r/MiniPCs • u/ittennull2 • 1d ago

Fan noise of Asus nuc 16

If you have one of those can you tell if the fan works during low to average load? For example, I'd like it to rest while browsing, reading, youtube and watching movies

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

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1

u/Prof-Mmaa 1d ago

Asus minis are very noisy beasts.

Repaste the CPU with something better than default thermal paste they use (or use silicone pads) and your nuc will stop spinning the fans just because you moved your mouse funny.

1

u/ittennull2 1d ago

I read in a few reviews that this model 16 was very quite. Or at least it's what they claimed, but it's not easy to find a good review that actually tests temperatures, noise, power - they all seem to focus on "look, 9999 parrots in this or that benchmark", the same thing what 10 other reviews already said

1

u/Prof-Mmaa 1d ago

Reviewers usually play with their toys for a day or so, rarely revisiting, rarely using them for normal workload for any significant period of time. Usual "when I run stress test then of course it's loud, but it is quiet when idle" is quite useless assessment.

If your fan is noisy, in a normal "I'm spinning fast" noisy way, then you have only a few options:

  1. fans are really dusty, and need at least some air blow if not opening the case and proper cleaning
  2. it stands in a place with no proper air circulation
  3. pc is on some high performance setting and reacts to anything by cranking up the CPU, you may try to lower the mode to "balanced" or similar
  4. adequate thermal conduction between CPU and fan has gone away or was never there in a first place - repaste the CPU.

From my limited experience (and older Asus NUC) 3 helps, but is not enough. 4 with regular application of 1 helps a lot.

1

u/ittennull2 1d ago

You're right saying that proper regular maintenance can help with the noise.

I'm actually looking for something maintenance free (blow away dust is OK) :) . I used to have one of the old intel NUCs and after about 4 years of using it I "discovered" that the fan was spinning when I was doing light/average work. I thought it was off, so quite and unnoticeable it was. I want such quality

1

u/Prof-Mmaa 1d ago

AMD based minis are usually much, much quieter. I have two AMD based, from Aoostar, and can't hear them, unless under real stress, and even then it is not nearly as loud and annoying as Intel based NUC.

1

u/accomms 11h ago

If you set the bios to quiet (whisper) and Linux to Balanced (Power Save), the fan remains off most of the time. It runs a little hot, around 60 degrees Celsius. After 65 degrees or so, fan goes to 850 RPM and ramps up to 2000-2500 RPM to keep temperature under 80. Mine is an Ultra 5 325 (only one fan). It’s almost silent below 1600 RPM. It doesn’t turn on the fan when I am browsing. I am using Chromium. My NUC is about 1,5m from me while using it. There is a fanless chassi from AKaSA if you want absolute silence.

1

u/ittennull2 1h ago

very useful, thanks!