The P03-620 upgrades I've made, This fan change made huge difference for my temperatures and noise

Many thanks for this guide. I ordered the parts linked here, as well as the replacement m3 screws.

The install was easy enough, the wipes did a good job of removing the paste, everything went smoothly. I have a Predator Orion 3000 PO3-630 U3E1 - Intel Core i7-12700F.

I was getting idle temps of 40-45°c and on auto settings in Predator Sense the fans wouldn't react to CPU temps and it would regularly go up to 100°c if I let it.

Now I'm watching it idle at 30°c and during game play the CPU fan is reacting to temps and ramping up as necessary, which is a massive improvement. The fan noise is a huge impovement, it had made a massive difference.

I'll replace the front fan next, but I'm already very happy with it.

FYI: I didn't remove the motherboard, I used the replacement screws into the existing back plate with no issues. It's a simpler task than you think it will be, but definitely worth the time, effort and cost.

After a week with the Noctua installed, I am very happy. It's worth stating - the stock Frostbite fans don't respond to PWM from Acer's own Predator Sense software. You will see temps of 100°c and your CPU package will throttle or cook. Replace those fans with something decent, and you'll solve this. Also, you do not have to remove the mainboard. The bracket already installed, with longer M3 screws is perfectly fine.

I have a much quieter PC, and I'm watching it now - after playing a game for over an hour with Predator Sense running, the front, back, CPU and GPU fans are all ramping up and dialing down nicely, maintaining sensible temperatures. It's how it should be fresh out of the box, but the Acer fans are garbage.

I just ordered another Noctua as a replacement front fan. The Noctuas are running slower, more efficiently and way quieter.

Before I did the swap, I explored the alternate Predator Sense configurations that other posts have shown - the ones where you edit feature.ini in C:\ProgramData\OEM\PredatorSense\. Mine was already on the correct version, so changing the 'type=' didn't help. What mine didn't have was the mobile option, where you can pair your phone through an app to control the fans remotely.

In my feature.ini the line [MobileSupport] was set to =0. I changed it to =1 and restarted the Predator Sense software and now I have a mobile phone icon in the software.

Click that, and I can turn on pairing mode. I downloaded the Predator Sense app from the IOS app store (other versions exist) and I scanned the QR code with the app.

(I coloured over the QR code because internet.)

…and that's my iPhone controlling the fans on my Acer Predator Orion 3000 that didn't come with the option.

Bonus.

Thank you so much for this. Really helpful!

I have managed to put in a new Noctua exhaust fan and the Noctua NH-U9S cpu fan.

However…. on predator sense im am noticing spikes in CPU temp. It would be around 45 and then shoot up to 60-70.
Furthermore, I have no noticed any real benefits yet. Is there anything I could have done wrong or should check?

I have the Predator PO5-615s

I removed the cooler to ensure that it was evenly tighten, and then applied a pea sized amount of thermal paste. But apart from the fan being quieter, CPU temp was averaging around 80 degrees which was slightly higher than with my cooler master stock CPU fan. And I have noticed that when i am playing games, randomly the game will freeze for a second and then return. Seems really odd.

sorry to hear you’re having trouble

Did you use the blue or black spacers to mount to the motherboard? The guide here indicates black, but for the newer CPU’s (lga 1700) it needs to be the blue ones. They are shorter so you get better cpu contact.

also did you make sure the mounting bars were in the same holes for each side? It needs to be in the middle of the slots(#2)

It sounds like you don’t have very good contact between your heatsink and cpu which is causing the issues

I have Acer Predator Orion 3000 PO3-630 with i7-11700f/16GB/RTX3070, and a 2560x1440 screen which I cap at 60fps and I just replaced the CPU cooler to the recommended one (Noctua u9s, I actually used the CHROMAX edition). The main source of noise is now gone. The random fan spikes even during pc being idle are completely gone and unless you're gaming or doing some hard processing work, the fan is super quiet. -For information I used the black caps, and some M3 10 mm flat head screws I bought at local store.

I just received the exhaust fan as well, also the recommended one but standard version, as CHROMAX was thinner and I didn't like that. Will be attaching it tonight, though I now regret not purchasing both at the same time because now I will struggle with mounting it with the huge CPU cooler beside 😅 I hope to get even better results as the other fans are noticeably noisy as well as you mention, especially when gaming.

For those interested, I tested current setup (without new exhaust fan yet), with playing Witcher 3. I only can do so on max medium settings and with cap at 60fps, as the noise becomes unbearable beyond that for me, but the temperatures seem alright for this type of game (reminding you this game received next-gen update in 2023 so it actually looks beautiful even on medium settings). Both CPU and GPU hold at around 80-85 degrees Celsius, which is generally considered ok I guess. The fps drop often to around 40-50fps though. Will test with the new fan soon too.

[Just a thought. When the CPU fan spins at full speed, what happens if you use the included low noise adapter? It should lower the speed and noise nicely, but will the cooling be still enough? You'd still be unable to adjust the speed, thou.]

If the fan can't be controlled via any program, which I kinda doubt, maybe get some manual fan controller/potentiometer?

Personally my experiecene is limited to the following one. I used it to control 2x 200mm Noctuas (intake). There are many cheaper options out there. If you go this route, just make sure you can power it somehow. Usually they come with a SATA power adaptor.

Please keep in mind that if you unplug the CPU fan cable from the motherboard, the BIOS might think that there is no fan at all and won't even boot.

https://noctua.at/en/na-fc1