My 4080 fans are making LOUD NOISES

Hardware and technical stuff
1

Just built a new machine, with a Rotac 4080. Whenever the fans on the GPU spin up, the LOUD NOISES begin. This does not just sound like fans spinning at high RPM, it’s a bit louder and for lack of better descriptors, “heavier and grindier”. It’s not a “clean” sound that I would associate with rapidly spinning fans just at higher volume (this is not the same but I sleep with a box fan on every night, set to high, and that noise is very pleasant for me but this is not pleasant at all).

I’m using various monitoring software (Afterburner and NZXT’s software since I have one of their hubsh) to help figure out my problems. Well, to get data to help figure out my problems. The GPU fans don’t always spin up. Playing Rogue Trader makes it seem like they will inevitably do it but they sort of come and go, and the temp never gets above 57c. Playing around in Afterburner, if I just set the fan speed to 40% and turn off auto fan management, I immediately get the noises.

I’m not sure if there’s anything I can do to verify this may in fact just be a bad fan or fans on the GPU itself. Tips/advice would be appreciated. I suspect I’m going to have to return this and get a new GPU.

2

If you take off the side of the case you can get close enough to immediately tell if the noise is just a fan bearing going bad. Maybe you can even carefully put your finger gently on the center hub of the fan while it’s spinning and put some drag on the spindle to see how the noise changes with resistance or RPM.

3

You could try to record it on the phone, someone here will tell you “yup that’s a failing fan”

this vocaroo site should work easily on a phone

if you have trouble isolating noises (but i doubt it since its so loud) a paper towel tube on the ear will work. Or maybe a long screwdriver against things so you can see where the rattle is.

4

Well I was going to do this (and see if perhaps one fan in particular was a problem) and discovered that GPU power cable was abutting the middle GPU Fan, and that appears to have been the root cause!

5

God, I love a happy ending.

6

My god, I think I have whiplash :)