It could just be the fan bearings need oiling, or maybe some screws have worked loose. But fans do fail, although this seems a little soon. Most manufacturers will use the cheapest heatsinks and fans with the bare minimum cooling specs for your system. But rather than just buy a new fan, you might take your specs to a computer store and see if you can upgrade the whole heatsink with fan to a better one. You just have to make sure that whatever you replace it with fits in the space you have inside your case, and over the chip.
They aren't that expensive to replace. I just upgraded mine for $16 a couple of months ago.
They aren't that expensive to replace. I just upgraded mine for $16 a couple of months ago.
