Fan noise fix for Gigabyte Brix Pro GB-BSi7-1165G7 ?

[madmartian]

A great box, but man is thins thing noisy! I am aware of people doing fan replacement in older Brix, such as the 5th gen Intel here:

Cooling is EVERYTHING ! (Gigabyte Brix i7 5775R NUC fix !)

Hi people. I have a Gigabyte Brix i7 5775R NUC type computer. It is decently fast for its vintage (Geekbench 4 4,886/16,089) and generally works really well for what I need - CAD, compiling, simulation, etc. EXCEPT the cooling on it is TERRIBLE. It idles at 65 to 85 C. It has a hair dryer...

smallformfactor.net

I was wondering if anyone has done a fan replacement or otherwise modded the newest Brix Pro (11th gen Intel) to reduce fan noise? I'm hoping for something a little less invasive than the solutions for the older models - I prefer not to cut a hole in the case.

 

[ignsvn]

A great box, but man is thins thing noisy! I am aware of people doing fan replacement in older Brix, such as the 5th gen Intel here:

Cooling is EVERYTHING ! (Gigabyte Brix i7 5775R NUC fix !)

Hi people. I have a Gigabyte Brix i7 5775R NUC type computer. It is decently fast for its vintage (Geekbench 4 4,886/16,089) and generally works really well for what I need - CAD, compiling, simulation, etc. EXCEPT the cooling on it is TERRIBLE. It idles at 65 to 85 C. It has a hair dryer...

smallformfactor.net

I was wondering if anyone has done a fan replacement or otherwise modded the newest Brix Pro (11th gen Intel) to reduce fan noise? I'm hoping for something a little less invasive than the solutions for the older models - I prefer not to cut a hole in the case.

You mean this thing? https://www.gigabyte.com/Mini-PcBarebone/GB-BSi7-1165G7-rev-10#kf

It has a fan inside? (serious question - I tried googling for teardown pics but couldn't find any)

 

[madmartian]

That's the one. It's got a fan that changes speed quite frequently - much like the description of the older models.

 

[REVOCCASES]

I was also thinking to get the exact same one for office use but the lack of reviews / teardowns is still holding me back...

here is the only review I found and it seems they had the same issue like you - hot and loud:

Gigabyte Brix met Intel en AMD: mini-pc's met serieuze prestaties

Gigabyte bracht onlangs twee nieuwe ultra compact pc's uit in het Brix-portfolio. Klein zijn ze dus allebei, maar hoe verhouden de twee zich tot elkaar en hoe presteren de gebruikte processors van Intel en AMD?

tweakers.net

Not sure if it would help for the BRIX, but for notebooks / NUCs I usually replace the stock thermal paste with something better, like e.g. TF8 - most of the time this helps a bit with fan noise / temperatures.

PS: Would you be willing doing a teardown to have a look at the cooler and fan they used? If the blower has some kind of standard size, maybe we could find something better on TaoBao.

Edit: does the BIOS have any settings for a custom fan curve and/or PL1, PL2 ?

 

[SFFMunkee]

You could also try using ThrottleStop to undervolt & modify the speedstep curves. ::EDIT:: ThrottleStop (9.4.2 Beta) Download | TechPowerUp

Agree with REVO above, it's definitely worth replacing the thermal paste if you're comfortable disassembling that far! Just be careful when reassembling as the chip is likely naked (no heatspreader).

 

[REVOCCASES]

You could also try using ThrottleStop to undervolt & modify the speedstep curves. ::EDIT:: ThrottleStop (9.4.2 Beta) Download | TechPowerUp

Agree with REVO above, it's definitely worth replacing the thermal paste if you're comfortable disassembling that far! Just be careful when reassembling as the chip is likely naked (no heatspreader).

Unfortunately Intel has disabled undervolting on Tiger Lake mobile SOCs but limiting the TDP or max. frequency could help.

Here is another handy tool, meant for notebooks but maybe it also works on the Brix:

GitHub - project-sbc/Power-Control-Panel: This software allows easy change of TDP on windows handheld devices. Features include: configurable profiles with charger vs battery values and xinput TDP change capability.

This software allows easy change of TDP on windows handheld devices. Features include: configurable profiles with charger vs battery values and xinput TDP change capability. - project-sbc/Power-Con...

github.com

 

[caparomula]

In case anyone is still interested, here's a teardown shot (couldn't figure out how to get the image to render inline).


I have been looking for some aftermarket cooler that I can slap on this thing. I intend to run it naked in a testbench frame, and once my PCIe Gen. 4 NVMe adapter from AliExpress arrives, I'm going to hook up an RTX 3060 Ti.

Anyone have any suggestions about an alternative cooling solution? I can't really find any heatsinks designed for this particular form factor. Probably could use an appropriately sized desktop one, but the screw holes are no in the correct place to fasten it.

Also, I wonder if anyone has an idea about how I can use the ATX power supply which will be powering the GPU to power the brix in lieu of the included AC/DC power supply?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Chris

 

[caparomula]

I decided to

1. clean and gently polish the heatsink and cpu (isopropyl alcohol, soft paper towel)
2. disassemble the blower fan, clean the blades and casing, reassemble
3. apply some fresh thermal paste (Corsair TM30)
4. Reattach the radiator and fan.

It really has made a difference! I've had all eight cores pegged at 100% for extended periods running test suites, and the fan has not gotten noticably loud. This is in contrast to before, when it would make a really loud whirring whooshing sound. Now it's like a gentle whisper. I kid you not.

Maybe there was just a bad batch of thermal paste or dirty fans in the factory when they did the run for these machines? Anyways, I'll be watching to see if the magic wears off, and will update.

 

[caparomula]

Well, no... it still gets loud (e.g. compiling linux kernel). It does have a cleaner sound, which is nice, I guess. But I still want to figure out some way to use a desktop cooler with it.

 

[caparomula]

Though I will say just taking the motherboard out of the case and running it naked cuts the noise down significantly. I now have an RTX 3060 Ti hooked up to it via a PCIe 4 adapter. Works great! I may get an AIO CPU cooler and just stick it on top of the factory heat block and see if it helps prevent the CPU fan from kicking into high gear. Here's what it looks like out of the case and hooked up to the GPU:

 

[REVOCCASES]

Did you try if the board would also run with 12VDC like some of the NUCs and Deskminis?

 

[caparomula]

Did you try if the board would also run with 12VDC like some of the NUCs and Deskminis?

I would like to, but am not really sure how to do that. The power connectors on the motherboard seem to be an uncommon sort.

 

[caparomula]

Here are a few snapshots of the two power connectors. The one on the front panel PCB says "ATX IN", and it is just two wires. The connection to the mainboard is 4 wires and it just says "DC IN". Both are split off of the barrel connector attached to the power brick, which is 19.5 V, 6.92 A (135W).

The main board.

The front panel board.

The power brick, barrel connector and power feeds.