NUC8i7BEH high fan noise

[Nik]

Recently I purchased a NUC8i7BEH and loaded it with windows 10. However I noticed that the fan kicks in very often for no apparent reason (different speeds).

After some investigation I came to know that the cpu core speeds is cycling constantly to all kinds of different speeds, within seconds I see core speeds ranging from 400mhz to 4200mhz (from HWINFO tool), while I'm doing nothing with the pc!

Consequently the temperatures fluctuate a lot from the high 40s to the the mid 90s. At one moment the temperature can be 50c and a second later it's all of a sudden 75c..

It's basically a clean windows 10 install so nothing special is happening on the pc.

Is it normal that the temperature goes all the way up to 95c during normal desktop use? (no gaming, or video etc)

[n_scott_pearson]

What you are seeing is all of the background maintenance tasks that Windows 10 runs. This is perfectly normal - as are the temperatures that you are seeing.

...S​

[Nik]

The fan noise can be very high and makes the experience in a quite room quite bad to be honest. Are there any improvements I can do? I already set the cooling options to quiet in the visual bios, but that didn't do much.

[n_scott_pearson]

This is my configuration; give it a try:

...S

[Nik]

So I've set the setting exactly as yours (+ set the performance to balanced and some strange things happened:

• when I boot into win10 the fan immeddiately gets VERY loud for the first few minutes
• then the gradually the fan gets to state where it's INaudible (so very lovely)
• after a few minutes it again becomes VERY load (while there's no change in cpu temp..) and again after half a minute is dead silent again..

[ALang8]

I also had this behavior. It is VERY annoying and also means that the actual settings you did for the fans do not apply. The only way I could get rid of that was to reset BIOS, save and power down. Then I disconnected the device from power and pressed the power button (a habid from olden times when that helped to get rid of residial power in the cirquit; might help, might not, but it does no harm). I kept the NUC disconnected from power for a minute before I reconnected and then booted it up again. After that it behaved as it should and I could change the BIOS setting and saw actual results.

This happened a few times with BIOS version 0048 and has stopped with later versions. On which version are you?

[Nik]

I give up. Whatever custom cooling settings I set in the bios, the fan goes immediately haywire after rebooting 😡

Only the presets seem to work (I'm currently on 'Quiet' profile - which is not completely quiet, but bareable...)

Tbh, I wished I just spent 3k on the new apple mini, because going back from macOs to win10 is also not so nice...

[ALang8]

Which BIOS version are you on?

[Nik]

Latest (58?) - I always keep my drivers etc up-to-date with Intel Driver & Support Assistent

[Trial-Member]

@Nik​ 

I remember that - in some BIOS Versions - Intel had a bug, making it necessary to load BIOS defaults every time before making changes to custom setting as they were not applied without this step.

[Nik]

Trust me, tried all of that. Including bios update through recovery mode.

Once I customize the cooling settings the fan goes to 100% every so many minutes. When using the preset config “Quiet” this does not happen. Unfortenately “Quiet” is not really quiet..

[Trial-Member]

Hi @Nik​,

So we will have to wait for anothe BIOS-Update.

I was happy to see that Lenovo and HP also will offer tiny systems with a CPU of the other big manufacturer, naming current CPUs with R... .

Havent seen an empty Kit only containing Case, Mainboard and APU (so I can configure the rest depending on my needs and preferences), but since Intel wont be alone anymore Intel may finally feel compelled to tackle such issues. The complaints about loud fans aren't really new, but Intel doesn't seem to have any real interest in solving them. Maybe the customers just have to vote with their feet.

For me the main reason to buy an Intel NUC was the lack of availability of good solutions from the other manufacturer. That could change now.

[Nik]

Well the bios update from a few days ago (66), didn’t do anything to fix this, so that’s not reassuring.. Is Intel reading these forums?

Well, my first thought was buying the new Apple Mini, but went for the NUC because of price. Starting to regret it.

[Trial-Member]

I don't think that Intel really reads actively here. If that were the case, then some problems would have been fixed or alleviated long ago.

Every now and then an answer from an Intel employee appears, but I assume that this is more a accident than an active community support.

Intel should be happy to have users like @n.scott.pearson​ . He is supporting the community very activly with knowldge and tips.

An iMac was never really an option for me.

On the one hand I don't like their operating system and get tantrums every time I have to sit on a Mac and have to live with their crappy keyboard layout, on the other hand I work primarily in a Windows environment and wouldn't want to "reorient" myself every time. I also think Apple is too arrogant in the meantime. In recent years, too many design errors have been passed on to the customer, which have led to failures and defects. That doesn't suit me. If customers pay a premium price, then they should also get a premium product. This is no longer the case with Apple.

A friend had said goodbye to Apple when his iMac dropped out with a graphic error. A known problem with this model. Apple didn't want to fix this device anymore because it was "vintage" (really, they officially called it "vintage"!). Other authorized partners failed to get spare parts. At that time the device was 5.5 or 6 years old.

He sold his iMac, iPhone and iPad and bought a PC and an Android smartphone.

He had even recently considered buying a NUC8. Then he listened to my experiences and the device. The fan noise was the reason for him to keep his hands off NUCs. And somehow I can understand that very well.

And no, I'm not an "Apple-Hater", I have had iPhones for many years, until today, and can also say that the quality has not kept pace with the price development. My only reason to still have an iPhone is the megalomania of the androids, paired with the miserable update policy of the hardware manufacturers.

But let's not scold other manufacturers, after all we have enough problems with our Intel NUCs.

[n_scott_pearson]

Hhmmm, I don't hear mine do that. I will collect some data and see if I see anything...

[Trial-Member]

I use the same setting on my 8i5BEH (thanks to recommendation by @n.scott.pearson​.

Its ok (but not more than "ok". From time to time, however, the fan becomes loud. But this happens not after booting Windows (unless updates are still being processed).

But when streaming videos (for example SkyGO) or using Google Maps, the fan turns up a lot. When streaming, the CPU still reaches temperatures just under 100 °C. From my point of view this is remarkable because I also have a NUC6CAYS (which has no active cooling). CPU is a Celeron (4 cores) instead of an i5. But it doesn't get that warm although the CPU runs practically permanently in bost mode.

I have another device here (Zotac ZBOX). Nothing happens with the fan when I stream or use many applications at the same time. The fan runs constantly quiet.

Unfortunately, you have to realize that Intel has overstated miniaturization. The cooling is not optimal in this form factor.

Actually there are only two reasons why I still have my 8i5BEH:

1. I am hoping for long-term support (drivers & BIOS updates) and

2. I haven't found anything comparable with an AMD Ryzen CPU yet.

Edit:

I noticed with my 8i5BEH that network traffic leads to a significant increase of the fan. So when I make my backups on NAS and over the Internet, the fan turns up (not all the way, but audible). Not much happens during the upload (about 2.5 MB/sec).

[PKRIS10]

I also have an 8i5BEH and i did turn of CPU turbo boost. That did lower the CPU temp in Easy tasks as browsing and video from 70C to 40C and now the fan is dead silent.

[n_scott_pearson]

@Trial-Member​,

This makes me think that, for some reason, your streaming is utilizing only software transcoding. You would not see the processor generate as much heat if it was doing hardware transcoding. Regardless, with the settings I provided, you should not have seen the temperature make it to 100c. There may be another issue - perhaps with the TIM - going on here. You may want to consider having Intel replace the unit.

The NUC6CAYS/NUC6CAYH *does* have active cooling, BTW. The problem is that the design utilizes a SOC processor that does not support the PECI bus. As a result, the fan speed controller chip does not have access to processor temperature readings; only the VR and Motherboard sensors are available to support all fan speed control decision-making. A valiant effort was made to draw a correlation between the VR temperature and the processor temperature (based on the theory that, as the processor does more work, it demands more current from the VR components and thus makes them hotter), but this correlation is loose at best.

@PKRIS10​,

I agree that there is something about the Turbo Boost feature that is causing undue heat generation. Try leaving it on and set the processor to run in Balanced Mode in both the BIOS and Windows settings and see if you get better results.

Hope this helps,

...S

[Trial-Member]

Hi @n.scott.pearson​,

Thanks for your answer. It gave me the idea to compare different streamings. Results below.

To briefly clarify the basic conditions:

Room temperature: Approx. 20 °C,

NUC is free,

Operating system: Windows 10 (1809), RAM: 16 GB,

Network connection: LAN, Screen: 3840x2160 / 60Hz via HDMI

Temperature during light use (browsing, music ...): 50-55 °C.

Temperature data read out with CoreTemp

While streaming SkyGO, the temperature rises close to 100 °C (90 °C - 98 °C). After about one minute a temperature is reached that oscillates between 85 °C and 95 °C, the fan always turns audibly up and down. Meanwhile the CPU load is 30%-50% (fluctuating). If I start Chrome during the stream, then the 100 °C are apparently exceeded for a short moment (but then immediately fallen below again!), at least Core Temp shows a warning and marks a core with an exclamation mark. When I close the SkyGO App, the temperature drops below 60 °C in about 10 to 15 seconds.

While streaming Netflix, the temperature rises to about 75 °C for a short time, then it adjusts to about 55 °C.

While streaming videos on Youtube, the temperature rises to about 75 °C for a short time, after that the whole thing regulates at about 60 °C.

So it seems as if the problem is more with the SkyGO-App. Sky had changed the streaming only a few months ago and made the app mandatory on PCs and Macs as well. Before that, streaming was possible via the web browser.

About the NUC6CAYS: You're right, it has a fan, sorry for confusing. But it's absolutely quiet, no comparison to the 8i5!

Unfortunately, I don't have any current temperature values of the NUC6CAYS with the SkyGO app.

When I get there, I'll test it to see if the temperature rises so much.

[fadsarmy]

I am thinking of getting an Akasa fanless case to combat the noise.

[TBlue]

Where do you get these? I can't seem to find any place that sells them.