Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of OutOnALimbAlways
OutOnALimbAlwaysFlag for United States of America

asked on

Is it acceptable to build a desktop pc without a case fan?

Hi. I just had a guy build me a cheaper desktop. It has a small msi  m-ATX A55 M-E33 motherboard, an amd 55 chipset, and he used an Xtech mid tower case. The cpu is AMD A4-4000 APU. The bios version, if it matters is 015.031.000.000.  It has 4 gigs of ram.
The hard drive is a 1 tb. Seagate barracuda sata.

Cmos says that the cpu is running about 42 c and the motherboard is 31 C. I ran it for a while before reading these numbers.

I noticed the power supply was just a little noisy so I took the cover off and discovered there is no case fan, just the cpu fan and power supply fan.

Is it even acceptable to build this pc without a case fan? And if so, if one were added, would it make everything run more quietly? I already have a feeling I paid more than I should have for this thing...
SOLUTION
Avatar of sentner
sentner
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Avatar of Dan Craciun
Dan Craciun
Flag of Romania image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of OutOnALimbAlways

ASKER

Power supply says it is xtech model ATX 550w-piv, so I guess that means 550 watts. It does seem like all the noise is coming from the power supply fan if my ears don't deceive me.  It isn't a noise of dirty or bad bearings; it just sounds like airflow caused by the fan running pretty fast. The noise isn't too bad, just louder than what I'm used to.

I don't think I'll do custom built anymore unless I try to build my own for the fun of it or get a really high end one.  I think big companies can buy stuff so much cheaper that you get more computer for your money, even though you have to deal with oem  garbage ware and no install dvd, and windows 8 (I made sure I got windows 7 pro on this thing along with the install disk).

Judging from the responses so far, I 'll ask the guy about a QUIET case fan but won't worry about it much.
Avatar of repu1sion
repu1sion

yeah, seems to be right )
I snuck in two questions, which I guess they frown on a bit. So just to clarify whether or not the case fan would cut down on the overall noise (One here says yes,  two imply no) I am now going to ask that question in this same desktop pc's  forum.
>>  which I guess they frown on a bit.

Not necessarily.  If they are all related to the same problem/subject then there is no problem.

>>  Whether or not the case fan would cut down on the overall noise?

Nope, it won't.
That's funny ;)
More fans - more noise. Less fans - less noise. No fans - no noise.
Case fans can be quiet.  But a quiet case fan won't alter the noise from the PSU fan.  

The PSU fan is controlled (if it is controlled) from within the PSU and it's speed depends on power/heat (or some such factor) being generated by the PSU.
dbrunton, thanks for understanding what I was trying to say. I incorrectly thought perhaps the psu was controlled by the heat sensors on the motherboard as the cpu fan is. Therefore, if you cut down on the total heat, the psu fan would spin more slowly.  If you have 100 fans of any kind in good condition spinning at 1/2 rpm they will make less total noise than one fan spinning at 100 thousand rpms.

I hope I didn't upset anyone by asking the second question in a separate thread.
No problems.

Just to reiterate the PSU fan isn't controlled by motherboard.  And cutting down on total heat inside the case through a case fan doesn't affect the amount of heat generated by PSU - it is still the same.
Thanks to all for the information  you added.