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. - GitHub - project-sbc/...

github.com