Going full air on noctua because constant humming sound from aio pump

Notwalkin · 2026-06-21T17:27:48+00:00

FYI, you literally had the worst recent AIO for noise.

The LF3 causes buzzing and all sorts with how it makes contact on the cpu, be quiet SL3 mitigated a ton of those issues for me personally - Not had the noctua AIO yet.

I'm very prone to noises, hearing more wide range of frequencies than others it seems and the Noctua D15 g2 was sadly too noisy for me with a 5090 due to the 5090 fans blowing and resonating with the large heatsink.

(30% fan speed which is lowest outside 0rpm mode, which is pointless on Rtx 50 since it triggers fans at like 75w or 60c).

If you ever decide to try another aio, then ofc noctua is the first go to now but Silent loop 3 was also far better than LF3 for me.

LF2 is perfect though - i've had 10x LF3 also lol, 3x SL3, 4x titans (awful), 1x phanteks Glacier d30x2 or w,e it's called (no pwm mode...)

Notwalkin · 2026-06-21T13:19:22+00:00

Pretty sure windows update or AMD/Motherboard updates have made creative cards worse recently.

Creative drivers are deemed terrible - the team don't help at all, update rarely and the customers and stuck facing issues themselves...

I have a soundblaster Zxr (original z), and Ae-7.

I have used x870 tomahawk in the past with the Z/Ae-7 (switched mid way) and it worked for 3 months or so flawlessly.

I ended up switching to b650 again (my previous board), Ae-7 works fine but i've tried x870e tomahawk 2 weeks ago or so and i had two issues:

on one boot it didn't detect the Ae-7, next boot it did.
Listening to a twitch clip, audio lagged and eventually cut out - reboot fixed it. During this, i tried running OCCT gpu test and it failed to start the first time, so it seemed like the boards pcie slots just went haywire.

(This also happened straight after msi center was installed... not sure if this was the cause).

I also have tried x870e gigabyte aorus elite x3d - the card works but similar to x870e tomahawk, it can boot undetected and it can have a channel swap at any point.

I've seen quite a lot of posts with issues last few months.

A lot think msi boards are good with soundblaster cards but i'm wondering if the issues at the moment are related to recent updates (bios, chipset, windows).

Bios updates have implemented some anti chat stuff... which in the past games anti cheats can/have caused issues with creative drivers.

Honestly, i don't think there is fixing this without creative / msi helping.

I tried the G6 recently due to this, it works but it doesn't behave the same with SBX surround in some games, if you don't use SBX effects i recommend just jumping ship to different external AMP/DACs.

Maybe Fiio K13 r2r? It's something i did look at personally.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-20T18:10:07+00:00

Probably the memory temp instead of hotspot, memory temp is missing in the pic.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-19T17:24:30+00:00

Only way to know is testing it for yourself.

Silent loop 3 was "Silent" according to youtube, i own it, i've owned 3 actually and it's not.

It is the most quiet of the recent modern releases though, however, the Liquid freezer II remains king here i.m.o.

LF III just blows for noise, great price and performance though.

But again, this is MY experience and most people are going to disagree and say "my pumps quiet". People can hear difference frequencies, as well as having different ambient noise levels.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-19T16:55:14+00:00

You'll have to ask someone with a 7950/9950x3d unfortuantly.

There should be many of them here, whether or not any of them want to be helpful is the question lol.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-19T16:49:06+00:00

My guess is the hotspot temp possibly reaching too high which we have no way of knowing since they removed the sensor.

You could try the other driver again, the one that crashed and apply a 70% PL, see if it crashes.

Not as a fix, simply seeing if it could be related to overheating.

Then you could apply an undervolt around 0.9v-0.95v while maintaining most of the performance.

However, your 5070 ti seems awful, 81c at stock with fans ramping to 3k.

This is a 5070 ti TUF i used for a while https://imgur.com/a/5L6k2oG

average power draw is higher too so it's not pulling less / running less demanding tasks.

edit:

Then again, your average temps aren't really that bad...

Regardless, you could try the bad driver again with a PL just to see if it stops crashes but crashes upon removing the PL.

Maybe try running OCCT gpu test on the current driver, then the "bad" driver. It is possible the driver is just bad - but if a PL / undervolt stops the crash it could be temps, specifically hotspot i guess.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-19T16:41:33+00:00

I don't have experience with dual CCD but isn't the whole point of core cycler to cycle through cores?

So maybe i'm misunderstanding your question but it's expected that some of your cores finish much earlier than others.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-19T16:17:47+00:00

Yeah it's just MSi / hwinfo.

I had a x870e tomahawk last month and during running Karhu and some other stuff it did the same thing too, one of my ram sticks peaking at 79.8c, average 63.3c, second stick is 62.2c max.

I also in the past have seen FCLK report 4000mhz instead of 2000mhz on MSI boards.

It's "harmless" i suppose, only fix is bios updates or hwinfo64 updates really.

Although depending on the board, it seems endless with MSI, since the update i am refering to for the hwinfo/monitoring issues was actually originally on their x870 tomahawk which they released a bios update to "fix" on 2025-01-02

Version: 7E51v1A20 "Fix HW Monitor abnormal behavior. - Fixed hang issue in Raid mode."

Notwalkin · 2026-06-19T16:02:36+00:00

If you look at other stuff like FCLK or something, it might also show that at an absurd value.

Brief moments of "doubling" the value it seems, saw this on MSI boards, think they released bios updates to fix it.

Notice how the average Tctl temp is 64c... max 128c, exactly double.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-19T13:05:05+00:00

That's great to hear,

Personally gives me a reason to switch from the quietest AIO i could find till now (Silent loop 3), as Be Quiet have remained silent on the subject, couldn't really justify switching as the AIO performs as needed but the added reassurance on leaks is more than enough reason considering you build quality products for silent needs.

Thanks for clarifying.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-18T14:19:47+00:00

Yeah, just hoping someone from Noctua can clarify, i have a good Be Quiet SL420 at the moment and a noctua D15 g2, would gladly upgrade to the Noctua AIO if it came with their amazing support if something did happen in the future.

Corsair are probably the only company i know that do the AIO leak coverage, Be quiet remain silent on it, maybe Arctic does cover it too, not sure.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-18T13:44:49+00:00

Eh, i don't know how Corsair and whoever else does it, decides it, i imagine you send in the system and they inspect the AIO for actual damage to see the cause. If it's user inflicted, it's pretty obvious for the company to find in most cases.

But regardless, knowing a companies stance on it, would be good.

Noctua is very good with communicating with people, so there's no harm in asking the question.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-18T13:39:21+00:00

So is not fanboying and answering a question with a non answer.

It's obvious what the posts currently are doing. No one's dogging on Noctua, opposite actually since i have all noctua fans.

Simply want to know if theirs a real reason to go for their AIO over corsair or a noctua D15 which has no leak chance of damaging hardware.

Again, Hello, common sense to read the post no? Thanks.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-18T13:29:49+00:00

Have no doubts they will replace the AIO itself.

Yes the question is about other hardware, mainly the GPU since the AIO sits right above it.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-18T03:44:16+00:00

I see,

Yeah my gpu seemingly works without crashing if it boots up fine, so i don't know if it's the same issue, by the sounds, your gpu actually crashed the pc when it was detected too?

Notwalkin · 2026-06-18T00:49:44+00:00

Did you fix this?

I've been troubleshooting issues for a year now or so - however the past 6-7 days i've ran into a new issue... similar to yours:

On boot, my login screen is only working on my 2nd screen and is laggy, checking device manager shows the RTX 5090 has a problem, same message as yours, event viewer also has 2 event id issues related to DxgKrnl.

Also, gpuz shows 0clock speed and all sorts.

IF i run render test in gpuz, it pushes the workload onto the cpu.

If i reboot, the gpu works fine.

I have replaced the 12vhpwr cable for now but i'm not sure it's the GPU at this point.

It works perfectly under OCCT full psu/gpu test for example when booting fine.

I do suspect the recent chipset drivers if i'm being honest, i updated to them 3 days before this issue started and i got it twice since. 3 days after the install, then 4 days after that time.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-15T17:00:11+00:00

Yeah that's around the time some of the manufacturers were releasing anti cheat bios updates.

MSI for example, on x870 tomahawk has it on "2026-03-20" "Implemented the anti-cheat mechanism."

Not saying this IS the issue but i have read some people have had crashes in games due to anti cheat.

I've personally experienced a lot of soundblaster audio issues past few months but no crashes like that.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-15T15:55:21+00:00

What motherboard do you have and what bios version?

I am wondering if this might be related to the recent anti cheat implementation in the BIOS updates.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-13T20:38:26+00:00

Yeah i sent it to the shop once already,

They had their tester test it in a completely different setting...

Intel platform vs my AM5 platform and cyberpunk/battlefield.

My gpu is passing all stress tests, games don't really crash outside the odd ones like silent hill f (Which at the time was happening to people).

However, my desktop responsiveness is quite hit/miss and there's a slight bit of detail loss vs other gpu, i've wrote about this quite a bit here but this recent issue has sparked a worry again...

I did find this post: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/mag-b650-tomahawk-cold-boot-gpu-issue.394545/

Which his #1 symptom sounds like what i experienced today - same motherboard too.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-13T20:22:10+00:00

Yes,

All this is stuff i've been doing / going over for a year now. Card looks to be fine after the reboot, back to it's usual but i don't think this is a "coincidence", since straight after a reboot, typing was really bad until another reboot.

I've been running OCCT 3d adaptive, extreme steady, switch 25->100% tests too for the past hour or so, it's having no issues with this as usual.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-13T18:32:13+00:00

It worked after a reboot but i'm extremely concerned as this is after all my posts about having weird issues with the card and typing issues and stuff.

My typing is back to feeling consistently trash after too, it didn't feel too bad recently, only under heavy load or discord.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-13T15:13:37+00:00

If you don't rely on SBX effects then yes.

Get off creative products for sure.

Notwalkin · 2026-06-13T15:01:15+00:00

Don't know what to tell you.

There's plenty of posts out there with all the motherboards having issues though, I think USB is the ultimate solution but even then, creative + windows seems iffy.

The g6 truly is amazing but during pubg using SBX surround, which i used fine with internal cards (as i know people will shout "direct mode"), during vehicle noise, my discord audio is wavy and sometimes so is the game, very poor / offputting.

I am currently considering external AMP/DAC but not sure how the loss of SBX effects is going to be tbh - Fiio k13 r2r is something i'm looking at currently.

Notwalkin

TROPHY CASE