Excessive CPU fan noise

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Hi team, I recognise this isn’t likely to be an issue with Plex Media Server, but it’s an issue with the hardware I use to run PMS so I figure I’ll start in this forum.

I’m running PMS on a Win10 desktop running an i7-8700 in an Asrock H310cm-itx/ac motherboard. It’s a Mini-ITX case so everything is pretty snug in there. I’m using the CPU cooler that came with the CPU. I’ve also got a 1060 GTX GPU but I haven’t enabled hardware acceleration because performance is worse with it turned on.

My issue is the amount of noise generated by the CPU fan whenever PMS starts doing any amount of heavy lifting. The fan is so loud I can hear it blasting away in another room 10 metres from where my main TV is.

I’m wondering whether there is anything I can do from a software/bios perspective to slow it down or if there are any coolers people would recommend that would fit inside a pretty tight Mini-ITX case? Or is there something I can do to fully exploit the GTX 1060 so the CPU isn’t loaded up?

Thanks!

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  1. Maybe under-clock the CPU to reduce load.
  2. There are a few low profile after market coolers around, maybe do some research.
  3. On another note, what movies are you streaming? unless you’re trans-coding 4k content on that CPU you really shouldn’t be loading it that much.
3

Not to be a smart ass, but when is the last time you took it apart and cleaned the dust out of it?

A PC should be cleaned out, at minimum, once a year before the summer heat hits. Personally, I do it twice a year, spring and fall, just be for the summer heat and again just before the dry static-filled winter.

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Thanks for your response.

I haven’t got any 4k content, but it seems like anything HEVC is being transcoded. I only need one or two of those streams happening at once for the CPU to really crank up.

I thought I’d try to liberate the GPU so this morning I patched it to be able to transcode more than two streams at once. I then started 4 HEVC streams at once, which were all being hardware transcoded. I was playing them through the browser client on the same PC I have PMS installed on. Interestingly the GPU barely scratched 30-40% whilst the CPU bounced around 90% load. Is that normal?

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Plexweb won’t Direct Play HEVC - or anything else, for that matter.

Plex for Windows will Direct Play most everything you throw at it:
Devices/Apps links at the bottom of this page.

I do mine every 60 days - usually while it’s fully involved with something - 'cause there’s never a time when it’s not.

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Thanks for your response but I was using Plexweb to intentionally force PMS to transcode. The issue here is the apparent load my CPU is experiencing and the associated response of the stock cooler. I need to know if the load is normal, whether I can re-route the load to the GPU or if hardware upgrades (cooler) are the best idea?

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GPU encoding can’t do it all.
Some - to a lot - of CPU is always required. <—depends what’s being encoded.
What you’re seeing is normal.

Don’t let this happen to you:

dustbunnyprime

The result - is often - a new box when that one blew up.

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Looks like a healthy Windows box, LOL :wink:

Add a couple stray Decibels to the mix

1 Like
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Have you tried pulling the GTX and just using the onboard iGPU, that would at least get rid of one noisy fan.

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The best way to a quiet Plex server is to use a big case.
That way you can avoid small fans, which need to turn to high RPM’s to get acceptable air flow.
You can then use big coolers, which also allow to mount big fans. Which then only need to spin relatively slowly to achieve the required airflow.
e.g. https://www.arctic.ac/de_en/freezer7x.html

Not to mention that cleaning a bigger case is usually much more easily done…

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That’s an interesting solution but I’m pretty sure the GTX fans are hardly working…

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Ha, yep if I was starting from scratch, that’s the route I’d take!

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The correct answer is:
If you can’t take the heat - get out of transcoding bidness…

Create material that will Direct Play - or use a capable Player.
There are two of them at the Devices/Apps link below.
I use both - when necessary.

If you insist on using Plexweb - get some earplugs.

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@randommonth, where did you find the directions to unlock the 2 transcode limit?

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Here - https://github.com/keylase/nvidia-patch/blob/master/win/README.md

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Thanks, I tried using their directions sometime last year and it didn’t work. I’ll give it a try again.

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Yeah, I could do my systems more frequently, but I just don’t have the time, nor are they to a state where I’d be concerned, even after a 6-month window.

I only stated that because most home users are clueless to the need to actually clean their systems out. For a number of years I did on-site warranty work for Dell, Sony, IBM, Lenovo, and a couple of other manufacturers. Worked on it all, Laptops, Desktops, Servers, etc., and I can’t even begin to tell you how disgusting most home users systems were on the inside, especially if there was one or more smokers in the home.

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Hi everyone, thought I’d update you all.

I swapped the CPU fan this morning for a Noctua NH-L9i which is a low profile fan for Mini-ITX builds.

Let’s just say I think I addressed the root cause. This thing is utterly silent now. I’ve checked the CPU performance and temperature and even though the CPU load shoots to 100% when transcoding 4 HEVC files, the temperature doesn’t go above about 78C, the fan doesn’t go above about 1850 RPM and I can’t hear a thing.

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Yep, Noctuas are excellent.
I used them to silence our big Xerox machine and our main Ubiquity router.

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