Hi all, last year i've built a gaming PC that is able to handle Skyrim on Ultra easily. However, fan speed ramps up pretty quickly and they tend to get pretty loud, which is not a huge problem but slightly annoying. I'm not experiencing any lag or slowdowns.

Here's my setup:

Intel Core i5 3450 (Socket 1155, Boxed)
MSI H77MA-G43 (Socket 1155)
XFX ATI Radeon HD7950 3GB DDR5 Black (PCI-e)
Seagate 2TB Barracuda ST2000DM001 (SATA-600, 7200RPM, 3.5")
Scythe Mugen 3 Rev. B CPU Cooling PCGH Edition (All Sockets)
Corsair 8GB PC3-12800 Vengeance Low Profile DDR3 SDRAM (2x 4GB, 1600MHz, CL9)
Noctua 120mm NF-P12 PWM Casefan (4) of them
XFX PRO550W Core Series power supply
Samsung 128GB Solid State 830 Series (SATA-600, 2.5")

And here is my mod list:

• Skyrim.esm Active
• Update.esm Active
  
  Dawnguard.esm Active
• HearthFires.esm Active
• Dragonborn.esm Active
• JSwords.esm Active
• SPIKE.esm Active
• HighResTexturePack01.esp Active
• HighResTexturePack02.esp Active
• HighResTexturePack03.esp Active
• Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp Active
• Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp Active
• Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp Active
• Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp Active
• Better Dynamic Snow.esp Active
• Clanking Armor.esp Active
• Improved Combat Sounds v2.2.esp Active
• StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp Active
• StaticMeshImprovementMod-DragonbornTernFix.esp Active
• StaticMeshImprovementMod-FurnitureChestSnowFix.esp Active
• Immersive Brigands.esp Active
• Immersive Dawnguard.esp Active
• Immersive Dragonborn.esp Active
• Immersive Factions.esp Active
• Immersive Mercenaries.esp Active
• Immersive Patrols.esp Active
• Immersive Travelers.esp Active
• Immersive Werewolves.esp Active
• Populated Lands Roads Paths.esp Active
• Character Creation Overhaul.esp Active
• RaceMenu.esp Active
• Player Size Adjuster.esp Active
• SkyUI.esp Active
• iHUD.esp Active
• DragonbornArmorFix.esp Active
• hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp Active
• Immersive Weapons.esp Active
• JSwordsDistributionBalancePlugin.esp Active
• DeadlyDragons.esp Active
• DeadlyMonsters.esp Active
• SkyRe_Main.esp Active
  
  SkyRe_CraftingFix.esp Active
• SkyRe_EncounterZones.esp Active
• SkyRe_EnemyAI.esp Active
• SkyRe_EnemyScaling.esp Active
• Immersive Events.esp Active
• The Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp Active
• BetterQuestObjectives.esp Active
• BetterQuestObjectives-PaarDilemmaPatch.esp Active
• BetterQuestObjectives-SkyRePatch.esp Active
• Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp Active
  • Headtracking.esp Active
• Populated Cities Towns Villages.esp Active
• Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dungeons.esp Active
• Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dawnguard Interiors.esp Active
• Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Exteriors.esp Active
• Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Interiors.esp Active
• Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Minor Cities and Town Interiors.esp Active
• Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Weathers.esp Active
• ESPv1_1.esp Active
• CCO - Diverse Races And Genders.esp Active
• WATER.esp Active
• WATER DB.esp Active
• Bashed Patch, 0.esp Active
• ReProccer.esp Active
• ReProccerNONPLAYERfix.esp Active
• ReProccerDragonborn.esp

Anything I can do to make this better? Or is just due to my rig / setup?

Which fan, the GPU fan ?????

It could be because your PSU....

Ati suggest a 500W (or greater) power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors recommended.

NOTE: Minimum recommended system power supply wattage is based on the specific graphics card and the typical power requirements of other system components.

Your system may require more or less power. OEM and other pre-assembled PCs may have different power requirements.

http://www.amd.com/US/PRODUCTS/DESKTOP/GRAPHICS/7000/7950/Pages/radeon-7950.aspx#2

as i calculated the whole system should run on a 550 watt PSU. (Actually it's close above the 550 mark point.)

http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power (you can try it yourself, maybe i have some errors...) - (http://imageshack.us/f/853/m8s8.jpg/)

I find that if I clamp my frame rates to 40 to 45 in this game, my video card fans never ramp up to the annoying speeds. And, the game is smooth and silky.

You can try a program like Trixx (for ATI) to control your fans as related to video card temps. Just make sure they go into fast mode if the card temps go over say 60 Degrees C.

thanks all. @Mark: i'm guessing the GPU fan (well one of them atleast) since the GPU is the component that gets the hottest. Not sure if I'm right here...

@CCNA; how to clamp my frame rates? In the AMD Control center?

If the fans start going into full speed mode that means heat is building up.

So I would first check for dust in the PC and also the fans. If you have pets especially Cats you can get hair clogging up the vents. Also you want to have the computer in a well ventilated area and not closed in a cabinet.

IS the fan only turning on when playing skyrim or does it happen with other games or happens with more basic operations such as browsing the web.

I use the Anitlag plugin for SKYSE. Other's prefer different methods, but that's what I use. I think you can clamp them in CCC, but I avoid letting CCC do any post game processing. In fact, I won't even let the program run at Start Up, preferring to launch it when I need it, which has been never so far.

Which is why I use Trixx, as it's a low memory use applet for the cooling fans on my GPU. I also spent about an hour or so running benchmark programs on my machine after adjusting the fan/temp speed curve. Just to make sure the temps never got to high under that stress test. Suffice it to say, my video card only makes noise when it really needs to.

The Unofficial Patches are not in order or you have not updated them. You also have not installed the Unofficial Patch for the high res packs.

Edit: I too have loud fans with Skyrim.....

One possibility is your GPU tries to get more juice from yout PSU and....

You could monitor your GPU's temp to be sure that your Graphic card operates normally.

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The other thing is, as Chuckos88 say, it's pretty normal that the GPU operates at it's fullest in such a game like skyrim, especialy in heavy combat situations !!!!!!

And last but not least, if you don't have any freezes, restart's you shouldn't bother so much about that !!!!!

Forget the PSU, it's far more than that rig needs. In fact that rig draws roughly 250W total from the PSU at most. Trust me, I know.

If the GPU fan has only recently started to make more noise than usual, it has most likely just gathered some dust. Time to do a some cleaning.