Dell G5 - General questions about cooling

It might help if you indicate exactly which G5 you have, eg G5 5000 or 5090.

As a recent owner of a G5 5000 too (10900 + RTX3070), I can tell you that upgrading the stock coolers is one of the best things you can do for your new computer. The ones that come from Dell are pure garbage. My PC was sitting at 70 degrees at idle! That's beyond ridiculous. As soon as I replaced the stock coolers with Noctua 92mm coolers, the temps went down to 38-39 idle and never above 75 under CPU stress test (games are usually around 60-65).

I've gone further and added a 3rd Noctua for intake (where the 3.5HDD was originally placed) and moved one of the stock 80mm Dells to the front bottom of the case to blow cool air towards the GPU. Now running gaming benchmarks even with the GPU overclocked by 200MHZ, the GPU never goes above 80 and the CPU 65 or so. 

If you want to quickly drop the temps before you get new  coolers, you can disable Turbo Boost in the BIOS or using the Intel XTU app. But that means your CPU will only run at stock frequency and never boost to its max frequency.

My bad-- it's the 5000

Thank you!! That is a dramatic difference. I think I might bite the bullet and update the coolers. Did you end up taking your HDD out completely or did you move it somewhere else in the case?

I moved the 3.5 HDD cage to the top of the case. I found a way to solidly hook one of the metal tabs on the 3.5 HDD cage to the side of the 2.5 drives cage and also used a small tiewrap to secure it to the top. I had to use a SATA power extension cord though, as Dell cheaped out again and used the minimum length possible for that HDD, so it was a couple inches too short.

Here's what my PC looks like now: 3 Noctuas, one of the Dell fans under the graphics card shroud (see second pic) and I also bought a voltage regulator heatsink from Amazon and installed it (black fins left of the CPU cooler in the pic).

Here's a look under the graphics card shroud to see where I've put the dell fan to push air towards the GPU. Only one of the fan holes aligns with the holes in the case. I used a rubber mount for that and I stuck the other corners with 2-sided tape. I'm using 2 noctua splitters to power the 3 fans from the motherboard, as well as a noctua "low noise adaptor" (basically a resistor that reduces fan speed) to the Dell fan to keep it at a lower RPM and avoid the "jet engine" noise it makes.

So taking your advice, I added a Noctua NF-A9 PMW into the back of the case and moved the stock cooler to the front. This being my first time messing with the inside of a computer, I was terrified, but it seems to be working okay, except the back fan is barely spinning at all when set to "performance" on AWCC. Also, for some reason, though, my idle temperatures seem to have gone up? Temps seem a bit cooler in games, but I'm still seeing the CPU temp soar up to almost 90C when testing temps in Hitman.

I'm guessing the next step would be to replace the stock fan, but I am puzzled by the Noctua fan barely spinning. I connected it to the 3-pin portion of the Y-adapter, if that changes anything.

Thank you for all your help!

@hantyumi : it's normal for the Noctua to spin slower than the default cooler, but it should not be barely spinning. First test I would do is to disconnect the Dell fan and put the Noctua on the 4-pin of the splitter. See if that makes it spin properly (again, it will be normally slower than the Dell. AWCC would show it at about 30-40%). 

If that solves the issue, then the Dell fan is the problem. If the Noctua still barely spins, remove the splitter and connect the fan directly to the MB. If that doesn't work either, it might be faulty. 

As for the idle temps, I highly recommend getting a CPU cooler too. The cooler they put in there is useless. My temps only dropped after I put a Noctua on the CPU. 

Hi,

I have replied to you from a private message.

-Gautam.

Switching the Noctua to the 4-pin did the trick. I added the low noise adapter to the stock fan also and even when running at a high speed it isn't obnoxiously loud anymore. Idle temperatures are normal again. Some games I was having problems with temps are now around 65-75C, however, other demanding games are still around 80-85C... sigh.

I'm glad to know you only saw a temp decrease after replacing the CPU fan-- that's my next goal. I kind of assumed I wouldn't see a huge difference until that basic CPU cooler was upgraded.

Here's how I moved the stock cooler to the front: I removed a cable management clip and fit it underneath the HDD.

Good job! And definitely get the CPU cooler too. I ended up mounting two Noctua fans on mine (in the pic I posted the other day, I had only used one fan). I'm expecting delivery of a 120mm Noctua today to put in front, where the HDD bay used to be. It's a bit overkill, but I got sucked into the cooler madness, lol. I'm looking to keep the CPU under 70 degrees at full load so that it keeps consistently boosting in TVB mode (which is hardcoded to only work up to 70 degrees). I'll post pics of the final setup hopefully tonight or tomorrow, depending on amazon delivery

@hantyumi , I think I'm done adding coolers   I can't physically fit another fan in this poor case 

Idle is 20-22 degrees, light browsing hovers around 25, Prime95 single core stress test sits very comfortably at 50-53, all-core stress test 65-68, just enough to keep under the TVB limit (70) and sustain all-core boost pretty much forever.

Sorry for such a late reply but I finally got around to changing the cooler on my CPU!! It was nerve-wracking. I messed up getting it on the first time by putting it on the wrong way and not tightening the screws down enough. After cleaning everything off and trying again I'm pretty sure it's on there safe and secure and temps have significantly improved!

Temps stay around 30-35C when idle or browsing online. The hottest I've seen the CPU get to is around 70C during a stress test, but it usually stays within the 50-60C range when playing demanding games. For some strange reason, though, the readout of the 'CPU Fans' on AWCC is always 10-15C hotter than what the 'CPU Overview' section or Core Temp reads. I'm guessing this is either some error with the Noctua fan and the motherboard, but even then, my computer doesn't reach 85-90C when gaming anymore, so I'm happy and probably just looking for things to get anxious over.

And your computer is about as cool as it could be lol! Nice work In the future, I might add another fan on the heatsink to increase airflow. Thanks, again, for all your help.

Great job! I'm happy to hear it turned out well and you're getting good temps! I just looked in my AWCC too and indeed, it shows "Fan temp" (whatever that is) about 10 degrees higher than CPU package temp reported by CoreTemp or HWinfo. I tend to trust those tools more than AWCC to be honest. 

If I can make a recommendation for your next fan is don't get a second one for the CPU, but get one to mount at the front of the case where the HDD currently is. You can even fit a 120mm there. It will do more for airflow overall than adding a second fan on the CPU itself. It will also help other stuff in the case like your RAM, NVME, VRM module.