r/Reaper • u/NutsPics • 2d ago

help request Case fans RPM when using Reaper

Can anyone who happens to have fan RPM controlling/displaying software tell me the RPM your fans usually run at when using Reaper? I'm building a new machine and would love to just have a ballpark of how many rotations per minute case fans reach on average when using Reaper.

I know this varies a lot, as your system is different of what mine will be. I just want to have a general idea. Thanks!

2 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

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12

u/Byzanthymum 2 2d ago

As someone who works in IT, this question is (not to be mean) but its entirely pointless. There is no “general fan speed” as so many factors contribute to the overall speed of your fans and the temps of your computer. Not to mention different hardware configurations will stress the cooling system of your PC in different ways. If you’re looking for quiet/silent fan configurations…your best bet is cooling your cpu with an AIO and setting liberal fan curves to mitigate noise. Even different fans at the same RPM will create different levels of noise.

Don’t mean to come off as rude, but yeah that question won’t get you anywhere.

9

u/hatedral 9 2d ago

There's also no "general Reaper use", light projects leave computer close to idling but there's also people doing hundreds of tracks full of things. Anyways, the answer is 42.

1

u/Byzanthymum 2 2d ago

Very true, good point that I neglected to add. Too many variables. However 42 does seem reasonably accurate.

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u/NutsPics 2d ago

Thank you for your response! I was looking for a general ballpark but in hindsight, there is indeed a lot of different factors going on.

3

u/Ereignis23 11 2d ago

Curious why you wanted to know

1

u/NutsPics 2d ago

Well, I'm building a new PC, in the stage of choosing fans. I listened to some sound demos of many different models and some were quieter/louder at different RPM values than others.

I wanted to have a general idea of which part of the RPM spectrum my fans would be at when using reaper, so that I could make the best choice.

3

u/Kletronus 3 2d ago

If ANY fan starts to speed up from near idle, you are in trouble. Music production uses resources quite scarcely, you ALWAYS need to have unused processing cycles before the next piece of data is processed. You can not be even close to 100%. So, mostly our computers are running almost idle and if processing isn't done fast enough you got to increase latencies. So, think in terms of using 1-20% of your computer. The only reason to get more powerful computer is to run more stuff live, more tracks and more importantly, more FX. It is not like gaming that can easily take 100% of everything, it doesn't matter if one frame is skipped. In audio, it absolutely does.

1

u/tronobro 11 1d ago

Just buy some Noctua fans and call it a day. Just get regular fans, not industrial high RPM ones. You can tweak the RPM curve of your fans in your BIOS so you can adjust the speed of your fans if they're too loud at idle. 

I'd only be concerned about sound levels when the fans are running at max. There are plenty of comparisons online. Note that 30dBA is effectively silent in regular room in a home. Look of some charts show different sound levels to get an idea of how loud sounds are when measured in dBA.

1

u/inhalingsounds 2 1d ago

Noctua fans, be quiet case (no glass panels).

Everything is impossible to measure or "average" but this is what I use and I can barely hear the PC working.

3

u/ThoriumEx 43 2d ago

The number you’ll get is dependent on so many variables, it could be so off it won’t even be in the ballpark. What exactly are you trying to achieve? Setting up fan curves?

1

u/NutsPics 2d ago

I was trying to choose a fan that was silent around the RPMs I'd get in music production, as there are fans that excel at different speeds compared to others.

I understand now that it's not as stable of a number as I thought it would be and got some overall well-rated fans that I think will suit my needs.

3

u/ThoriumEx 43 2d ago

Yeah that’s not a very practical way to choose a fan. If you can afford it just get Noctua fans.

1

u/NutsPics 2d ago

Unfortunately Noctua here is as expensive as it gets (around 1/10th of a minimum wage per fan).

I got Scythe Kaze Flex 140mm fans though, and from what I've seen they're on par with Noctua regarding 140mm fans.

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u/ThoriumEx 43 2d ago

Yeah the schyte stuff is very good for the price in terms of performance

2

u/ObviousDepartment744 9 2d ago

Well, fan noise shouldn't be an issue in a vast majority of situations in Reaper unless you've got a massive track count with very CPU intensive plugins.

If you are using a microphone in the room your computer is in, then you should be running them as silent as possible. Obviously, you need to protect your CPU so when it hits a certain temp you do want them to come on.

I just built a new PC for my studio in November, and I don't think I've even heard the fans turn on except for the initial boot up.

1

u/RiffShark 2d ago

With i7 12700K and 3060 TI Case and CPU Fans stay on min speed while working with 32 buffer and multiple vsti (drums, shreddage 3 argent, ray5 bass) and vst's.

You don't need to go that low on the buffer, I just often forget to set it higher when using reaper. So my point is not to worry about fan noise if your rig is powerful enough (I kinda regret getting be quiet case, totally overkill)