating is 78.5C.

Compare the HWMonitor temperature readings to the rating for the system processors.  If your applications are pushing near the CPU rating limit, the higher fan noise will be necessary.

If the temperatures are nowhere near the limits under full continuous load, it may be that the fans are set at a higher level than necessary.  If the z600 BIOS is similar to the z620  ( I had a z620 with 2X E5-2690), there is a BIOS setting under "Advanced" called "Thermal" and you can set the fan controls up or down. 

If the temperatures are elevated but within limits even with  the fans at high RPM, then the easy solution to noise is going to be to position the system  more remotely.  Consider placing the system on the floor under the desk and pushed back under the desk top. 

Check also if your z600 has the highest rated CPU fans/heatsinks. Sometimes a system may be upgraded to a higher wattage CPU but retains the CPU/heatsink for a lower power processor.  I had a two LGA1366 syastems, Dell Precisions T3500 and T5500 and in both examples I had to change the fan/heatsink to the uprated one when adding faster CPU's (Xeon X5677 and 2X Xeon X5680). 

If you have changed the CPU's or they are not the original, consider reinatalling them with a carefully applied high quaity thermal paste Arctic Silver 5 or thermal Grizzly, just to eliminate poor heat transfer to the heatsink as cause of the high fan speeds. 

Finally, consider that  a warm ambient room temperature can make a difference in the cooling load and upgrading the cooling to non-standard or even liquid cooling may be necessary.

I'm going through a cooling upgrade currently for a z620 as I'd like to raise the Xeon E5-1680 v2 from 4.3 to 4.6 or 4.7GHz on all 8-cores.  This system is currently running a z420 all in one liquid cooler but as workstatiosn have limited options the solution is a bit unconventional, an external water cooler, an Alphacool Eiswand 360:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAEAP5YM4789&Description=%20Alphacool%20Eiswand%2...

> which has 6X 120mm fans in push/pull and dual pumps that run at a constant moderate RPM to keep it quiet. 

If your system is under constant 100% load, consider adding some level of liquid cooling. I don't know the space limitations, but It may be possible to add another fans on teh other side of the heatsink reversed to pull aor though and thereby increase the airflow through the heatsink.

BambiBoomZ