Fan noise from Alienware M11xR3

So I don't if it's just the first time I'm noticing it but there's a constant humming noise almost like a little fan is going constantly. Is this normal? It's kind of frightening me.

Also the fan sometimes randomly kicks in, what could be up with that?

 

The fan kicks in randomly at certain temp. It only remains passive until the target temperature

Whirring noise is normal since air is forced trough dense copper fins, to reduce, try cleaning (toothbrush).

It it's a bearing problem, I would probably call Dell and have it replaced with a new one.

 

You are not alone

Quote from the first link

Heat and Noise
I spent a number of hours trying to come up with a polite way of describing the level of noise produced by the cooling fan inside the Alienware M11x R3. After all that time, the nicest thing I can say is that the M11x R3 sounds like a pulsating hair dryer. The simple reality is this: The vent fan inside the M11x has to either turn on (at a relatively high volume) and off in regular intervals while the notebook is idle or it turns on full blast (at extremely high volume) while you're gaming in order to keep the relatively high-performance Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors and Nvidia graphics cool inside such a small laptop.

Quote from the second Link
Turning up the speakers on the M11x R3 won't drown out much of the fan noise

Quote from the third link
On the battery, it’s quick to ramp the fan up to full blast, which makes quite a loud whooshing noise. It’s not as bad on the battery (with the passive cooling policy) and will gently turn on the fan rather than jump straight to hairdryer mode. With headphones on or with some noise from a game the louder whooshing noise isn’t too bad, although it might annoy those around you.

Alienware M11x R3 and Battery Life, Heat and Noise

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/notebooks/alienware/m11x_r3/391076

http://www.overclockers.com/alienware-m11xr3-review/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/625182-m11x-r3-shocking-fan-profile.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/646729-fan-noise-r2-r3.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/577777-m11x-r3-fan-ouch.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/644667-r3-heat-fan-issues.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/560786-high-pitched-whining.html

DELL WAKE UP? CAN YOU HEAR ME?